BOXED

Mike Oldfield

Crossover Prog

3.81 | 57 ratings

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fuxi
Prog Reviewer

If you want the best of Mike Oldfield in one go, you can do no better than buying this set, which is far preferable to the more expensive ELEMENTS, for the following reasons:

1. Oldfield's most original work (his first three albums) is here, almost in its entirety. (As far as I know, only "On Horseback", from OMMADAWN, is left off - no great loss.)

2. For extras, you get some real goodies. Most notably, there are several fascinating excerpts from albums Oldfield recorded with the British composer David Bedford (who used to play alongside him in Kevin Ayers' band). I've never heard Bedford's albums, but judging from the fragments included here, they are magnificent attempts to fuse a symphony orchestra with electric guitar. "First Excursion", for example, sounds like Terje Rypdal - the brilliant Norwegian guitarist - at his most lyrical.

3. True, Oldfield's pop hits from the 1980s (e.g. "Moonlight Shadow" and "To France") are absent from BOXED, whereas ELEMENTS includes them, but on ELEMENTS you also have to put up with two discs' worth of third-rate material! (Moreover, ELEMENTS only contains a tiny snippet from AMAROK, a highly entertaining one-hour suite that you REALLY ought to hear from A to Z.)

fuxi | 3/5 | 2007-6-20

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