release date: May 22, 1981
format: cd (2014 remaster)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,96]
producer: Jean Michel Jarre
label: Sony Music - nationality: France
Track highlights: 2. "Magnetic Fields, Part 2" - 4. "Magnetic Fields, Part 4" - 5. "Magnetic Fields, Part 5"
5th studio album by Jean-Michel Jarre originally released on Disques Dreyfus is the first in a long series of more pop-shaped albums. The compositions are still all instrumental but now focusing on more simple structures, which broadened the way for much bigger commercial success. I remember well how friends at school enjoyed this and his following albums, whereas I never really got it. I rejected this before hearing it to the end. It's soaked in pop matter and jingle-like tunes. I still find it close to mediocre compared to his two previous grand albums. The only positive sides to it, is a rather fine production sound, and that it still contains progressive electronic, and not only his later popularised and synthesized version of electropop, and although, I find tracks #2, #4 and #5 the best from the album they do contain elements that he would later draw from to compose his most popular tracks. The album was his third album to top the albums chart list in France.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]
