Customer Reviews

Heavens Open

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

You'll probably find me reviewing a lot of Mike's albums lately, as I am his big fan from the days when I was a teenager (now, I am 30).

As first it has to be said that this album was one of the last Mike's albums he made for Virgin label and this phase of his music history is filled with CDs like this one (from "Earth moving" on). So, even before I've bought it I knew it will not be one of his best, but what can you expect if it was made just for the sake of it? And it really isn't. Fortunately, it has a similar structure like his albums from 80's (one side with a long instrumental track, here "Music from the balcony" and, the other side of short pieces with vocals) and maybe this is the reason why I gave it 2 stars instead of just one. This was also the first record where Mike sings in person, which is really annoying, compared to all his beautiful songs like "Moonlight shadow", "Family man", "Crime of passion" or "Islands", which were all sung by other female- and male-singers with much better voice (remember Maggie Reilly, Bonnie Taylor, Anita Hegerland and a lot of others). The vocal side doesn't really have any strong points, with an exception of title track, which is rather good, although sung by Mike. The instrumental track, "Music from the balcony" is much better, but if you are familiar with his other long pieces like "Taurus II", "Crises" or "Platinum" on the albums with the same structure, you eventually will suffer from lack of impression. In my opinion, this is Mike's worst record, and I could tell this for sure, because I own all of his CDs and compilations (there is some 30 of them) and "Heaven's open" is still rarely in my CD-player. If you're just about to "explore" Mike's music, you should start with some of his other albums, but this one certainly isn't the one.

Mike has truly excelled himself with this brilliant album. The title track is one of the most uplifting and well written songs i have ever heard. Other stand out tracks include, Make Make, and Music From The Balcony. An exceptional piece of work. Well done Mike.

song after song straight to long and interesting instrumental "music from the balcony" Mike shines as a composer,guitarist and great vocalist.there have been a lot of bad hings said about this album but this is truly a hidden gold in his discography."make make","no dream" or "mr.shame" are one of his best songs since "Five miles out" era!
get it out now! if not you are missing one of his best moments in career!

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...

This is, by far, the worst Mike Oldfield ever, even less listenable then the abysmal Earth Moving. As I understand the history of this album, Mike wanted out from his contract with Virgin records. Virgin would not release him until he had completed his contract (one more album). Mike really does not have a good singing voice, and usually he has left the singing to those (Maggie Reilly) who could. Not on this album though. He actually tries to sing his own work on this album. Mike's forte has always been the complex instrumentals, but the instrumental on this album sounds like a bunch of samples which he tried to tie together with a musical bridge. It even sounds like it was done in one take. It appears obvious to me that Mike had no real interest in this album, and the only reason I awarded it one star is that there is no provisions for negative numbers of stars. If you are new to Mike's music, avoid this album like the plague!