Man on the Rocks
| Man on the Rocks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Mike Oldfield | ||||
| Released | 3 March 2014 | |||
| Recorded | 2013 Nassau, Bahamas; The Village, Los Angeles; Battery Studios, London | |||
| Genre | Rock,pop rock | |||
| Length | 59:32 | |||
| Label | Virgin EMI | |||
| Producer | Mike Oldfield, Stephen Lipson | |||
| Mike Oldfield chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 51/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| The Guardian |   |
| So So Gay |  |
| Shields Gazette |   |
| musicOMH | |
| AllMusic | |
| Record Collector | |
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.
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 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. 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 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 another of Virgin EMI's British artists, The Struts.
The album deals with topics ranging from Oldfield's experiences with mental health 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.
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