The Complete Mike Oldfield

Artist: Mike Oldfield
Type: Album
Release date: 1985
Run time: 117:05
My Rating: 7

Disc 1 (61:48)

1. Arrival (2:47)
2. William Tell Overture (3:55)
3. Cuckoo Song (3:13)
4. In Dulci Jubilo (2:50)
5. Portsmouth (2:02)
6. Jungle Gardenia (2:37)
7. Guilty (4:04)
8. Blue Peter (2:07)
9. Waldburg (The Peak) (3:24)
10. Wonderful Land (3:39)
11. Etude (3:07)
12. Moonlight Shadow (3:36)
13. Family Man (3:47)
14. Mistake (2:55)
15. Five Miles Out (4:19)
16. Crime of Passion (3:37)
17. To France (4:33)
18. Shadow on the Wall (5:08)

Disc 2 (55:57)

1. Excerpt from Ommadawn (6:59)
2. Excerpt from Tubular Bells (7:59)
3. Excerpt from Hergest Ridge (4:20)
4. Excerpt from Incantations (4:41)
5. Excerpt from The Killing Fields (Evacuation) (4:11)
6. Sheba (live) (3:30)
7. Mirage (live) (5:12)
8. Platinum (live) (14:28)
9. Mount Teide (live) (4:34)

Comments

Anything that claims to be "complete" is really reaching when it only consists of two CDs (and some of his albums aren't even represented...). This collection (originally released in 1985) includes some tracks you could class as rarities - most of which are in the first section of instrumental tracks, including Mike's version of the Blue Peter theme, the studio version of Guilty, and Jungle Gardenia. The vocals section predictably includes mostly tracks from his early eighties albums.

This leaves the "Complex" section (excerpts from Mike's longer instrumental albums) and the "live" section. The only real surprise here is the Tubular Bells extract is the end of part one instead of the start... The live tracks are pretty good though.