Incantations

Mike Oldfield - Incantations (1978) ***

Nominated by: Tom  

Music club: MNAC

MNAC playlist addition:  How To Love

I did a double take when this album was suggested by Tom. Prog rock? A double album? Mike Oldfield? Really? But, okay. You do you, Tom.

For what it's worth, I've been a fan of Mike Oldfield's work since the very start and Tubular Bells (a football mate of mine gave me a copy back in 1973). I know I never bought his fourth album - Incantations, but I do have Ommadawn (my absolute favourite) and Hergest Ridge (both of them on vinyl and CD). I also have Five Miles Out, Crises, Tubular Bells II, and Return To Ommadawn. 

What I do have clues you into the stuff of his I tend to go for (the more Celtic influenced the better). Incantations always seemed like too big a chunk to digest and fully appreciate.

And sure enough - that's still a thing - even more so in the Spotify single song age. To listen to the album uninterrupted is no mean feat. My commute is 55 minutes so I'm about 20 minutes short (side 4). Devoting an hour and 20 minutes concentrated listening at home is a big ask too. It rarely happens.

Which is not good because it deserves to be listened to in one go - as each side of the double vinyl album forms a part of the whole Incantations piece of music.

So, I tend to get to the end of part 2 before an interruption. This is probably why Part 2 is my clear favourite (followed by Part 1, then Part 4 - Part 3 I find a tad too noisy and repetitive). 

He obviously needed to get Incantations out of his system, because he headed towards shorter songs after it. 

I'll be very interested in Lew and Alex' reaction - if they go gaga for it I may be tempted to foist Yes' Tales Of Topographic Oceans on them at some point. You have been warned!