XXV - THE ESSENTIAL MIKE OLDFIELD

Personally, I would have said that the "essential" Mike Oldfield would include "Tubular Bells", "Ommadawn", and "The songs of distant earth" in full. Let's however take the title with a pinch of salt, and see this as "An introduction to Mike Oldfield".

On that basis, it's pretty good. The selected excerpts from the early albums have appeared before on other compilations ("Elements" or "The Complete..") in exactly the same format. On the other hand, as this album was released before "Tubular Bells III", the last track is a working version of the section that became "The source of secrets".

The compilation concentrates on Oldfield's early album releases, his two re-workings under the "Tubular Bells" banner, his excellent "Songs of distant earth", and the more recent "Voyager" album. Many of his other albums are therefore absent altogether, and his singles output is largely ignored too (although space is found for "Portsmouth" and the superb "Moonlight shadow").

One perennial gripe I have with compilations such as this, is the fact that it runs to only 58 minutes. Given that a number of the tracks are extracts from long piece, why was the additional 20 minutes available on a CD not used to extend the length of those extracts?

Having said all that, the music which has been included is excellent. Heard for what it is, rather than what it is not, this collection is coherent, and strong.

One of the better compilations, this serves as a satisfactory starting point.

The first four tracks are what the prog fans will become most fond of, though tracks like Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn don't comply to chopping well.

The other half of the CD focuses on the 80's and 90's, but choose generally good tracks from that period.

Avoid if you're more prog focused, head straight for Tubular Bells, but those more in touch with pop music (Hah!) might benefit on giving this cheap disc a try.

If you are into the career of this great musician, you will hardly find anything special here. Only the The Bell remix with Viv Stanshall is really a good addition, along with the presence of Portsmouth, a classic Oldfield's instrumental... The rest is just a compilation of brilliant Oldfield's moments. This album maybe is interesting for someone new to Oldfield who wants a general view of his music.

But there are better Oldfield's compilation in the market anyway, with more rare tracks and more interesting for fans: The Complete, The Platinum Collection... These compilations are better, while The Essential is maybe the worst official Oldfield's compilation you'll find.

Conclusion: only for beginners... All the songs included here are great, but if you are an Oldfield's fan, forget it, while you will not find any reason to hear this general and superficial compilation. Only the single remixes make this album worthy, and the little song Portsmouth... Ok, maybe the excerpt of Tubular Bells III too, a sad curiosity. But the rest is not really special, depite the great quality of the music.

My rating: **