Comments for Jarre, Jean Michel, Oxygene 7-13

I'm a fan of Jean Michel Jarre since i was 12 years old. I'm 19. I only want to say that the last album Oxigene 7-13 is one of the better albumes of Jean michel... I like very much the sounds that Jean Michel has used, the synthesizers like he used to use in the finally 70's decade are the most beatiful of the sounds, in my opinion. . . . ..

Here's a review taken from Tower's "Pulse!" magazine:
Many of today's synthesizer composers owe a debt to Jean-Michel Jarre. Twenty-one years after his popular debut, "Oxygene", the French synthesist returns to the electronic field of his greatest success with "Oxygene 7-13" (Epic, 2 1/2 stars). Ostensibly, "Oxygene 7-13" is supposed to pick up where the original "Oxygene" left off. Jarre dusts off his old analog synthesizers, gets those rubber-band-rolling sequencer patterns spinning and turns out an album that not only could've been made 20 years ago, but really seems to little more than a tweaking of themes from the original "Oxygene". "Part Ten" sounds like a sketch of the already stick-figured theme from the earlier album's "Part Two". The details may be different, but essentially, this is the same music.

After all the great albums that JMJ has put out throughout the years, this latest release was a very big disappointment to me. Oxygene 7-13 is nothing more than the original Oxygene with some of the text re-worded and moved around; there is very little substance and originality. I'd be reluctant to even recommend to die-hard JMJ fans.

I agree. This is by far Jean-Michel's weakest work to date. He seems either to be running out of ideas, or just don't really care about music anymore. He should just hang it up and leave the electronic music industry with what little diginity he has left.

Maybe this is all a bad dream. The real J.M.J. wouldn't go so low as to even recording a new album and naming it 'Oxygene 7-13'.

I'm an avid jean michel jarre fan and have been listening to his music since 1977 (yes, I'm probably older than most of you here). I hardly recall him ever putting something bad out, however I do feel that oxygene 7-13 is less than what he's truly capable of. Let's hope that this is not an indication of what's to come.

Reading the previous comments.... I am sorry to say I like this one, going back to the original oxygene sounds yet creating a nineties feal to the music. If I may further say, I even like the remix's by current "pop" artists such as sash too.

Regardless of what period of style that JMJ uses in his music, the performances on this album were somewhat of a letdown for me- very lackluster and uninspiring. IMHO, the original 'Oxygene' is a more moving piece of music, even by today's standards. Maybe Jean-Michel saw the success that Mike Oldfield had garnered with Tubular Bells & Tubular Bells II, and felt that he could acheive the same thing????

Disappointing. This appears to be a rehash of earlier material that is geared toward making more money for the man. Nothing really inventive here. A shadow of the original "Oxygene" album.

      - John Kafel, July 31, 1997, USA

A continuation of his first "Oxygene"-album.