....too bad it came so late, when the analogue days are clearly over. for me, this is the jmj's goodbye album. everything he made after this.. is ... well... too common.

all tracks are 5 stars.
any jarre fan should fall in love with this instantly.

Method: Take a monster, genre defining album you recorded over 15 years ago, borrow the voicings, polyrhythms and sound effects, rearrange them to slightly (but not *that*) different tunes, crib the album art (cheesy then; cheesier now) and re-release.

The point? Well, to The Man, it's obvious. There's one born every minute. But for genuine, discerning afficionados of electronica? Search me. Like a good souffle, it was better the first time.

Indeed, inventing Oxygene Parts 7 - 13 is almost as pointless an exercise as going back and re-recording the original album from scratch. And guess what turned out to be Jarre's next project?

Whoops! Writer's block, perchance?

Olly Buxton

Revisiting his best known album some twenty years later, Jean Michel Jarre takes the original's best qualities and updates them to a genre he helped define. While "Oxygene 7-13" is not as instantly mind blowing as the original album, it certainly is equally entertaining.

Long before the term "new age" got slapped on everything that was vaguely atmospheric and meditative, the original "Oxygene" was earthy music. Organic and enveloping as the album title suggested, each segment could hold its own as an original song, yet the pieces worked together as a whole. Once again, "Oxygene 7-13" strives for that sort of coherency and for the most part succeeds. Where this installment betters its forbear is in the fact that synthesizers and recording methodology simply improved. The sound is richer, more full, even though Jarre chose to use many of the same styles of analog machines that the original "Oxygene" was recorded with.

He also chose to make the album more rhythmic, an obvious nod to the ambient clubs sounds popular at the time. (Many of these bands were greatly influenced by the original "Oxygene" or such later albums as "Zoolook" or "Equinoxe.") That kind of thinking helped propel "Part 8" into international club hit status.

Just like its predecessor, "Oxygene 7-13" works as both background and foreground music. The dancibilty of "Part 8" will no doubt also find fans with admirers of Pink Floyd and Tangerine Dream (or anyone who uses the phrase "headphone music" when they describe listening favorites). Both dreamy and propulsive, "Oxygene 7-13" completely lives up to its namesake.

This is quite good.
First time I listened to it I was'nt so excited about it.
Then after a half a year or a year I listened to it again and I changed my mind about it.
I don't think it is as good as Oxygene but it is still a pretty good record.

The sequel to the first work by French sythesisist Jarre is in my opinion better than the original on. Taking all the style and the structure from 'Oxygene', '7-13' gets further in sounds, composition and everything else.




Although the main sounds and rythms are very similar to the first one, it is a sign of being a good artist to create something similar to a previous work, but taking it further. The highlight is 'Oxygene 10' which builds itself in a few seconds and feautres a very simple melody with a very simple synth sound, but surrounded by extremely complex sounds and rythms. The last one is nice as well, though very much similar to the last from 'Oxygene'. The rest of h album is average Jean Michel Jarre material, but in a way a great closer to a time in his work before the beginning of a new one. I bet he took the idea of a second part from Mike Oldfield making 'Tubular Bells II'. A great idea in both cases tho.