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.[3] The album is Oldfield's second full album of exclusively songs with no long or instrumental pieces, the first being 1989's Earth Moving.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
The album marks a return of Oldfield to a Virgin branded label since leaving Virgin Records 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.[15]
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. 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.”[16]
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.
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.[17] 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 on 8 February.[18] The video shows Oldfield and Spiller in the Bahamas on a beach, a boat and in Oldfield's studio there. The song became available to buy on online retailers such as iTunes from 19 February.[19]
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.
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. The Guardian newspaper called the album "a curious but likable diversion from his multilayered new-age work." "Sailing" reached BBC Radio 2's "A List" rotation.
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)
^"Mike Oldfield - Man on the Rocks". Amazon.co.uk. 3 March 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2014. Debuting at #12 in the UK Albums Chart, the album is Oldfield's second non-instrumental following on from 1989's 'Earth Moving'
^"Mike Oldfield - Man on the Rocks review" (in Dutch). NU.nl. 19 March 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2014. Unlike most plates Oldfield, Man on the Rocks consists entirely of vocal pieces. His only other album in that objective was Earth Moving from 1989 (translated from Dutch)
^"Czech Albums – Top 100". ČNS IFPI. Note: On the chart page, select 10.Týden 2014 on the field besides the words『CZ – ALBUMS – TOP 100』to retrieve the correct chart. Retrieved March 14, 2014.