Tubular Bells
Mike OldfieldI've listened to this album many times throughout my life, but I think that for progressive albums of this type, each time you listen to them you end focusing on different sections, so there's always a sense of novelty. Mike Oldfield recorded all the instruments for Tubular Bells at 19 years old, which is rather impressive. There's not a lot of, we could call it, "virtuosity" in the way the instruments are played, instead the focus is on storytelling through musical structures. There's some very memorable sections, like the slow vocal introduction of instruments at Part I 20:20 and the growling at Part II 11:45. Historically speaking, this is [Virgin Records](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Records)' first published album and was its earliest success. It's fun to read that the huge Richard Branson's present conglomerate had its beginnings in the early 70's as some record shop in Notting Hill Gate specializing in krautrock imports.