I most liked Oxygene 16 and 20. The other tracks are so-so. Overall, like the previous Oxygene album, this one needed quite a bit more development time, it feels like a demo in some places.
Oxygene 18 and Oxygene 20 have been done elsewhere, by others. Jarre's attempts at quick ambient tracks is not distinct enough or developed well enough to leave a powerful impression of mastery within that realm. I have listened to some amazing ambient tracks, whose subtlety does not overwhelm their overtness, in other words they walk a fine line, a balance, of saying something above mere chord changes and wonderful synthesizer sounds. Though O20 reaches this goal (only somewhat, by pure brute force), it is all too short and sonically too subtle, for what it is trying to communicate!
At this pace of development of each song, the album should have been around 50-60 minutes. At 40 minutes, one has to get into their tracks right away, with melody harmony and rhythm, as Jarre and most artists did back in the 70s and 80s. There is no time for meandering and developing things, as is done in modern times. Oxygene 14 is particularly guilty of this, when the track actually becomes something, two thirds of it are already over.
So for me the entire album goes by too quickly and I don't feel as if I've gone through a significant enough journey (to actually call this an album), as I do with the first Oxygene, Equinoxe, Oxygene 7-13, Chronologie... That's the problem with music nowadays, it's as if not enough is said in the time allocated, of what the artist wanted to say. And by the time they get going, it is time to end the track and go onto the next. There is also, of course, the question of whether the artist has anything to actually say that is worthy of being listened to, and do they know how to say it, how to express that poignantly, to translate it into the language of music. Let alone synthesizer based music, which adds that extra layer of complexity.
The entire album seems over produced and not raw enough. So it all seems kind of samey. Combine that with no distinct songs with their own harmony and melody, and you get a filler album. Almost like several passing passages in a passing passage of a larger opus. With the more interesting things around it. In short, the album sounds like a sound snippet advertisement of an album.
The overall sound is nice enough, it's just that it's too modern. Which is what he was aiming for, but the modern sound is incomparable to one of the 80's and 70's, which was more natural, and not over-hyped.
Sonically the album is tiring, the mids are pronounced too much, as they are in all music of the new millennium, which makes me turn down the mid frequencies in the equalizer, in order to listen to it comfortably loud. The album definitely does not sound like a smiley face, but more flat, for those who know about the mixing and mastering process of music.
It's the kind of album that looks like a supermodel, but once you get to know her, she only knows about the world of modeling, she knows nothing else about life.
There are very short moments when the album rises above this, but that lasts mere seconds and is never elaborated upon. To say it bluntly, it doesn't have the balls to say what it wants to say, it's hiding behind itself.
As far as synthesizer tones are concerned, this is a very very uninteresting album. None of these sounds are new, or particularly out there, or innovative. Or used in innovative ways. There is no audacious use of the synthesizer, that makes you stand up and go, "Woah, this guy doesn't give a $%#.... he's creating a new language here, a new world, a new universe. A new vision of something not seen before! Or a new perception of something very much known for a long time." I just don't get any of these. Instead I get a feeling that this is more like a continuation of Teo and Tea, Electronica 1 and 2, but a more ambient/chilled out version of those. In fact Oxygene 14-20 sounds very much like Geometry of Love 9-15.
Even the usually overt EMS VCS3 and EMS AKS sound effects are so compressed and limited, that they don't stand out at all and with them gone, esp in an Oxygene album, it sounds as if the album itself has been castrated. And in this sense is very representational of the modern era of music.
The pads and strings are also quite average, there is no use of the Eminent in a new an interesting way. There is no use of awesome synthesizer pads, leads or basses....
In fact there is not a single new sound on the album that I have never heard before. If you are someone who uses synthesizers and loves electronic music, you would have heard most of these timbres elsewhere. So I am quite disappointed with this aspect of the new album, particularly since Jarre is one of the original synth pioneers. It is quite easy to create "out there" sounds, even to this day, but few musicians are using them any more, and are rather settling for "what will sound good and similar to that which is already on the radio and has been on the radio since the 90s."
The fact that so many are hailing this as a great album, says more about the current nature of humanity (world over), and what they perceive as great. It's almost as if everyone has been "dumbed" down - though they have not noticed this in themselves, or each other.
Or as Ming the Merciless said it: "Let's say, they'll be satisfied with less."
And that is sad.
Without faith nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.
Oxygene Pt. 20 is a beautiful piece of music, and almost feels/sounds like a requiem. I like that there's a little snippet of pt. 6 in there.
