Man On The Rocks
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''Man on the Rocks'' is the twenty-fifth studio album by British musician Mike Oldfield, released on 3 March 2014 on the Virgin EMI label. The album is Oldfield's second full album of exclusively songs with no long or instrumental pieces, the first being 1989's '' Earth Moving''.


Recording and production

''Man on the Rocks'' was produced by Stephen Lipson together with Oldfield. The album features bassist Leland Sklar, drummer John Robinson, keyboardist Matt Rollings, guitarist Michael Thompson and singer Luke Spiller together with Oldfield himself on guitar. The backing tracks were recorded during June 2013 in Studio D of Village Studios,
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
with producer Steve Lipson; Oldfield participated in these sessions via Skype. Oldfield has also recorded part of the album in his home studio in
the Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...
. Oldfield's electric guitar sound on the album is primarily a Fender Telecaster combined with the Avid Eleven software plug-in. The album marks a return of Oldfield to a Virgin branded label since leaving
Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...
in the 1990s, through the merger of Mercury Records UK and Virgin Records after Universal Music's purchase of EMI. Luke Spiller is the singer of The Struts, another of Virgin EMI's British artists.


Lyrical content

The album deals with topics ranging from Oldfield's experiences with mental health to his Christian faith to a track inspired by the 2012 Summer Olympics. The piece "Irene" is inspired by Hurricane Irene which hit the Bahamas in 2011. The final track is a cover of William McDowell's gospel piece "I Give Myself Away". The working title for the album had been ''Rock''. Oldfield has used the title "Moonshine" once before for the final piece on 1992's '' Tubular Bells II''. The song itself is a reworking of his 1994 instrumental "The Song Of The Boat Men", which was featured as a B-side of the " Hibernaculum" single. The song "Nuclear" deals with his grandfather's experiences during
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. When interviewed by the '' Daily Telegraph'', he tells the background to writing the song. “I never knew him,” he says, “So I hired a company to find out about him. It turned out he was a great character before the war but came home a very different man. My mum was one of ten or eleven kids and all the children born after the war had problems like hers. I wanted to see if I could spread my senses in the place he was. I travelled around Ypres and the battlefield museums and I saw the graves of his regiment: the Royal Munster Fusiliers. And I could feel it. Still there. It’s a blessing and a curse for those of us who have this extra sensitivity.”


Release

''Man on the Rocks'' was released on 3 March 2014, after initially being planned for 27 January. The album is available on single CD, double CD, double vinyl, coloured double vinyl, digital download and a box set. The two CD Deluxe Edition contains the album and a second instrumental disc. In the UK the boxed set is available exclusively through mikeoldfieldofficial.com - this includes the content from the Deluxe Edition as well as Oldfield's demos of the songs and 4 alternative mixes of songs. The boxed set also includes a 16-page CD size booklet, four art cards and a certificate of authenticity.


Singles and promotion

The first public airing of the album was an excerpt of "Sailing" that was played on Stuart Maconie's radio show on BBC Radio 6 Music in November 2013. The first full play of "Sailing" was on BBC Radio 2 on 14 January 2014. "Sailing" was a record of the week on BBC Radio 2 during the first week of February. The music video for "Sailing" was released on
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
on 8 February. The video shows Oldfield and Spiller in
the Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...
on a beach, a boat and in Oldfield's studio there. The song became available to buy on online retailers such as
iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...
from 19 February. Behind the scenes footage and acoustic versions of tracks from the album, including "Man on the Rocks" and "Chariots", were released online ahead of the album. The second single was "Moonshine"; a video was released for purchase on iTunes on 14 April. "Nuclear" was featured in the E3 2014 trailer and soundtrack for the stealth action game '' Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain''.


Critical reception

Critical reception of the album has been mixed. Music critics and journalists have noted its contrast from Oldfield's progressive rock works such as '' Tubular Bells'', and the album's orientation to more standard
rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...
. ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' newspaper called the album "a curious but likable diversion from his multilayered new-age work." "Sailing" reached BBC Radio 2's "A List" rotation.


Weekly charts


Track listing


Disc 1

All tracks written by Mike Oldfield, except where noted. # "Sailing" - 4:46 # "Moonshine" - 5:49 # "Man on the Rocks" - 6:10 # "Castaway" - 6:34 # "Minutes" - 4:51 # "Dreaming in the Wind" - 5:28 # "Nuclear" - 5:03 # "Chariots" - 4:38 # "Following the Angels" - 7:04 # "Irene" - 3:59 # "I Give Myself Away" ( William McDowell) - 5:10


Disc 2 - Deluxe Edition

# "Sailing" ( Instrumental) - 4:44 # "Moonshine" (Instrumental) - 5:47 # "Man on the Rocks" (Instrumental) - 6:09 # "Castaway" (Instrumental) - 6:36 # "Minutes" (Instrumental) - 4:50 # "Dreaming in the Wind" (Instrumental) - 5:31 # "Nuclear" (Instrumental) - 5:02 # "Chariots" (Instrumental) - 4:24 # "Following the Angels" (Instrumental) - 7:04 # "Irene" (Instrumental) - 3:57 # "I Give Myself Away" (Instrumental) (William McDowell) - 5:06


Disc 3 - Bonus Disc (Super Deluxe Edition only)

# "Sailing" ( Demo) - 4:14 # "Moonshine" (Demo) - 5:25 # "Man on the Rocks" (Demo) - 5:41 # "Castaway" (Demo) - 6:25 # "Minutes" (Demo) - 4:29 # "Dreaming in the Wind" (Demo) - 5:28 # "Nuclear" (Demo) - 4:55 # "Chariots" (Demo) - 3:54 # "Following the Angels" (Demo) - 6:25 # "Irene" (Demo) - 3:59 # "I Give Myself Away" (Demo) (William McDowell) - 5:09 # "Sailing" (Alternative mix) - 4:46 # "Dreaming in the Wind" (Alternative mix) - 5:29 # "Following the Angels" (Alternative mix) - 7:05 # "I Give Myself Away" (Alternative mix) (William McDowell) - 5:09 Disc 3 Tracks 1–11: All Instruments and Vocals by Mike Oldfield


Personnel

* Mike Oldfield
Electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...
&
acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
s, bass guitar, backing vocals, keyboards * Luke SpillerLead vocals * John Robinson
Drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...
* Leland SklarBass guitar * Matt Rollings
Piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
, Hammond B-3 * Michael Thompson – Electric & acoustic guitars * Stephen Lipson – Electric & acoustic guitars * Davy SpillaneWhistles on "Moonshine" * Paul Dooley –
Violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...
on "Moonshine" * Backing vocalists – Bill Champlin, Alfie Silas Durio, Carmel Echols, Rochelle Gilliard, Judith Hill, Kirsten Joy, Jason Morales, Louis Price, Tiffany Smith * Engineers – Mike Oldfield & Stephen Lipson (Battery Studios); Howard Willing with Chris Owens (The Village Studios); Steve MacMillan (engineer for drums on "Irene" & "Dreaming in the Wind" at Steak House Studio, LA) * Produced by – Mike Oldfield and Stephen Lipson


References


External links


Mike Oldfield

Mike Oldfield Discography – ''Man on the Rocks''
at Tubular.net {{Authority control Mike Oldfield albums 2014 albums Albums produced by Stephen Lipson Virgin EMI Records albums