Taurus II vs Crises |
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thief
Forum Senior Member Joined: May 21 2015 Location: Poland Status: Offline Points: 1546 |
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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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Wanorak
Forum Senior Member Joined: December 09 2006 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 4574 |
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Taurus II.
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A GREAT YEAR FOR PROG!!!
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Man With Hat
Collaborator Jazz-Rock/Fusion/Canterbury Team Joined: March 12 2005 Location: Neurotica Status: Offline Points: 166178 |
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II
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Dig me...But don't...Bury me
I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
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Hercules
Prog Reviewer Joined: June 14 2007 Location: Near York UK Status: Offline Points: 7024 |
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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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A TVR is not a car. It's a way of life.
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thief
Forum Senior Member Joined: May 21 2015 Location: Poland Status: Offline Points: 1546 |
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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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Manuel
Forum Senior Member Joined: March 09 2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 12349 |
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Taurus II gets my vote.
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Libor10
Forum Senior Member Joined: July 19 2005 Location: Czech republic Status: Offline Points: 692 |
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Taurus II is great. My vote goes there.
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For Nobody's Bush
Forum Groupie Joined: February 20 2018 Location: Dallas, NC Status: Offline Points: 81 |
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Taurus II on a Pioneer metallic boom box hooked up to electric, awesome!
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Walkscore
Forum Senior Member Joined: February 16 2017 Location: Toronto, Canada Status: Offline Points: 231 |
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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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Mortte
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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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kenethlevine
Special Collaborator Prog-Folk Team Joined: December 06 2006 Location: New England Status: Offline Points: 8849 |
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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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digdug
Forum Senior Member Joined: July 13 2005 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 4707 |
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Taurus II for me
Five Miles Out is a really good album
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Prog On!
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richardh
Prog Reviewer Joined: February 18 2004 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 26107 |
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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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kenethlevine
Special Collaborator Prog-Folk Team Joined: December 06 2006 Location: New England Status: Offline Points: 8849 |
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^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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Lewian
Prog Reviewer Joined: August 09 2015 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 14102 |
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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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