Mike Oldfield

This album's break came with the use of its theme on the soundtrack for The Exorcist.
"Tubular Bells" has since gone on to become a hit single, helping to change a popular album
into a smash. Oldfield has yet to tour the United States, but his instrumental one-man show
(he plays everything through overdubbing) has caught on as a clever novelty -- it's
progressive program rock. Light, rather showy and cute in places, it probably m... More >

A musician with the technique and formal imagination of Terry Riley or Philip Glass can create electronic keyboard meditations worthy of hokey adjectives like "mysterious" or "majestic." The best I can come up with here is "pleasant" and "catchy." Oldfield isn't Richard Strauss or even Leonard Cohen--this is a soundtrack because that's the level at which he operates. (Grade: C+)