Line #53 Music/TubularBellsII


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tubular_bells_ii.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"And [[TitleDrop Tubular Bells.]]" '''''[DONNNNNNNGGG!]'''''"'']]
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4	''Tubular Bells II'', released in 1992, is the fifteenth studio album by English ProgressiveRock multi-instrumentalist Music/MikeOldfield. His first album on WEA Records in the UK and Creator/RepriseRecords in the US, onto whom he signed after fulfilling his contract with Creator/VirginRecords in 1991, the album acts as perhaps an even bigger "fuck you" to Virgin than his last two albums on that label ever hoped to achieve. Specifically, the album gives WEA something that Virgin had constantly demanded but never received: a sequel to ''Music/TubularBells'', Oldfield's 1973 debut megahit.
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6	A fairly self-aware project, the album riffs on the tendency for sequel albums to be retreads of their predecessors by... being a retread of its predecessor, but with added electronic experimentation in line with the change in direction Oldfield was undertaking in the 1990's. The end result is an album that sounds both attached to and detached from the first ''Tubular Bells'', repeating enough of the same beats while still having enough unique elements to stand out on its own apart from having "Tubular Bells" in the title.
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8	For this album, Oldfield enlisted not only Tom Newman, co-producer of the original ''Tubular Bells'', as producer, but also Music/TrevorHorn, the latter of whom had achieved major success producing a variety of artists throughout the 1980's (including, but not limited to, Music/{{Yes}}, Creator/GraceJones, Music/{{ABC}}, Music/FrankieGoesToHollywood, and his own group Music/ArtOfNoise). Consequently, the album has a strong tone of "old meets new," combining the orchestral-inspired prog composition and instrumentation of ''Tubular Bells'' with advancements in production technology and emerging trends in musical techniques among artsier, more experimental acts, including many of the NewAge artists that Oldfield had been lumped in with throughout his career.
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10	The resulting album was a considerable commercial success for Oldfield, topping the charts in the UK and Spain and being certified quintuple-platinum in Spain, double-platinum in the UK, and gold in Germany. Oldfield would later release a ''Music/TubularBellsIII'' six years after this album, thus turning ''Tubular Bells'' into a prominent sub-series in Oldfield's wide back-catalog.
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12	''Tubular Bells II'' was supported by three singles: "Sentinel", "Tattoo", and "The Bell".
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14	!!Tracklist
15	# "Sentinel" (8:07)
16	# "Dark Star" (2:16)
17	# "Clear Light" (5:48)
18	# "Blue Saloon" (2:59)
19	# "Sunjammer" (2:32)
20	# "Red Dawn" (1:50)
21	# "The Bell" (featuring Creator/AlanRickman) (6:59)
22	# "Weightless" (5:43)
23	# "The Great Plain" (4:47)
24	# "Sunset Door" (2:23)
25	# "Tattoo" (4:15)
26	# "Altered State" (5:12)
27	# "Maya Gold" (4:01)
28	# "Moonshine" (1:42)
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30	!!''Who's gonna trope your virgil?''
31	* BoleroEffect: "The Bell", like the original Boléro, adds a different instrument each loop until everything is playing beneath the majestic entry of the titular instrument.
32	* TheCameo:
33	** Creator/AlanRickman pulls MC duties on "The Bell", in his trademark deadpan droll. Because the MC hadn't been decided on at the time the artwork was put together, he's credited only as "a strolling player" in the liner notes.
34	** Of all people, members of the LAPD are the ones playing bagpipes on "Tattoo". Because the Los Angeles riots had only just occurred at the time the album was put together, they're credited as the "P.D. Scots Pipe Band".
35	* ColorMotifs: Blue features heavily throughout the album art, liner notes, and disc label.
36	* CountryMusic: Dabbled with on "Moonshine", acting as a counterpart to the CoverVersion of "The Sailor's Hornpipe" that closed out the first ''Tubular Bells''.
37	* EpicRocking: "Sentinel" and "The Bell" both far surpass the six-minute mark. Incidentally, these songs respectively open and close side one on LP copies.
38	* EverythingsLouderWithBagpipes: "Tattoo" makes heavy use of bagpipes to provide a distinctly Celtic form of loud noise.
39	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: ''Tubular Bells II'', a second ''Tubular Bells''.
40	* FadingIntoTheNextSong: Done with almost every track on the album. The only exception is between "The Bell" and "Weightless", reflective of the between-sides transition on LP and cassette copies.
41	* GratuitousPanning: For "The Bell", the instruments as announced by Creator/AlanRickman make their entrances on the far left, but then gradually move across-- sometimes all the way to the far right, sometimes only part of the way across, so that by the time the tubular bells make their entrance, the instruments that preceded it are all in different places on the soundstage.
42	* {{Instrumentals}}: Most of the album, barring "Altered State".
43	* LighterAndSofter: Oldfeld wrote the original ''Tubular Bells'' from a very dark, depressed, alcohol-fueled place. ''Tubular Bells II'' comes from a bright, optimistic place and it shows. Even "Altered State" is fairly goofy compared to its aggressive and imposing equivalent on the first ''Tubular Bells'', the "Piltdown Man" section.
44	* LongestSongGoesFirst: The eight-minute "Sentinel" opens the album.
45	* LongList: The liner notes' list of instruments Oldfield played on the album: acoustic guitars, twelve-string guitar, banjo, classical guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, flamenco guitar, glockenspiel, Lowrey organ, Hammond organ, Farfisa organ, mandolin, percussion, piano, synthesisers, timpani, tubular bells, vocals.
46	* IdiosyncraticCoverArt: The cover art nods back to that of the original ''Music/TubularBells'', featuring a yellow CGI version of the bent-bell logo atop an oceanic blue background. The back cover and liner notes further accentuate this by featuring a watery, rippling effect.
47	* MinisculeRocking: "Red Dawn" and "Moonshine" both fall just under the two-minute mark.
48	* MythologyGag: The whole album is one to the original ''Music/TubularBells'', repeating the original's structure while still sounding like a distinct entity.
49	* NewSoundAlbum: A middle ground between the orchestral-inspired ProgressiveRock of Oldfield's 1970's output and the experimental, NewAge electronica of his following output.
50	* ProgressiveInstrumentation: Like the "Finale" section on Part One of the original ''Tubular Bells'', "The Bell" on ''II'' is built around this, consisting of a single melody being repeated by multiple instruments that gradually make their way into the song, layering on top of one another to complete the song.
51	* SiameseTwinSongs: Almost the entire album qualifies as this, barring a pause between "The Bell" and "Weightless".
52	* TitleDrop: Like with the first ''Music/TubularBells'', Creator/AlanRickman closes out his part as the MC by introducing the titular instrument.
53	* UncommonTime: Like its predecessor, ''Tubular Bells II'' tends to come across as this due to its heavy use of polyrhythms, which each instrument playing in a considerably different time signature than the rest. Combined with the specific choice of instrumentation, this makes the whole album sound both jarring and mesmerizing at the same time.
54	* WorldMusic: Elements of this are present throughout the album, most prominently in the choral sections on "Altered State".

Context Music / TubularBellsII