Stunning album - full of peaceful and hypnotic moments

This is one of my favorite Vangelis albums, second only to his jaw-dropping-ly good "Bladerunner" soundtrack. I find many of the tunes to be very hypnotic and soothing, especially when he mixes in actual sounds of waves crashing on the beach. The best song on this disc is without a doubt "Song of the Seas." I've often put that song on, set my player to "repeat" and listened to it over and over again.

5 stars plus for "Memories of Blue", 2.5 stars for the rest

I listen to this album for Memories of Blue, which is a superb example of what Vangelis does best. It's a contemplative, well orchestrated (which means not *too much* orchestration) piano piece which is adult in tone without being too melancholy or too difficult to get into. For me, it's sublime.



And the rest of this album is pretty bland, disappointing, department store music. As someone else said, anyone could have written this. It sounds like Vangelis discovered a sampler and forgot to do anything other than sample. Or, in the case of Sirens Whispering, it just sounds painfully, embarrassingly godawful. Song of the Seas is almost good enough, but not quite.

Quite the snoozer... but maybe that's the point...

Okay... I REALLY respect early Vangelis (through the early 80s), and his music is a large part of the reason I ever bought a synthesizer while I was in college (that college degree paid off... now I own quite a few synths!). But later as I got into creating music a lot myself, I realized the synth was just an instrument, and it was what Vangelis DID with it that made the music special. To this day I would say that the Bladerunner soundtrack is one of the best marriages of soundtrack to video. Stunning visually and aurally.

BUT...Oceanic is a sedate sleeper that never wakes up. Which is great if you just want to relax, but there's NOTHING on this disc that moves me, and that is so unlike "Opera Sauvage" or "Heaven and Hell". I've heard PLENTY of synthy music on par with Oceanic. I've heard very little that grips me like the Bladerunner soundtrack (other than OTHER older Vangelis).

Check out MP3.com... you'll find plenty of home recording nuts putting out as good or better material than Oceanic. But if relaxing, uninspiring (unless you want to be inspired to sleep) tunes is what you're seeking, then look no further.

Again, I'm not saying this is a bad CD, I'm just saying it's not a great CD...which is a real shame given who wrote and recorded it. He must have had some car payments he had to make...