THE BEST OF TUBULAR BELLS

As a big Mike Oldfield fan I see this album as an interesting idea to celebrate the 'Tubular Bells' phenomenon. It joins together what Mike judged to be the 'best bits' from TB 1, 2 & 3 and MB into one unit. (One nagging question - was it really necessary - perhaps a TB promo to far?) I don't find myself criticising any of the inclusions, even the 'Sailors Hornpipe' (which is not a favourite of mine) because, well, such a complilation would be lacking without it - wouldn't it? It's great to have bits from the absolutely brilliant live 'Exposed' album - it's raw, edgy energy complements the relative smoothness of the studio bits. The extracts are pulled from a period spanning 30 years and actually hang together pretty well. Probably it's 'The Millennium Bell' that feels out of place due to its rather loose relationship musically with the rest. It's a shame the 'cotton-wool in the ears' sound of the orchestral TB parts make them sound a bit droll - with much better production they'd sound so much more dynamic. Does it work as an intro to Mr Oldfield's mega-talents? I guess so if someone wants to know what in particular this Tubular Bells thing is about. Personally I'd get them to buy the 'Elements' CD or the double CD 'Mike Oldfield Complete' (though uneven production quality lets the latter down a bit and the newer music isn't on it).

2.4

This is my introduction to the world of Oldfield, and I am not impressed. It probably wasn't the best place to start, but I thought it would give a good overview of his material. What are tracks ten and eleven about!? This is nothing but electronic pop music. The orchestral edit is slightly boring and the exposed edit is very bland and uneventful.

The highlights are 'The Sentinel' and 'The Bell' from Tubular Bells II and the original edit which is track one. This seems to me as a poor selection. Perhaps 'Ommadawn' will better my current opinion of Mikes work.

1.5 Stars

ANOTHER worthless compilation. It's a Tubular Bells retrospective, taking sections of each album and molding them together on one disc. I fail to see the purpose of this release.

On one hand, it might be geared toward newcomers, which would listen to this, and like the review above me, be turned off by the gashing of the originals, and impact their perspective when they finally get to experience them properly.

Then there's the other buyer group, the hard core fans that have to have everthing in their collection, worth the price tag or not.

Maybe I'm unique in the fact that I don't at all see the appeal of chopping up masterpeices to fit into a nice little commercial package!

Avoid!