The Killing Fields

Artist: Mike Oldfield
Type: Album
Release date: 1984
Run time: 38:27
My Rating: 4

1. Pran's Theme (0:46)
2. Requiem for a City (2:08)
3. Evacuation (5:13)
4. Pran's Theme 2 (1:40)
5. Capture (2:21)
6. Execution (4:45)
7. Bad News (1:13)
8. Pran's Departure (2:06)
9. Worksite (1:16)
10. The Year Zero (0:27)
11. Blood Sucking (1:17)
12. The Year Zero 2 (0:37)
13. Pran's Escape/The Killing Fields (3:16)
14. The Trek (2:01)
15. The Boy's Burial/Pran Sees the Red Cross (2:42)
16. Good News (1:45)
17. Etude (4:38)

Comments

This is hard to review because, while it may make a great movie soundtrack (I haven't seen the movie in question) ultimately this would have been a much better album had Mike made the tracks a lot longer and taken the time to develop them out into fuller pieces.

As it is, this is one of the more bizarre soundtrack albums I've heard - it is quite discordant in places and meanders all over the map musically. Most of the tracks are quite short and separate from each other, resulting in a very disjointed feel. No doubt it all works in context with the movie, but separately tracks like "The Year Zero" (multi-layered ghoulish vocals?!) and "Blood Sucking" just seem strange.

There are some gems hidden in here, notably some very nice full-orchestra pieces, but it's somewhat of an oddity in the Oldfield canon.