In the 1970s, ambient music might still have been something new, but it was hardly unheard of. Mike Oldfield set the world on its ear with Tubular Bells—and while he didn’t quite catch lightning in a bottle again, he did enjoy continued success with albums like Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn. Brian Eno certainly made a name for himself in the same field.

With Oxygene, the third release from French avant-garde composer Jean-Michel Jarre, I don’t quite know what to make of this album. It has many things going for it, to be certain, but in the end, it just doesn’t overwhelm the listener. Then again, that could be just what Jarre was aiming for.

For those as ancient as I am, you might remember a program for the Commodore 64 called “Swinth.” It was essentially a light show you could create and change colors on, while instrumental music played through the computer’s sound system. What I believe was the third or fourth song was the synthesized version of “Oxygene (Part II)” —which happened to be the track which gets the most attention on this album. So, hearing the original and recognizing where I remembered it from awakened the 13-year-old me and put a smile on my face.

There is no doubt that Jarre was—and is—a talented composer and musician. Oxygene proves that many times along the six tracks that make it up. What I specifically like is that Jarre demarcates each section of the work in some manner, so that—unlike, say, Tubular Bells —the listener has an idea of when the overall style is shifting, and a new track begins.

This, however, is the one weakness in Oxygene—namely, the six tracks all have a similar style and sound to them, so that the end result still feels like one long piece. Perhaps, if there had been a little bit more variety—say, different voices to the synthesizers used—it might have helped set this on a higher shelf with other worthy musical peers. I get that there was an overall message Jarre was trying to deliver with the piece as a whole, but I’m not quite certain it was delivered as powerfully as it could have been.

Oxygene is not always the easiest album to listen to, even if you have grown up in the world of electronic and ambient music. But there is a comfort factor to it, which allows the listener to settle in and just experience the disc, once they get used to the style and delivery Jarre offers them. It’s still not the most powerful experience of the bunch, but it’s by no means bad.

And, perhaps, that’s the one flaw that Oxygene has. This is not a bad album; I’ll certainly go back to it from time to time when I need to clear the mental cobwebs. But one can’t say that it’s a great album, either. It just… is. And while we should be grateful that the album exists, Jarre doesn’t quite do enough to set himself apart from his fellow artists.

Rating: B-

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