THE PLATINUM COLLECTION

If you're hoping to find an easy way out when exploring the progressive world of Mike Oldfield, I must disappoint you. There isn't! You just have to go out and buy the studio albums (I think the reviews on this site will give a good clue about which to buy and which to avoid). However, learning M.O. on your own (the hard way), without the guidance of reviews, is a rollercoaster ride! You will be deeply disappointed at times. Anyway, I find this a rather strange collection. The 12" versions of the the 80's pop songs is just too much. I mean, do you need an extended version of "Islands" with Bonnie Tyler on vocals? Or maybe a club-version of "Earth Moving"? I didn't think so. For the average pop/rock listener this might be a nice discovery, I don't know. Serious proggers - Stay away!

1.5 Stars

A new re-hash of the various other compilations, this one isn't so great.

Disc One features extracts of the 70's epics, taken out of context so much that the enjoyment is naturally degraded. I don't see the purpose of these cuts! What real fan would want to experience just sections of the masterpeices? Other than those cuts, Disc 1 features the 70's Singles, which are one of the only shreds of value on the whole set, but their inclusion is made worthless, considering the lesser priced and more compact compilations previously released.

Disc Two features more of the same stuff, but from the 80's. I was never really interested in the shorter Oldfield songs from that era, so I don't have much good to say about it. I do believe they have all been previously released though.

Disc Three of course, the 90's. Here I think there might possibly be some unreleased material, but I don't see the need to have to posess different versions with very slight edits.

Not very much appeal to anybody, do yourself a favour, take the 30 odd dollars it takes to purchase this and buy Tubular Bells, Ommadawn and Amarok.

I can't say that I am a big fan of Mike Oldfield, but his early records were a soundtrack of my youth. The smell of patchuli, incens and other forms of smoke mixed with 'Tubular Bells','Hergest Ridge' and 'Ommadawn'. The records were just going on forever and forever unless everybody was too stoned to turn around the record. I bought his first three records as LP's later on for the car as tapes, then as CD's but I never checked out his later catalogue until I found the other day the 'Platinum Collection' in a sales bin and it was so shamlessly cheap, that I just had to buy it. And I must say, that I was nicely surprised. In somma the record presents Oldfield as the writer of catchy pop tunes with occasioinal instrumental parts ,based mainly on either Celtic or African folk music, including variations of the poppy melodies with repetitive patterns. (BTW I always found his mega tracks way too long and prefer rather to hear them now in the shorter edited form) While I listened to the the 3 CD's I noted also to which extent his music is deeply relaxing. His music foreshadowed a lot of the world music and in a positive way the flowing, repetitive character of New Age, always with a nice melody on top and an excellent production. So if you are looking for the author of the record-long opus you will be disappointed and better buy his original records. If you want an excellent overview of Mike Oldlield as author of catchy ethnic pop tunes and a nicely writtten introduction to Oldfield's music and bio, you want to get this one.