"...don't you know we're not virgin..."

After the "Amarok" mike Rocked out with "heaven's open" - as far one of his strangest and sometimes amusing albums ever...
Mike is a lead singer here - he has got a very good loud and deep voice,i always liked him as a vocalist ("Crises","Five Miles out","Pictures in the dark","On horseback") and here he gives himself an oportunity to shine...

The arrangents are more simplier and catchy than on "dicsovery" or "Five miles out"...and the pop songs are really good.
"Make Make" is a very funny parody of eighties pop music with Tina Turner styled vocal part and amusing synth effects...Still Vocals and lyrics are superb.this is a Message to Virgin, the company that Mike didn't liked much because they tried to tamed his style and wanted to make a pop star from him...
while "Mr.shame","Gimme back" and the title track (that is well known from his compilations and radio) are a nice early nineties pop-rock tunes,"No dream" is one of the most haunting and personal rock ballads that Mike ever created...it features moving lyrics,one of the best that he has written..."there's a face in the window,someone who you know or who you used to be, could that somebody be me?" Guitar solo is really wonderfull.

but hte most interesting track is "Music from the balcony" - 20 minutes long chaotic piece of music, simmilar to "Amarok"...it has got some interesting sound experiments (Many funny samples)
it is different from everything that Mike did later and before...

the whole album is the last one recorded for VIRGIN company...and this is the last typical pop-experimental album.
after his next album "Tubular bells 2" he joined hte new-age and ambient music.Anyway - this can be a shock for an Average music and Oldfield fan if you know only "Moonlight shadow" or "tubular bells"...
But trust me,it is one of his best albums,not only one of the most interesting ones...
ps.hte funny thing is that he named himself "Michael Oldfield" not "Mike oldfield"..that's because he wanted to make a joke out of Virgin...

A BIG suprise!

One big track, and 4-5 small ones.
Crises, Discovery, Islands, Platinum and Five Miles Out were the same type.
This one comes after Discovery and Five Miles Out.
The title track is the best of all, that short electric guitar-solo in the middle of the song is just amazing!
Music from the Balcony is good, but The Lake was better I think.
The other pop songs are quite good, Mike does some reaggie on Gimme Back, this is the most suprising song on this one.
Mr.Shame is almost as good as the title track. Mike's voice is satisfying.
Enjoyable, interesting album, but the instrumental could be stronger.

For completists and fans only

Ah, the dreaded Contractual Obligation Album. After letting out his anger to brilliant effect with "Amarok", Mike Oldfield had one more slice of audio to deliver to the hated Virgin, and this was it.



"Music From The Balcony" seems to be a none-too-subtle parody of what his albums would sound like if made by the interfering primates at his soon-to-be-ex-record company. It wanders aimlessly from style to style amidst a spray of synth effects and sampled monkey noises. I daresay he picked all the sounds out of his folder of "synth noises that are a bit too silly to use on a real album, but interesting".



The songs, too, are contorted into veiled references to his souring relationship with Richard Branson's company. No master vocalists, just Oldfield himself. Yet, curiously, the end result is not as awful as "Islands".

Great !

It is a really expressive Cd... The popsongs are quite good,Brilliant lyrics, but the instrumental track "Music from the Balcony" is just really weird and wonderful.......and It makes this work complete as an whole.

Great way to finish a contract.

This is Mike's worst album? Excuse me, but I can name about a dozen worse Mike albums. As far as Mike's "pop" records, this is one of his best! Much better than Islands and Earth Moving, if you ask me. The songs are all catchy and almost retardedly entertaining. "Gimme Back" is his funniest stab at reggae, "Mr Shame" and "Make Make" are as good as 90's pop can possibly be, and "No Dream" and the title track are brilliant! And "Music From The Balcony" is his most unpredictable, brilliantly written instrumental pieces of all time. Remember "The Lake"? The cutesy-cutesy "atmospheric" "The Lake"? The innofensive, tame "The Lake"? The song that you forgot as soon as it was over? Well, try THIS one. This is weird, schizophrenic rock 'n' roll! Jazzy, groovy, scary and gorgeous as it could ever be! Plus, Mike's vocals are good. If you don't like it, go listen to Fred Durst, then. Great album, and much better than anything Mike did afterwards. After this one, he became pompous and arrogant, and took himself WAY too seriously.

The only one.........

I am an Oldfield fan from way back in the 80's. I have heard every album. I have most of them on CD today. I am a music collector of sorts who prides himself on obtaining most if not all of the music of the artists I love, such as Mike Oldfield. This is the only Mike CD that I have ever swapped away at a used CD store. You can make your mind up from there.