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Taurus II vs Crises

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Poll Question: Which Oldfield song do you consider better?
Poll Choice Votes Poll Statistics
9 [56.25%]
7 [43.75%]
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thief View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote thief Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Taurus II vs Crises
    Posted: June 26 2018 at 11:08
I find it fascinating that Mike Oldfield still managed to put two very good, if not remarkable side-long pieces on 1980s albums. I'm revisiting his "middle-period", period between Incantations and Amarok, and find it very underrated, also by myself.

QE2, Five Miles Out and Crises feature some terrific songs, spearheaded with Taurus II and Crises; please tell me how do you rate them, do you see them as equal to 1970s output, and what is your reasoning.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Wanorak Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 26 2018 at 11:48
Taurus II.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Man With Hat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 26 2018 at 14:18
II
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hercules Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 26 2018 at 15:35
QE2 to Discovery is by far my favourite period of Mike Oldfield.

I'd rate QE2 and Taurus 2 as his peak, though there's a lot of great stuff in there.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote thief Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 26 2018 at 15:48
Originally posted by Hercules Hercules wrote:

QE2 to Discovery is by far my favourite period of Mike Oldfield.

I'd rate QE2 and Taurus 2 as his peak, though there's a lot of great stuff in there.

You must be very high on Discovery my friend :) I always appreciated Five Miles Out, and learnt to appreciate QE2 and Crises... but still not much love for Discovery. I don't think it's a bad album, but definitely the most "poppy" in that 1980-84 era. But public opinion outside of progarchives is favorable to Discovery.
What do you think about Islands, Earth's Moving and other later albums? Where can I find hidden gems?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Manuel Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 26 2018 at 15:55
Taurus II gets my vote.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Libor10 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 26 2018 at 17:22
Taurus II is great. My vote goes there.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote For Nobody's Bush Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 26 2018 at 17:55
Taurus II on a Pioneer metallic boom box hooked up to electric, awesome!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Walkscore Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 26 2018 at 19:54
Five Miles Out is the best Oldfield album from 1978 onwards (of all the albums after Incantations), in my opinion, and Taurus II the best track from that album. I like the recent album (Return to Ommadawn) quite a bit, and Music of the Spheres, and Amarok, but they do not beat Five Miles out.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mortte Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 27 2018 at 02:27
Not very impressed either of these tracks, like also not any Oldfield stuff after Ommadawn (Return to Ommadawn is his greatest piece after Ommadawn), but because Crises had only one vote, voted that.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote kenethlevine Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 27 2018 at 05:50
Taurus II i splendid all the way through, while I found Crises has great moments but breaks down before the end.  QE2 and Five Miles Out could be said to represent his Celtic rock period so are among my favourites of all Oldfield albums.  Overall, I think Discovery is slightly better than Crises.  Then it;s downhill, with Islands and Earth Moving progressively worse, though each has good moments.

When considering this period, don't bypass his "pop" singles that weren't on any original album.  "Crime of Passion" is a powerful piece patterened strongly after Moonlight Shadow, his biggest single, but sung by Barry Palmer (Triumvirat) while "Pictures in the Dark" is 5+ minutes of pure bliss
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote digdug Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 27 2018 at 06:44
Taurus II for me

Five Miles Out is a really good album
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote richardh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 28 2018 at 00:35
From Platinum onwards until Discovery , Oldfield adopted a band format for his music so quite a lot changed. He was able to tour the music a lot easier especially in the early eighties when he had more of this type of music available. I do like it but probably there is a bit more padding here and there. Crisis did feature Simon Phillips and that is a major plus for me. Phillips is hard hitting as any drummer and added a bit of grit. Although a bit off topic Phillips should have been the replacement drummer for Palmer in ELP (not Powell) imo. BTW Carl Palmer played on Five Miles Out (but not on Taurus11).
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kenethlevine Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 28 2018 at 08:02
^I saw him on the "Who's Next" tour 1982, the one and only time I saw him, at the National Arts Center in Ottawa.  It was one of my favorite all time concerts.  As you say, the format allowed him to tour more successfully, and there was an urgency and immediacy in even the extended pieces.  Rave reviews came from all quarters, even among those who had moved on to punk, new wave and new romantic years before.  He enjoyed disproportionate success in Ottawa perhaps because there were still 2 FM album oriented channels in the city at the time, where it could be argued that several much bigger cities had none.  While "Moonlight Shadow" was a huge hit throughout Europe, in North America it raised nary an eyebrow, but it somehow managed to get high on the local singles chart in Ottawa.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Lewian Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 28 2018 at 09:25
Nice poll, made me revisit these "underlistened" two compositions again. I had no idea before which one I'd prefer, and was very surprised how much more I like Crises. Great stuff, very sharp, and I'm not allergic against 1980s keyboard sound. Nothing wrong with Taurus II really but about half of it leaves me cold.



Edited by Lewian - June 28 2018 at 09:26
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