Lost in a riddle that Saturday night

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

10/07/83 : Crises : Mike Oldfield

Ah, the second best known Mike Oldfield album - despite no-one remembering it even exists.  But it's got "Moonlight Shadow" on it, so it can't be completely rubbish.  My problem with Mike Oldfield is that, like Jean-Michel Jarre, it always seems like he has a great time producing his music but then very few people have a great time actually listening to it.  So I can't say I was approaching this with any great deal of enthusiasm - and at 185 minutes long, I definitely wasn't going to listen to the super deluxe version.

And well, I still like "Moonlight Shadow" so not all is lost.  Once again, we have a game of two sides - the first being the 20 minute title track, which isn't really one track at all but four or five unconnected tracks plonked (it's a technical term) together.  None of them are particularly memorable which leads to the slight suspicion that he thought that making them one track would improve matters - but, unsurprisingly, it doesn't.  

The second side is more interesting with guest vocalists supplying a bit of variety and at this point it's worth spending a bit more time talking about "Moonlight Shadow", featuring Maggie Reilly on vocals.  It got to #1 in 11 European countries (and was the best selling single of the year in Austria!) - we went to Spain on holiday that year and I still remember that everywhere was playing it.  Wikipedia also tells me there was a rumour the lyrics were about Lennon's death - when Mike was asked about it he replied "No.  Well, maybe yes".  Very useful, Mike.  Back to the album, the other tracks on side 2 are a bit of a mixed bag - I didn't mind "In High Places" but that's mostly because I like Jon Anderson's voice.  "Shadow On The Wall" is an odd track indeed - intriguing to listen to once, but I suspect that's enough listens for anyone.  And I can assure you that neither of us have ever owned this album - so we slide further to 9/25.

We're at #7 again this week on the seventh week of a quite frankly astounding 23 week run (peaking at #6), which was followed by another six week run at the beginning of 1984 and, most bizarrely, a single week in September 2013 (and I've absolutely no idea what caused that).  Above it in the charts were the same six as last time but in a slightly different order -Wham!, Yazoo (the highest new entry), The Police, Michael Jackson, Julio and David Bowie, with the next new entry being Donna Summer at #28.

Wikipedia tells me that side 1 was stuff Mike wanted to do and side 2 was stuff he thought others would like - amusingly the US release saw reason and switched the sides.  The album did amazingly in Europe though - #1 in Norway, Sweden and Germany, selling over a million copies across the continent.  Which feels entirely down to "Moonlight Shadow" to me and I can't help but suspect there were some very disappointed Europeans out there that summer.

"Customers also listened to" Jermaine Jackson, Visage, Men Without Hats, Boney M and F R David - well, there's an odd mix and no mistake.  And not a sign of Tubular Bells either - what's going on?  I was intrigued as to what this would sound like and so was pleased to listen to it - but won't be rushing back to it, I'm afraid.  All in all, it was a bit of a mess - except for one track...

03/07/83 - An album no-one listens to any more
17/07/83 - A very enjoyable 80s album