Elements: The Best of Mike Oldfield 1973-1991

Item arrived quickly, was well package and the disc’s in perfect condition. Very satisfied!

great but cd case was cracked

Awesome music

good price-thank you!

The best of Mike Oldfield, is a great milestone in his career from early 70 th`s to the early 90 th`s. In other words this CD is a great introduction to his many great compositions. Track 1 Tubular Bells (opning theme) has a very hypnotic theme, horrific and makes you shiver( it was also used as the theme song in Friedkin`s horror film classic(The Exorsist). A moody and creepy melody. Track 2 Family Man is an another cup of tea, with it`s very open soundpicture, with enough space to put in different synth blop`s here andthere, to quicken it up. It has a great female vocal with guts and glory all trough. Track 3 Moonlight Shadow is the ultimate "summer hit song". It paint`s your soul with happiness, joy, and glory. Maggie Realy`s vocal with the right "dash" of "ecco sound" shines on this one. Track 4 Heavens Open, follow the poppy trends as the too tracks before this one. It`s anyway a little letdown because it stand`s still in away. The theme is to much repitition in away. Track 5 Five Miles Out, is anyway a nice gem, with one of the most "airy and open space " soundpicture i have heard. It`s a treat for your ears, and will kick your`e soul in outher space, at least for 4.14 minutes. Track 6 To France is a nice little treat, with Maggies vocal as a "drive motor" all trough the song. Track 7 Foreign affair, has much of the same quality elements included. Few distorting elements with to many instruments not fighting for theire places, to bring out the clear and solid vocal of Maggie Reiley. Track 8 In dulici jubilio is a nice sweet "shakesperean" inspired song.Easy come easy go, but a sweety in a way. Short and concise . Track 9 Shadow on the wall, is creepy and horrific with a devilish vocal. It has an atmosphere all trough that creeps slowly in too your soul, and paint your thought`s with shadows with a big S.. Track 10 Island, with Bonny Tyler on vocal bring`s more sunshine into your`e soul`. A good popsong this one. From track 11 to track 16 it`s time for the more experimental and weird ( in more or less positive way)Oldfield. Track 11 Etude: well, easy come and easy go joy. Track 12 Sentinel, is very similar to Tubular Bells, but bring`s out a certain flair when you listen to it. Track 13 Ommadawn is Oldfield in a "natures own" mood. Inspired in a way, but not to much variations. Track 14 Incantations has a poor man`s `"carribean" touch all over. A let down in a way. Track 15 Amarok. To many drumming sound, and not much more. The vocal choir doesn`t fit at all.Track 16 Portsmouth has that "shakesperean" middelage feel over it, all trough. Except for a few letdown`s. Mike Oldfield is in the right "element "on this one.

This is a good introduction to the music of Mike Oldfield, and it includes one great song, a few other good ones, and some disappointments. It also includes several excerpts from long instrumental works that are pleasant, sometimes even beautiful to listen to, but that can't possibly convey the impact of the entire compositions. Finally, there are a couple of execrable tracks that should have been left on the cutting room floor. The album is incoherent as a "listen", but considering Mike's divergent musical explorations, what else could it be?The great song is "To France". Sung by silver-throated Maggie Reilly, it is beautiful and thrilling, with quiet mandolins, soaring guitars and well-textured electronics forming a transcendent song of regret and hope. The song is a perfect "10", and led me to the album "Discovery", which I believe is Mike's best album of songs and short selections.The other good songs are "Family Man", "Moonlight Shadow" and "Heaven's Open". I picked up this CD to accompany me on a long drive, only being familiar with Mike's phenomenal "Tubular Bells", and hoping for similarly entertaining soundscape odysseys. Imagine my surprise when all of a sudden... "hey, this is Hall and Oates!" Sure enough, the blue-eyed soul of "Family Man" originated with Mike Oldfield, and includes a wicked high-register guitar solo. Then comes "Moonlight Shadow", a delightful song, sweet and melodic with a strong drum track. "Heaven's Open" is another uplifting winner. I'm not sure if Mike is the singer, but he sounds sort of like a drunken Sting (and I don't mean that as an insult, the vocal is actually quite good). "Foreign Affair" and "Islands" (featuring Bonnie Tyler) are no better than OK, and "Five Miles Out" and "Shadow on the Wall" are more irritating than entertaining.The instrumental excerpts from the long works form a signficant part of this album, and all are entertaining, especially "Incantations" and "Ommadawn", but they are mere fragments, and whatever the quality of the entire compositions, the excerpts cannot possibly do them justice.Overall, "Elements" is a good display of what this interesting and sometimes experimental musician has produced over the years, but not a real "album" in itself. I give it 3 stars for the CD as a musical collection, and an extra star for its value in pointing you to those aspects of Mike Oldfield's music you might want to pursue in more depth.

Definitly this 4 discs set is the Biggest Oldfield's Best of album.it contains most of his biggest hits,even whole "tubular bells".the addition of singles not avaible alesewhere like the disco dancefloor hit "guilty", lovely instrumentals "Path" or "Legend" (one of my favourites songs).But hte compilation is missing many of his hits that were released only on Vinyls and were not officially released on Cd like the phenomenal "pictures in the dark","shine" (with jon anderson","Music from video wall","In the pool","bones"...there are many of songs that are wanting to be released and are hiding somwhere in Internet, but Virgin never really thought of Releasing the Complete b-sides and rare tracks set.That kind of compilation is a definitive wanted addition to Mike's Oldfield collection - so if you are an advanced Oldfield fan "Elements box set" is not good for you because propably you have already most of Rare songs from Internet.if you are a begginer Oldfield Fan, there never was a better way to get into the music of this great musican.and of ocurse whole Box set is looking lovely - big book inside with nice photos and biography,the package is beautifull too.

Ottimo prodotto

Excellent four CD compilation, made in 1993 by Virgin Records Ltd. Not to be confused with Best Of Element, which is only one CD. A sticker says "Specially remastered 4-CD Set", by Chris Blair : I compared some of the songs with original CD versions and they do sound different, very close to the HDCD versions. Tubular Bells pt. 1 sounds different than any other versions I have. Excellent and well written 58 pages booklet included, with rare pictures. On CD two, the song Guilty is called "I'm Guilty", for no reason. Grab it if you can!

one song is skipping. I played the cd in 3 different CD players.

Cd che raccoglie i migliori successi di Mike Oldfield. Da MoonLight Shadow a Shadow Of The Wall. Passando Per Five Miles Out a In Dulci Jubilo. Presente, inoltre, la famosissima Tubular Bells. Ossia la canzone più famosa dell'Esorcista. Cd usato ma in ottime condizioni. Oltre ad averlo pagato veramente poco.Insomma: un bel lavoro del polistrumentista britannico da non farsi scappare.Spedizione nei tempi previsti nonostante l'abbia acquistato da un venditore terzo.

Raccolta di successi di un grande musicista, emozionante