Good for "Tubular Bells" and "Sentinel"

I was dissapointed when I heard this album. I heard that his album Tubular Bells was a popular album and I remember hearing "Sentinel" on the radio. So, I bought the cassette just to give it a try. After hearing the album, I was dissapointed that Sentinel was different than the other songs on the album. There were a few good instrumentals but I still didn't like most of the album. Mike Oldfield uses a unique mixture of sounds in his music and he includes a few voices as well. Some of his songs I would not even classify as new age, like "Shadow On The Wall" since it sounds like rock music and doesn't have good vocals. Even if you are a Mike Oldfield fan, I would still recomment listening to the album before you buy it.

Innovative rock musician

Mike Oldfield, a multi-instrumentalist, achieved worldwide success with his debut, Tubular bells, but never came close to matching its success again although his albums continued to sell well in his British homeland. This collection of his music from the seventies, eighties and early nineties shows Mike's development as an artist. Although titled Elements, this is really a Best of package.



The set opens with the opening theme to Tubular bells and includes his four British top ten hits (In Dulce Jubilo, Portsmouth, Moonlight shadow, Sentinel) as well as Family man, which was only a minor UK hit for Mike but which became a top twenty UK hit via a cover by Hall and Oates. Some of Mike's lesser hits are missing including the UK top twenty hit, Blue Peter, which is Mike's interpretation of the theme to the long-running children's TV series - it was even used on the TV for a few years.



The vastly under-appreciated Maggie Reilly (a brilliant soprano) sings on some of Mike's records, most notably Moonlight shadow, an extremely sad song albeit with a bouncy tune. Another brilliant guest vocalist is Bonnie Tyler, featured on Islands.



While you might wish to buy the original Tubular bells album in its entirety, this sampling of Mike's best music spanning nearly twenty years shows plenty of variety.

very short Mike's anthology...Could be great as a 2cd set...

Mike is not only famous for his long epic Tunes ("Tubular bells","Incantations").In eighties he rebuilt his career by playing Short pop songs and from time to time more long tracks("Taurus I" from "qe2" or "The wind chimes").this album mostly Spots MIke's LAter Career.
There are all of his famous radio-friendly songs - "MOONLIGHT SHADOW"(absolute classic),"HEAVENS OPEN","FOREIGN AFFAIR","ISLANDS","TO FRANCE","FAMILY MAN",some non-album traditional irish melodies (Charming "PORTSMOUTH" and "IN DULCI JUBILO".Both appeared on "The complete" and his other compilations) and my two al time favourites : Genious "FIVE MILES OUT" and a 5 minutes long version of a powerfull rock "SHADOW ON THE WALL". Well, i prefer Oldfield's both faces - the pop composer and great instrumetal aranger, so i enjoy it all.But here is why i gave it 3 stars.
His long instrumental pieces can be only listened as they are.:TUBULAR BELLS OPENING TUNE" is very poor - 4 minutes out of 25 of part one can not represent this album, such rich and wonderfull.The same with "OMMADAWN" and "AMAROK".If somebody in virgin records would be much wiser he could create a double album.One cd with pop and other with his instrumentals.It happened in 2002 ("collection").
It was my first Mike Oldfield record i bought.Now i am his big fan, and i must say many of his great songs vanished from here (Where is his famous "SHEBA" or "IN HIGH PLACES"???) but i can recomend this to you...maybe you will be as amazed as i was when i first heard the hard tribal drums of "AMAROK excerpt"....