Customer Reviews
Kept thinking it would grow on me. - By: Sherlock, 15 May 2008 
Being a fan of Mike's for longer than I care to remember, I looked forward to this much heralded album.
However, the arrangement has echoes of the past (Tubular Bells?), and, simply, sounds like a film score.
There is nothing inherently bad about the album, it just doesn't move me.
Stirring stuff! - By: Mr. John F. Myhill, 12 May 2008 
I love Mike Oldfield's music, & especiallly his repetitions & reworkings of familiar themes, something I know some reviewers see as lazy and/or boring, but I find the restatements & variations fascinating, & I love it when an almost familar tune from one album becomes something quite different on another. This is a fabulous example of taking Oldfield melodies old (and new) & taking them somewhere spectacular (well, outer space to be exact). I found this very stirring as well as beautifully restful, & it's wonderful to write to.
If you're new to Mike's music thanks to the new exposure he's got from Classic FM for this, can I suggest you also try his Millennium Bell which is similarly stirring & melodic, but with a dash of club music as well!
Joyous and grandiose - By: fripono, 05 May 2008 
A definite return to form by Mike Oldfield & a far more complex & lastingly enjoyable album than the light-weight disposable fluff of Tres Lunas.
Mike has, of course, dabbled in classical/unplugged compositions before (notably Voyager), but never to this degree. MOTS is a full-blown classical orchestral piece.
But is it a true Oldfield classic?
Well it comes pretty damn close I reckon!
Oldfield aficionados will recognise many themes being reprised & revamped in this opus - hints of QE2, Ommadawn, Hergest Ridge (dare I suggest even a soupcon of Moonlight Shadow?) & obviously the ubiquitous Tubular Bells are alll embedded in there for your delectation. But there's more. Much more!
Round about track 8, things get almost Beethovian, with a magnificently memorable tune given the full orchestral treatment. The raising of the hairs on the back of my neck is reliable testimony to the power of this piece. But do things peak a tad too soon? Maybe. The subsequent reprising of the reprised TB theme feels almost like padding thereafter. But another peak's soon hoves into sight, as the horns & strings swell to a crescendo, driving that principal Spheres riff (if such a term is suitable?) into the listeners' brain.
This is truly uplifting music, that should appeal to a wide audience. The only possible dissenting voices would be those who expected Mike Oldfield's trademark soaring electric guitar sound. Just listen to him pluck those nylon strings though & chill out!
Well done Mike 9/10!
Re-run of old scores - By: P. Lawley, 05 May 2008 
For those of a younger generation who missed out on Tubular Bells & the rarely heard Hergest Ridge, Music of the Spheres may come as something new & original. However, it is little more than a re-write of Oldfield's earlier tunes & themes.
The original compositions are still as fresh today as they ever were, & innovative for their time. Music of the Spheres is barely worth bothering with, unless you want to add to Oldfield's pension fund that is.
Beautiful - By: I. H. C. Mellor, 02 May 2008 I have heard alll Mike Oldfield's albums & have listened to him discussing this album on the radio several times. I think alll Mike's music is very special & this album seems to take alll his previous work & embed itself in this new work. Mike admits he has used a lot of his old ideas in the work, but so what. It is a wonderful album, helped by the input of Karl Jenkins.
