And the worst part of it is there isn't even anyone alive anymore whom I share this particular bit of musical history with to discuss that disappointment.
Today marks the 40th—fortieth!—anniversary of the release of Jean Michel Jarre's seminal Oxygene, and to mark that date, Jarre has released the third and final part of his musical trilogy, Oxygene 3.
As I wrote earlier, Oxygene and Equinoxe (stylistically more of an heir to the title of part two of the trilogy than Oxygene 7-13—informally known as Oxygene 2) often sent me skimming over a dune sea under a double sun in my personal landspeeder whenever I heard them, so when I first learned of this new release being in the works several months ago I have to admit my heart fluttered a bit with anticipation.
But I was sorely disappointed when I first heard it earlier today. It is supposedly Jean Michel's vision of what he would've done with the original album back in 1976 if he'd had today's technology to work with. If that's the case, I'm glad he didn't.
And yet I've had it playing on a continuous loop on Spotify, hoping that something will eventually reach out and grab me the way Oxygene did those many years ago. To be honest, it's not a bad album as albums go, and after repeated listenings, there are a couple of tracks I actually rather like, but is not what I was expecting. There is very little of the cohesion or overall thematic consistency between cuts (or even that instantly recognizable Jarre sound) that made Oxygene, Equinoxe, Oxygene 2, or even Zoolook and Chronologie so amazing. Even Oxygene 2, released in the late 90s, shares more musical DNA with the first album than this one does.
I also liked The Rendez Vous as well. Thanks for posting I'll need to listen to the new pieces but like you finding Jean-Michel (entirely too many years ago) was amazing.