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Topic: All 25 Mike Oldfield Albums - Ranked!< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
Sentinel_NZ Offline




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Posted: July 25 2024, 21:58

(When I say "all 25", I haven't included "Tubular Bells 2003" even though it's often included as a distinct album, for obvious reasons.  I have, however, included The Killing Fields; but haven't included the live albums such as Exposed.  Nor have I counted the remix album "Tubular Beats", although I did consider doing so).

So now for possibly the most controversial and fraught subject in the whole universe - ranking Mike Oldfield's albums!  Please note that the assessment of the virtues of Tr3s Lunas (and Light + Shade) also considers the material collected from the music VR games on bootlegs such as "Tr3s Lunas II",  - that seems only fair.

Obviously, everyone will have a different ordering.  The most notable point here for most will be the relatively low position of Incantations, and many will be aghast at Return to Ommadawn being rated higher than the original album.  However I decided the best way was just to go purely on gut instinct rather than agonizing one way or the other, and I'm not attempting to verbally justify my choices.

Without further ado..Mike Oldfield's albums - ranked (from worst to best).  (Please feel free to share your own list...I would be fascinating to contrast and compare).

Note that it is only places 25-21 that can in any way be considered inferior; and even they, with the exception only of 25 & 24, include at least one or more excellent, outstanding track/tracks.  From 20-1, they are all first rate, exceptionally brilliant albums and there is, in any final analysis, not all that much between them, so asserting the superiority of any one over any other is a really difficult, more or less inscrutable matter, which just, as I said, comes down to an intuitive gut feeling, so to speak.  Places 18-16, in particular, are three albums I can scarcely separate at all, and part of me wants to put Voyager ahead of Platinum and QE2.  And naturally, I was hesitant about putting Incantations behind the two early/mid 2000s "techno" albums, which the majority of old timer fans don't tend to value as much.

Finally, for ease of comprehension, I have separated the entire list into five tiers of five, grouping the appropriate albums according to their relative quality.

More than anything, I Would be fascinated to learn how Mike himself rates his album discography.  I don't suppose that is something we will ever know.


Tier 5
25. Earth Moving
24. Man on the Rocks
23. Heaven’s Open
22. The Killing Fields
21. Guitars

Tier 4
20. Discovery
19. Crises
18. Voyager
17. Platinum
16. QE2

Tier 3
15. The Millennium Bell
14. Incantations
13. Tr3s Lunas (including the unofficial bootleg "Tr3s Lunas II")
12. Light + Shade
11. Tubular Bells

Tier 2
10. Islands
9. Hergest Ridge
8. Ommadawn
7. Amarok
6. Five Miles Out

Tier 1
5. Return to Ommadawn
4. The Songs of Distant Earth
3. Music of the Spheres
2. Tubular Bells III
1. Tubular Bells II
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Piltdownboy on horseback 22 Offline




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Posted: July 31 2024, 10:26

Hello,
Nice to read your list and see your opinion. Some surprising choices (Music of the Spheres very high, Discovery quite low), but I can understand why you put TB2 as the number 1.

After some hard thinking, here's my list:

25. Tres Lunas
24. Light and shade
23. Music of the sheres
22. Millennium bell
21. Man on the rocks

20. Earth moving
19. The killing fields
18. Heaven's open
17. Platinum
16. Islands

15. Return to ommadawn
14. QE2
13. Tubular Bells 2
12. Five miles out
11. Voyager

10.Guitars
9. Tubular Bells 3
8. Hergest ridge
7. Ommadawn
6. Incantations

5. Crises
4. Discovery
3. The songs of distant earth
2. Amarok
1. Tubular Bells


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Sentinel_NZ Offline




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Posted: Aug. 04 2024, 16:49

Quote
25. Tres Lunas
24. Light and shade
23. Music of the sheres
22. Millennium bell
21. Man on the rocks


Lol. Epic trolling bro.  Hey I can appreciate the art of comedy trolling.  Why begrudge it?  It's a skill unto itself, especially in this current degenerate age.  Well done!
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Piltdownboy on horseback 22 Offline




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Posted: Aug. 04 2024, 17:20

Hello,
This is a somewhat different reaction than what I expected.
But if it's meant as humour, then that's fine by me!


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Milamber Offline




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Posted: Aug. 05 2024, 07:23

Exposed and TB 2003 anyone??
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Priabonia Offline




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Posted: Aug. 05 2024, 10:01

Incantations in Tier 3 and Ommadawn and Hergest Ridge in Tier 2?...I feel a John McEnroe moment coming on...

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Sentinel_NZ Offline




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Posted: Aug. 05 2024, 15:55

Quote
Hello,
This is a somewhat different reaction than what I expected.
But if it's meant as humour, then that's fine by me!


Sorry for the reaction.  I didn't come across entirely as intended.  I didn't mean any offence...If I'm being honest, I may have a bit triggered.  Which is never good.

Anyway, in fairness, I'm not completely sure that Music of the Spheres should come ahead of The Songs of Distant Earth - they are almost too close to call  In the end, the sheer unmatched beauty of "On My Heart" and its reprise got it just over the line.

Music of the Spheres:

- Sir Karl Jenkins
- Lang Lang
- Hayley Westenra
- Sinfonia Sfera Orchestra

Man on the Rocks

- Luke Spiller.

Hmmm...Not exactly a fair fight.

Besides that, as far as I can tell, Music of the Spheres is the greatest classical "symphony" (for want of a better word; of course its an album, but that term doesn't exist in classical vernacular) since the New World Symphony of Anton Dvorak of 1893, and before that the works of Tchaikovsky.  The only contender that I am aware of would be Peter and the Wolf, which is of course amazing and brilliant, but at only 32 minutes is a touch too lightweight to really pose a challenge, and it is after all basically for children.  Music of the Spheres is much tougher and profound both technically and existentially and, tune for tune and buck for buck, musically superior.  Of course, many would point to the works of Igor Stravinsky, Rachmaninov and Shostakovich but as far as I'm concerned, all their best bits put together barely compare to side 1 of the Oldfield album.

As for Man on the Rocks, it is not only a poor Mike Oldfield album; it is an absolutely terrible rock album by any measure.

Of course it's not ice to call someone a "troll"...I was only really playing; but by placing Man on the Rocks ahead of Music of the Spheres, well...lol.

As for Discovery, it is one of Oldfield's weakest collection of pop/rock/short form tunes (the only weaker ones are Man on the Rocks, Earth Moving and Heavens Open - and the last of these is in a way better due solely to the excellence of the title track which is one of his greatest, most inspiring pieces out of his entire catalog, and one of the best songs by anyone of the entire 80s/early 90s pre-grunge/alternative/lo-fi, classical soft rock canon).  Apart from The Lake, there isn't really an outstanding tune to be found.  Of course To France is very famous and well loved, but it's only average in comparison to his best such as the incredibly superb collection of songs on Islands.  All the other tracks are enormously forgettable.  Saved by a [Tubular] Bell may be worth a listen once every couple of years.  The others amount to 20 minutes of throw away filler, and that's being generous.  So to state Discovery as the fourth best album of all, well...lol.  I won't even dare to say all the things this makes me feel like saying.

And placing Guitars - an album almost universally acknowledged as a very, very minor work, conceived mainly by its creator purely as a genre experiment, to compose and record an album consisting almost entirely of various kinds of guitars or guitar-like instruments -  which contains several bits of wonderful music in amongst some strictly average fare which wouldn't sound out of place on a lesser, forgotten John Mellencamp or Bruce Springsteen album - far ahead of such sublime masterpieces as Return to Ommadawn and so on, the word "troll" really does seem apt...even though of course it is insulting.  Strictly business, you understand....nothing personal.

As for Tubular Bells at number 1, of course it's wonderful classic and is what started it all and it holds an awful lot of sentimental value for millions of people, "the soundtrack to your life", that kind of thing.  I get all that.  And the opening riff is what so much more of Mike's career is based off of course (including Harbinger, the opening track to Music of the Spheres) and without it, we wouldn't have 1993's "The Bell". one of the most beautiful singles and music videos of all time).  On the other hand - Piltdown Man has never sounded particularly great to me, and I feel that Tubular Bells II's comical self-parody/pastiche of it - which is a vast improvement on the original - was Mike's tacit acknowledgement that perhaps it seemed like a good idea at the time that didn't necessarily hold up down the years and decades.  Moreover, the Sailor's Hornpipe finale has always struck me as just ever so flaky, superfluous and not entirely successful.  I think, again, Mike may have secretly acknowledged this by segueing  back into the body of the album after "Moonshine" in the Tubular Bells II premier concert, as if to admit that that wasn't a satisfactory denouement.   I'm only surmising here, of course, but this is the way it sounds to me. There are many more critiques and comparisons that could be made which could only be reasonably expected to elicit a "tl;dr" from all but the most devoted reader, so I won't go on.
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Sentinel_NZ Offline




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Posted: Aug. 05 2024, 20:24

Quote (Milamber @ Aug. 05 2024, 07:23)
Exposed and TB 2003 anyone??

I tried to explain the omission of those in the original post.

You could almost make a stronger case for inclusion of Tubular Beats, since it - unlike the two named above - contains some totally unique versions of previous recordings, as well as some entirely original music, one of Mike's best ever tracks  - Never Too Far (albeit co-written with other artists) - which didn't appear anywhere else (until recently).
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Sentinel_NZ Offline




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Posted: Aug. 05 2024, 20:36

Quote (Priabonia @ Aug. 05 2024, 10:01)
Incantations in Tier 3 and Ommadawn and Hergest Ridge in Tier 2?...I feel a John McEnroe moment coming on...

I can be serious haha.  Of course, it's a line call.  Was it in?  Was it out?  It's so hard to say.  But I will try.

First of all, as mentioned in the original post, I stressed that apart from the bottom 3 or 4 albums, all of these albums stand as some of the greatest of all time, by anyone and trying to differentiate them is like sorting between 24 carat perfectly cut diamonds.  You can scarcely find a flaw in any such collection of diamonds, all are as rare as stars in the daytime and of inestimable value and excellence.  That's why I explained that it just comes down to a gut feeling.  Having said that...

...With Incantations, although it's mesmerising and hypnotic, beautiful and astounding, it does have the tendency to drone on for a while without all that much variation or introduction of new ideas.  For example, the "Diana..." section gets a bit repetitive and as a double album, it can possibly test one's patience if one isn't prepared for a meditative kind of commitment to the aural and spiritual experience.  In fact, looking at various online forums such as "Progarchives", you will find a lot of reviewers saying very similar things

As for Ommadawn and Hergest Ridge, as I said , of course these are amongst the very greatest albums of all time, by anyone; let alone the greatest of the decade of the 1970s. In any other countdown, they would be at the top but according to my personal feeling, those top 5 have something just that tiny, unexplainable quality which nudges them into the truly transcendent and transporting.  Side two of Hergst Ridge, the heavy guitar section, tends to perhaps lose a bit of focus and overwhelms the piece, just slightly.  I can't see any such flaw with any of the "top 5".  Of course its difficult to exclude any album that includes such a wondrously lovely ode as "On Horseback" back again it's just a case of the sheer volume of outstanding quality of the other works.  In a way, it would be easier to just say top 10 are all equally number one, but that isnt really very satisfying and besides, it really is the case that my deepest instincts do rate them in the way given.
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Milamber Offline




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Posted: Aug. 05 2024, 21:07

This is NO easy task and I admit much is clouded in nostalgic sunlight!

Amarok.
Ommadawn.
Tubular Bells.
Crises.
Songs of Distant Earth.
Exposed.
Five Miles Out.
TB 2003.
QE2.
TB3.
Platinum.
Discovery.
TB2.
Hergest Ridge.
Incantations.
Return to Ommadawn.
Islands.
Earth Moving.
Heavens Open.
Millenium Bell.
Voyager.
Man off his Rocks!
Music of the Spheres.
Light+Shade.
Tres Lunas.
Guitars.
Killing Fields.
List subject to seasonal change.
Some settling during transit!
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Sentinel_NZ Offline




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Posted: Aug. 05 2024, 22:05

Quote (Milamber @ Aug. 05 2024, 21:07)
This is NO easy task and I admit much is clouded in nostalgic sunlight!

Amarok.
Ommadawn.
Tubular Bells.
Crises.
Songs of Distant Earth.
Exposed.
Five Miles Out.
TB 2003.
QE2.
TB3.
Platinum.
Discovery.
TB2.
Hergest Ridge.
Incantations.
Return to Ommadawn.
Islands.
Earth Moving.
Heavens Open.
Millenium Bell.
Voyager.
Man off his Rocks!
Music of the Spheres.
Light+Shade.
Tres Lunas.
Guitars.
Killing Fields.
List subject to seasonal change.
Some settling during transit!

Music of the Spheres:

- Sir Karl Jenkins
- Lang Lang
- Hayley Westenra
- Sinfonia Sfera Orchestra

Man on the Rocks

- Luke Spiller.

Hmmm...Not exactly a fair fight.

Besides that, as far as I can tell, Music of the Spheres is the greatest classical "symphony" (for want of a better word; of course its an album, but that term doesn't exist in classical vernacular) since the New World Symphony of Anton Dvorak of 1893, and before that the works of Tchaikovsky.  The only contender that I am aware of would be Peter and the Wolf, which is of course amazing and brilliant, but at only 32 minutes is a touch too lightweight to really pose a challenge, and it is after all basically for children.  Music of the Spheres is much tougher and profound both technically and existentially and, tune for tune and buck for buck, musically superior.  Of course, many would point to the works of Igor Stravinsky, Rachmaninov and Shostakovich but as far as I'm concerned, all their best bits put together barely compare to side 1 of the Oldfield album.

in fairness, I'm not completely sure that Music of the Spheres should come ahead of The Songs of Distant Earth - they are almost too close to call  In the end, the sheer unmatched heavenly beauty of "On My Heart", both the tune, the orchestration and, perhaps above all, the incredible vocal performance (by Hayley Westenra) and its reprise got it just over the line.

As for Man on the Rocks, it is not only a poor Mike Oldfield album; it is an absolutely terrible rock album by any measure.  Rating Man on the Rocks above Music of the  Spheres strikes me as highly bizarre and though I hate to say it, almost irrational - let alone Earth Moving which as far as I can tell, doesn't contain a single note, phrase, chord, musical idea or lyric, let alone complete song, worthy of any sort of major label release by any artist, much less an Oldfieldian one.  I suspect that if an unsigned, unknown artist had presented a group of songs like those found on Earth Moving to any major label, they would get instantly trespassed from the premises and made to write out 100 times, "I'm sorry I wasted your time.  I won't do it again".

With Light + Shade, just Maestro (the song*) and Lakme (Fruity Loops) on their own, those two tracks - two of the most dazzlingly uplifting electronic/trance/"rave" tracks of the last 25 years - easily shunts it far ahead of the competition.  Tres Lunas and Tres Lunas 2 (bootleg of music from the computer games) contains more brilliantly original musical ideas, including endless sublime melodies, than even 100 Amaroks (although of course Amarok is still clearly superior).

*On checking, it seems that "Maestro" - so-called - doesn't actually appear on any editrion of Light + Shade, and may not even have an official title.  Perhaps it is only heard on  the MusicVR game of the same name.  Nonetheless, it can be thought of as being part of the Tres Lunas/Light + Shade cycle of songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMIJZPraPRE
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Milamber Offline




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Posted: Aug. 05 2024, 23:38

Thanks for the assessment Sentinal!!
Whilst I wont argue anyone's point on taste I will argue on time.
The sheer length of years this catalogue represents covers many periods of our lives and at some points during an album release I may off not had time to give it the justice it deserved.
Earthmoving for example is by no means remarkable (except for the solo in Far Country perhaps) but it takes me back to a fond time during my salad days and the link seems to not diminish even though the album is dated and it was Mike on Button pushing autopilot :-)
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Aug. 06 2024, 02:08

"So now for possibly the most controversial and fraught subject in the whole universe - ranking Mike Oldfield's albums!"

The hidden assumption here is that "better than" is a transitive relation.
"Bigger than" IS a transitive relation: if A is bigger than B and B is bigger than C, then A is bigger than C.

"Son of" is NOT a transitive relation: If A is the son of B and B is the son of C it is not the case that A is the son of C.

"Better than" implies a cluster of many different qualities, some of which may be transitive and others not. To claim that because any one album has a majority of qualities it is therefore "the" best album would be to invoke the fallacy of composition (pun not intended).
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Sentinel_NZ Offline




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Posted: Aug. 06 2024, 03:29

Quote (Milamber @ Aug. 05 2024, 23:38)
Thanks for the assessment Sentinal!!
Whilst I wont argue anyone's point on taste I will argue on time.
The sheer length of years this catalogue represents covers many periods of our lives and at some points during an album release I may off not had time to give it the justice it deserved.
Earthmoving for example is by no means remarkable (except for the solo in Far Country perhaps) but it takes me back to a fond time during my salad days and the link seems to not diminish even though the album is dated and it was Mike on Button pushing autopilot :-)

Fair comment about Earth Moving - I totally get what you're saying and I have to correct myself as well, the album is not all bad - Innocent is actually a very good song with a classical 80s, ABBA-esque kitschy sound (not a bad thing...) and it could have been a serious hit for any number of acts such as T'Pau, Roxette, and so on.  Somehow I completely forgot about it, which I feel a bit ashamed about.

Anyhow you raise an interesting point which is common, but has an almost unique significance in the context of Oldfield, given that his career has been so incredibly long, his output so enormous, and having covered such a vast range of styles and genres, and the quality throughout has remained so consistently excellent - something virtually unmatched by any modern composer (or classical or ancient for that matter).  Only Jean Michel Jarre can really compare in this regard, out of artists I can think of.  Other acts such as Tangerine Dream can point to a much more massive catalog of official releases,  over 100, over an even longer time period, but there is no comparison in terms of consistent quality.  So it's natural to have the kind of favoritism you mention.  This is why I started the first post with "The most controversial, difficult, and fraught exercise in the world, ranking all 25 (or 26, 27 or even 28, 29 or even 30 depending on how you collate them) Mike Oldfield albums!"

To approach the Oldfieldian oevre from a fresh and non-biased perspective, with an equal appreciation for all the different genres and styles, all the way from 70s "prog rock & new age" to disco, pure 80s pop, avant garde experimentation, comedy, blues, country and western, 90s/2000s Eurodance, ambient/chill, house/trance, to classical and back again - and so much more in between, nearly 50 years worth of music and styles - is very difficult.  The best analogy I can think of is probably the career of Alfred Hitchcock which spans the pre-talky era of the 1920s right through to the gritty crime/exploitation craze of the early and mid 70s.  Most people especially if they grew up with his more popular classics of the 50s and 60s such as Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window and the likes, probably wouldn't rate "Frenzy" very highly, even though you could make a case that it's among his most effective works, especially if you had grown up with Dirty Harry, Charles Bronson, Roger Moore as James Bond, or even Rambo.  In a similar way, depending on when you were born and exposure to what media, you might think of Paul McCartney as a solo artist and collaborator with Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder first and foremost, then the leader of Wings, and only after that as a member of The Beatles; and even within Beatles fans, there are those who depending on their personal circumstances only enjoy their pre 1966/pre-psychedelic incarnation, for whom, for example, The White Album is completely unlistenable, or vice versa.

In any case, it's a shame that Tres Lunas and Light + Shade aren't more appreciated. Of the latter, the tracks Rocky and especially Sunset are among Oldfield's most beautiful and stunning compositions. There are many other extraordinarily wonderful pieces besides, on both discs. From Tr3s Lunas, Turtle Island is a glorious tune, as is the title track, and To Be Free and in fact almost the entire set.  It's when we delve deeply into these albums and especially the bonus material found within the Music VR games that we can perhaps truly realize the full extent of the man's true musical genius as pioneer, innovator, master of a spectacularly, overwhelmingly broad and brilliant range of genres, soundscapes and production and recording techniques, which all too often gets summarised as "oh yeah, I know all about Mike Oldfield, he's the guy who did Tubular Bells and Moonlight Shadow".
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Piltdownboy on horseback 22 Offline




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Posted: Aug. 06 2024, 13:57

Hey hello,
Maybe asking people to give a list of their ranking of the albums doesn't need to be controversial. Whichever way people rank it, it's fine.

Personally I like all the albums very much, with only 2 exceptions. TB2003 is the only album I never listen to. (It's not in the list, but that would be my least favourite). On the other hand, I can totally understand if some fan will say it's their absolute favourite.
Also I never really got into Tres Lunas, but I still like it. All the other albums I would certainly describe as amazing.

Some albums perhaps I rate a little higher, because of the memories attached. TBells (1973) was the first album I heard in 1993, when I was 10, and I played the cassette a lot in the car, on the way to holiday in Spain. When I hear the music, I can still see the mountains and the beautiful scenery.

So for me, even albums I ranked lower, I still really enjoy. For example: Light and Shade has got the track Ringscape, which I played 4 times today, hahah.

I hope more fans will post their lists. It's a nice read.


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Priabonia Offline




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Posted: Aug. 06 2024, 15:05

Quote (Piltdownboy on horseback 22 @ Aug. 06 2024, 18:57)
I hope more fans will post their lists. It's a nice read.

1. Incantations;
2. Ommadawn;
3. Hergest Ridge;
4. Tubular Bells;
5. Wait...there are *other* albums??


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Milamber Offline




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Posted: Aug. 06 2024, 19:20

Quote (Priabonia @ Aug. 07 2024, 07:05)
Quote (Piltdownboy on horseback 22 @ Aug. 06 2024, 18:57)
I hope more fans will post their lists. It's a nice read.

1. Incantations;
2. Ommadawn;
3. Hergest Ridge;
4. Tubular Bells;
5. Wait...there are *other* albums??

Hahaha
I was tempted to just write
Amarok.
Amarok.
Amarok.
Amarok.
Amarok.
Amarok.

But it is indeed fascinating and no easy task.
*Thanks again Sent-NZ, appreciate the feedback.
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Sentinel_NZ Offline




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Posted: Sep. 03 2024, 16:49

Quote (Priabonia @ Aug. 06 2024, 15:05)
Quote (Piltdownboy on horseback 22 @ Aug. 06 2024, 18:57)
I hope more fans will post their lists. It's a nice read.

1. Incantations;
2. Ommadawn;
3. Hergest Ridge;
4. Tubular Bells;
5. Wait...there are *other* albums??

Indeed there are.  By limiting yourself to those albums, excellent as they are, you're missing out on what is, quite simply, the greatest popular music ever composed and recorded, and what is easily, by far, the most formidable and brilliant body of work since Tchaikovsky.  By analogy, it might be like a Christian devotee (which I am not, just using this as an analogy) who out of the entire canonical and apocryphal New Testament and so on only read and was familiar with the 4 canonical gospels, having no knowledge of Acts, Epistles, Revelation, the vast collection of Gnostic scriptures, and all the other vital and important apocrypha without which one cannot start to get a proper vision and understanding of the whole pyscho-cosmic scope of the message of that particular religious & spiritual movement.

Indeed, I suppose we could , to extend the metaphor, equate the first four albums with the four canonical gospels, and even the first three with the "synoptic" books (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) and Incantations as the atypical fourth (John), the "bad boy" of the set.

Anyway, it's strange that you wouldn't even acknowledge Return to Ommadawn, which is not only cut from the same kind of cloth as your picks, so that it should easily appeal, but indeed outdoes them in sheer awesome, flawless beauty and glorious inspiration.  I can understand not every fan of the original 3 or 4 albums is interested in Light + Shade, for example, but Return to Ommadawn...every Ommadawn and Hergest Ridge admirer should be intimately familiar with that record.

This reminds me of my older brother (obviously this anecdote is more extreme) who is one of those who wants to be the guy who knows everything about everything; he once made the statement, when the name Mike Oldfield came up in conversation: "Oh, I know all about Mike Oldfield; he's the guy who did Tubular Bells and Moonlight Shadow", followed by a typically smug and self satisfied smile.  He thought he was way ahead of the curve because he had heard of BOTH of those...I had to stifle a chuckle.
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Sentinel_NZ Offline




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Posted: Sep. 03 2024, 17:16

Quote (Piltdownboy on horseback 22 @ Aug. 06 2024, 13:57)
Hey hello,
Maybe asking people to give a list of their ranking of the albums doesn't need to be controversial. Whichever way people rank it, it's fine.

Personally I like all the albums very much, with only 2 exceptions. TB2003 is the only album I never listen to. (It's not in the list, but that would be my least favourite). On the other hand, I can totally understand if some fan will say it's their absolute favourite.
Also I never really got into Tres Lunas, but I still like it. All the other albums I would certainly describe as amazing.

Some albums perhaps I rate a little higher, because of the memories attached. TBells (1973) was the first album I heard in 1993, when I was 10, and I played the cassette a lot in the car, on the way to holiday in Spain. When I hear the music, I can still see the mountains and the beautiful scenery.

So for me, even albums I ranked lower, I still really enjoy. For example: Light and Shade has got the track Ringscape, which I played 4 times today, hahah.

I hope more fans will post their lists. It's a nice read.

I hear what you're saying and again to carry over the analogy mentioned above, it reminds me of the orthodox, canonical Christian vs Gnostic debate.  So many orthodox/traditional Christians are not only completely ignorant of the Gnostic and apocryphal scriptures and their challenging teachings, which go far beyond anything hinted at in the mainstream Catholic and Protestant collections, but they are actively inimical to them - not because there is anything wrong with those doctrines, but because they are too mentally and spiritually challenging for people to open their purview to.  At the same time, similar to what you say, there are others who are familiar with many of the dozens of key texts of the Apocrypha, and admire and value them, but simply by dint of the sheer volume and density of the material, its difficult to find the time to properly study and appreciate them, let alone how relatively rare it is to possess the philosophical or religious acumen required to be able to absorb the profound intent behind them.  What you describe is quite similar to that.

Note: I am not myself a Christian, although some of it is very admirable, and clearly Mike Oldfield himself has a strong connection to that tradition; I only use this as an analogy.
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Priabonia Offline




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Posted: Sep. 04 2024, 04:29

Quote (Sentinel_NZ @ Sep. 03 2024, 21:49)
Anyway, it's strange that you wouldn't even acknowledge Return to Ommadawn...

I think that whooshing sound is the self-deprecatory irony in my post going over your head...which I shall pass by, other than the reference to "Return to Ommadawn". I listened to it once, it's a passable pastiche but no more, and sounds more like one of those Youtube bedroom musicians who have discovered a few "ethnic" patches on their soft synths and some "Celtic" scales on their guitar...I should know because I tried it once and threw away the result in disgust!


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