[Billy_bob_bob]

I used to be a total Mike Oldfield fanatic, but that ended when "Guilty" was released. Still, his first three albums ("Tubular Bells", "Hergest Ridge" and "Ommadawn") are quite good, with Ommadawn IMHO being the best. His work since then just doesn't do it for me like his early work.

[boris]

"I used to be a total Mike Oldfield fanatic, but that ended when "Guilty" was released. Still, his first three albums ("Tubular Bells", "Hergest Ridge" and "Ommadawn") are quite good, with Ommadawn IMHO being the best. His work since then just doesn't do it for me like his early work."

I somewhat agree. I believe "Incantations" to be his finest work since TB I. In order, I'd list them as:

1. TB I
2. Incantations
3. TB II
4. Hergest Ridge
5. Five Miles Out
6. Platinum/Airborn
7. Ommadawn
8. The Songs of Distant Earth
9. Islands
10. Tres Lunas (latest; really not bad--sort of a sequel to The Songs of Distant Earth)
11. Discovery

Everything else is mostly worthless. A shame.

BTW, I characterize "Amarok" as "occasional flashes of brilliance separated by enormous wads of filler."

The next release is a completely re-done (from scratch) Tubular Bells I. It may already have been released in Europe.

It saddens me that they keep releasing old wine in new jars just to keep the royalties up.

--Boris