Mike Oldfield appreciation thread

Mike oldfield have a great Box-Set that released in 1976 : "Boxed . In LP version that released in 1976 , there were 4 LPs : Tubular Bells , Hergest Ridge , Ommadawn and Collaborations . In CD version , there are 3 CDs : TB , HR , Ommadawn without Collaborations! I want to write from Boxed cover : 

I should really delve into his discography more, the only album I've heard deep enough is Tubular Bells.

O666 wrote: Dellinger wrote: O666 wrote: Mike Oldfield in one of Top 10 musicians (Prog or Not Prog!) in my book. I listened most of his albums and I follow him over 30 years! He always tried to be "Up to Date" in his career. He experienced some of different  musical genres in some of his albums .  There are some musicians that try to "Copy" his 70's style. The latest of them is "Rob Reed". He released 2 "Oldfield 70's Style copy Albums" : "Sanctuary" and "Sanctuary 2". If you love "Ommadawn" and "Tubular Bells" , You must listen to Reed's "Sanctuary 1,2" albums. Yeah, Oldfield has become one of my top artists too... though I would put him in my top 5. However, I still got to get some albums from him, and somehow I don't expect to find anything as special as the best I already found from him. Hi. Sometimes I found him so Unexpected! For example "Amarok" album after 4-5 Semi-Pop albums or "The songs from Distant Earth" World Music genre album.  Perhaps he have some "Bad" (I prefer to say "Not Good"!) albums  but he is a great musician (IMO). He is my hero!

I have been getting into Oldfield mostly since he already had released all of his albums, except Man on the Rocks, so I have had a fair idea of what to expect from his albums... at least as far as the kind of sound or genre it will have goes, so there's been little surprise for me on that respect. Songs from Distant Earth is, I think, the first album I heard from him, and I do like it a lot... very good as a whole piece of music. And the last one was a nice collection of songs, specially the title song and Nuclear are great, and very different to anything else I have heard from him... even from his 80's song format releases.

Dean wrote: I have to admit I always get a bit squirmy when an artists says he's returning to something from his past. (aww, really? Must you?) Sometimes this works okay (Wakeman returning to the Centre of the Earth twice, once fair and once improved) or not bad (Anderson having a second bite of Thick As A Brick) while other times you have to wonder why they bothered (Tango's on several re-recorded albums including Phaedra 2005).  Oldfield's not new to this plundering of the back-catalogue of course having "returned" to Tubby Bells on four separate occasions (one re-recording and three sequels) with mixed results, though it has to be said that Tubby Bells III and The Millennium Bell could have been released with completely different titles and no one would have been any the wiser. Time will tell I suppose but apart from trading on the name of a relatively well known album I don't see why a return to his acoustic era has to be "Return to Ommadawn" specifically.

I agree with this. I would like the new album to be something new, not merely a retread, as good as the original was. We shall find out shortly.

I actually prefer TBII to the original, whilst the third was an interesting take. Millenium Bell is not particularly inspired.

Dellinger wrote: O666 wrote: Mike Oldfield in one of Top 10 musicians (Prog or Not Prog!) in my book. I listened most of his albums and I follow him over 30 years! He always tried to be "Up to Date" in his career. He experienced some of different  musical genres in some of his albums .  There are some musicians that try to "Copy" his 70's style. The latest of them is "Rob Reed". He released 2 "Oldfield 70's Style copy Albums" : "Sanctuary" and "Sanctuary 2". If you love "Ommadawn" and "Tubular Bells" , You must listen to Reed's "Sanctuary 1,2" albums. Yeah, Oldfield has become one of my top artists too... though I would put him in my top 5. However, I still got to get some albums from him, and somehow I don't expect to find anything as special as the best I already found from him.

has been one of my favorites since the 1970s

Blacksword wrote: Tubular Bells is one of those 'classic albums' which is excellent when you consider when and how it was made and the back story, but I can take or leave much of the music to be honest. It's clever, but slightly boring to me. Ommadwan on the other hand is wonderful, especially part 1 which never fails to move me. I'm also rather partial to the cold sparseness of Hergest Ridge. An unfairly maligned album IMO, and dare I say it... 'underated' Beyond that I've only heard Five Miles Out. I do need to check out some more Oldfield albums. Can anyone recommend anything that isn't too 'jiggy' or 'Earth mother - save the whale' orientated?? Acoustic or electronic is fine.

OK, I do love Tubular Bells up to the Caveman part... but the one I know is the 2003 re-recording. Mostly I understan Oldfield fans prefer the original, but perhaps the new one might sound a bit better to you... though it's suposed to be the same music as faithfully as Oldfield could do it. In general, for me his most special work are his first 4 albums; besides Ommadawn side 1 and Hergest Ridge side 2, the other piece I really love is Incantations side 4 (that vocal ending is just about as magical as the first minutes of Ommadawn). And Amarok has been recommended, though the very part of it that I love the most is the Africa part one section... though this album is a tough nut to crack since it's actually suposed to be all one single song, and that's the way you find it on CD, only one track. What's the more, I understand Amarok was suposed to be some sort follow up to Ommadawn in spirit, so you might want to check it out while the new one arrives.

Amarok is amazeballs 🖒

I don't know what jiggy is.

I love Incantations for its instrumental splendour and also love Crises and Discovery for its neoprog meets pop beauty.

Kingsnake wrote: Dellinger wrote: Mike Oldfield is among my favourite 5 artists, mostly because of his 70's stuff, though there's stuff I like from later on. I'm excited about this Ommadawn follow up indeed, the first one (specially side one) is my favourite piece from him, but I guess we shouldn't get our hopes too high... as far as I'm concerned, the follow up to Tubular Bells was rather a disappointment (it tried to hard to follow the same steps of the first one, but every equivalent part was inferior to the original). Still, I heard a teaser for this Ommadawn one, and it sounded promising, even if a bit too tame (hopefully the album will get some highs). Where did you hear the teaser? Also, when I look at the album info, (like old days) Mike plays all the instruments himself. So, no vocals, drums etc. Probably it will have that organic, pastoral sound we all love so much.

He did play almost all the instruments in those early albums, but I believe he knew his limitations and his vision for the music, and if he couldn't do it he would have people doing it for him... like the female vocals, even if they weren't really singing but rather vocalising, or the tribal drums and so on... and I would expect it to be the same case on this one.