My views/opinions...
Oxygene 7 (first part) - nice backing but the lead (the bit he plays on the laser harp on tour) is a bit cheap sounding, making it sound like something you'd get on a "synthesizer hits" album. Disappointing in that is an untterly disjointed continuation of Oxygene 6, with no musical reference at the start.
Oxygene 7 (the rest) - nice watery sounds and a slow weird ending.
Oxygene 8 - quite nice, perhaps one of JMJ's better tracks but not as good as Chronologie 4 which I kind of feel he was trying to imitate a bit. Lacks the punch and catchiness of other "hits" such as Oxygene 4, Equinoxe 5, RV 4 etc...
Oxygene 9 - obvious rip-off of Oxygene 1 and not as good.
Oxygene 10 - nice melody but in my mind it sounds like a couple of Commodore 64's were used to produce many of the tracks.
Oxygene 11 - the best track on the album, but not as good as the second bit of Oxygene 5. Seems to be a bit too Arpegiator/Digisequencer ish too! The short Odyssey Through O2 edit gives a glimpse of just how good it could have been...
Oxygene 12 - starts off well, nice catchy beat but the sounds are too brash and just sounds like someone hitting a cheap electronic keyboard at times. Quite good live, and I enjoy the Gdansk DVD version.
Oxygene 13 - ughhh, hate the minipops rhythm. Repetitive but nice melody. Nowhere near as evocative or brilliant as Oxygene 6. Overplayed at concerts.
Having said all that it has grown on me. There are nice melodies, but trying to retread the sounds and feel of the original Oxygene was a mistake in my view. A revisit of Oxygene like the PLD version was great, a fresh step forwards. This album, however, sounded tired on my initial listen, the first time I had listened to one of his studio albums and thought that. For me it certainly lacked the wow factor of the previous 2 albums (Chronologie and WFCousteau)
And I have to say the tracks are too dominant in every concert since its release, like JMJ is trying to force his audience to like the tracks in favour of say, Equinoxe 5, Orient Express, Mag Fields 4, Calypso 1 & 2, much of Chronologie and Zoolook etc.
And for the live interpretaion, it introduced the most annoying instrument into his live shows - the Theremin, which sounds like a cat could be being strangled for the most part.
I once read one fan saying there is more creative thought gone into Ethnicolor than the whole of Oxygene 7-13, and I am inclined to agree. Had the compositions been redone and using sounds and ideas to make it not a follow-up to Oxygene, it would have been so much better in my opinion. In fact there are little bits of Odyssey Through O2 which I find superior to O713.
Good, but no classic in my mind, and below par compared to all his previous main studio albums (including Mag Fields and Revolutions). In my mind, the real spirit of Oxygene always finishes with Part 6.
Overall mark 7/13 !
