Published on Oct 23, 2001
Let’s get one thing absolutely out in the open at the start:
Sally Oldfield is not the same kind of musician as her brother
Mike. If you’re expecting to hear a female version of
Tubular Bells, stop reading here, ’cause you’re gonna be
disappointed.
Flaming Star, the latest disc from Oldfield, is kind of
disappointing in itself. After a strong start, Oldfield dissolves
into a weaker version of Peter Gabriel, albeit with a more
spiritual (not meaning religious) bend to the music. It’s tribal
and earthy at times, spacey at others – and it sometimes feels like
Oldfield herself doesn’t quite know what to do with the grooves
being laid down.
Oh, things start off in an amazing way with the title track. The
chants leading into Oldfield’s vocal line help drive the song
forward, and Oldfield herself has a sound that makes me think this
is what Madonna might have tried had she kept following the vein of
songs like “Frozen”. But don’t think for a moment that Oldfield is
a pop artist; she is more interested in exploring the music and its
deeper, more spiritual side.
In a way, this might be the flaw with
Flaming Star. Not that following a spiritual path with the
music is bad at all – indeed, many discs I’ve listened to of late
have had a spiritual nature, and the music has been breathtaking.
But Oldfield seems to be merely content as a voyager on this
journey, and not the captain of the ship. (I’d dare to call
multi-instrumentalist Martin Savale, otherwise referred to as “Babu
Storn,” in control, even though Oldfield herself wrote the much of
the music.)
This willingness to let the music carry you to its own
destination can be a dangerous thing in the wrong hands; I think of
the jams the Grateful Dead got into in their concerts, and realize
there were some where the band just didn’t have a clue where to
take the music. This is the case with Oldfield; tracks like
“Samurai Of The Sun” all but scream for further development, and
fail to achieve what they could well have been. Others, like
“Ascension,” come a little closer to the mark, but without a strong
guiding hand, the listener is left adrift in the musical cosmos.
This, I don’t believe, was Oldfield’s intention.
The lyrics to much of
Flaming Star are supposed to lead the listener, as the
disc’s liner notes say, to a “higher understanding”. Of what, I
don’t know, since most of the lyrical work tends to become blended
with the music. Even the remix of “Mirrors,” a song which was a hit
for Oldfield, falls flat.
Using music to uncover a new awareness of life and the world
around you is an ideal which many musicians have struggled to
accomplish for many years. I don’t doubt that Oldfield is sincere
in her quest, and that she has the talent to achieve that goal. But
even with the occasional strong performance,
Flaming Star suggests that even she could benefit from a
musical road map.