Elements, The Best Of

Artist: Mike Oldfield
Type: Album
Release date: 1993
Run time: 63:22
My Rating: 7

1. Tubular Bells opening theme (4:16)
2. Family Man (3:45)
3. Moonlight Shadow (3:34)
4. Heaven's Open (4:27)
5. Five Miles Out (4:14)
6. To France (4:42)
7. Foreign Affair (3:53)
8. In Dulci Jubilo (2:49)
9. Shadow on the Wall (5:07)
10. Islands (4:17)
11. Etude (3:06)
12. Sentinel (3:56)
13. Ommadawn (excerpt) (3:38)
14. Incantations Part Four (excerpt) (4:38)
15. Amarok (excerpt) (4:43)
16. Portsmouth (2:00)

Comments

A best-of put out by Virgin, quite probably to capitalise on the release of Tubular Bells 2. It is largely dominated by Mike's 80s pop tracks with the start of Tubular Bells being the only instrumental until well into the album. Tubular Bells 2 is represented by an excerpt from "Sentinel", while Amarok, Incantations and Ommadawn appear as similarly truncated clips.

Sadly missing is any material from Hergest Ridge, Q.E.2, Platinum, and Earth Moving (Perhaps unsurprising given they only gave us 3 and a half minutes of Ommadawn). This is an abridged version of a boxed set...

The pop songs are worth hearing, but the excerpts of longer pieces don't do the albums justice. All of the tracks are, of course, available on other albums, so collectors will miss nothing by skipping this one.

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