Search - Mike Oldfield :: The Complete Mike Oldfield

Mistake Indeed

Ian McKay | 11/03/1999

(1 out of 5 stars)

"As one of the tracks inplies on this poor collection of Oldfields music, The Complete Mike Oldfield, is definately a mistake to purchase. There is not enough hear to appeal to fans of Mikes rareties, the tracklisting is appauling and you are much better off with the 4cd Set Elements box set or the more recent xxv The Essential Mike Oldfield collections. The year of this albums release 1985 means that, Islands, Earth Moving, The brilliant Amarok, Heavens Open, Tubular Bells 2, Songs of Distant Earth, Voyager, Tubular Bells 3, and Guitars, do not get a look in. The smart money is with Elements Box set or XXV The Essential Mike Oldfield. Give this one a miss."

A better bet than the 'Elements' compilation

garyhyland@avvaganda.co.uk | Hungerford, England | 09/05/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Appearing in '85, this compilation remains one of the best available to those of who believe in the strength of his earlier work, when compared to the weak 'Earth Moving', for example. Spread over two CD's as opposed to the flabby 'Elements' package, you get the classic short instrumentals ('Blue Peter', 'Guilty' etc), the best songs ('Moonlight Shadow', 'Crime of Passion' etc) on CD 1. CD2 brings generous snippets of the early full-length works - 'Tubular Bells' & the seminal 'Ommadawn', but these are supplemented by four live tracks, from a 4-year period ending in '84. Listen to 'Mount Teide' - LOUD - and tell me straight you don't believe in the power of live music - even in a recording - to move the soul and send shivers down the spine. Awesome. A genuine Five-Stars."

A great source of Rarities for average Oldfield fan

Mike Chadwick | Gdynia,Poland | 10/31/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"if you somehow can't dig the net in search of his many unpublished and rare tracks this is the place - almost half of material from here was never published on CD - "Guilty","Jungle gardenia","Cuckoo song","Mistake","Waldberg (the peak)" and many more....there are also some live performances like amazing "platinum suite" improvisation (Oldfield proves here that he is one of best live guitar players)
there are also many of his hits like "Moonlight shadow","Family man","Etude" - some of them appeared in slightly shortened versions - and also pieces of his majestic long moods like "Tubular bells" or "Ommadawn")
"Complete" is a valuable source of Mike "Treasures" and a good starting place for starting Mike Fans."