Customer Reviews

Q.E.2.

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is INCREDIBLE music, I still listen to it 20 years after it was released. It's hard to find the words to describe the feeelings this music conveys. While providing us with a handful of great instruments (harps, african drums, mandolin, tambourine ..), Mike Oldfield seems to find his celtic roots back. With Voyager, it is certainly the most celtic of his records, though you can't really classify this kind of music. I do enjoy the mixture of happy, energetic tracks (Celt) and sad, rather short ones (Molly). This is probably one of Oldfield's most underrated records. I can't help but thinking the 80ties were Mike's best period, and that nothing (and certainly not The millenium bell or Tres Lunas) will ever resemble Five miles out or Discovery ..

I have to say that this is one of my all time favourite Mike Oldfield albums, eclipsing Tubular Bells 3, Incantations and almost beating Crises to my all time favourite, but believe me, it is a very very close second. Smooth melodies, guarenteed toe-tapping and guarenteed to make most people ask "Who is this" and then asking to borrow it (No you can`t, it`s mine :) ) Best tracks : Taurus 1, Arrival, Wonderful Land and QE2. If you like any other Mike Oldfield music, you will love this.

Everything Mike Oldfield did prior to QE2 was worthy of attention and interest, but much of it was so daunting in the length of compositions and shifts of mood that it could all end up a bit hard to stomach. QE2 rectifies this situation without sacrificing anything in terms of quality and musical message. David Hentschel does a fine job in production and the use of a consistent set of backup musicians reflects Oldfield's growing maturity. The involved compositions are still there in the form of the title cut and Taurus I, but there are also powerful shorter pieces that are miracles of composition and arranging, in particular "Conflict" with its synthesizer doodlings that eventually morph into a passage that would make the best contemporary celtic band blush. Maggie Reilly is introduced here but provides voice as instrument rather than carrier of lyrics in "Sheba" and "Celt". Abba's "Arrival" receives a spirited interpretation and "Wonderful Land" dashes some spanish guitar into a wonderful mix. Only "Mirage" is a bit overly long although it has some great lead guitar and time changes. A liberal does of the esoteric wafts over much of this disc which should surprise and please those 70s fans who might have held off for what ever reason from making this part of their collection, but its marriage of the eclectic to the attainable is what makes QE2 one of Mike Oldfield's best overall efforts.

This album is simply exceptional. You get a hearty dose of a musical genius's compositional skills and vocabulary, but you don't come away feeling as though you were "taken to school"; the music is very accessible. Oldfield veers from the "long piece" album format which was the hallmark of his earliest work - the longest song on QE2 is only ten or so minutes long - but the album is cohesive and conveys a rather concise musical theme.

With QE2 you have some of Mike's distinguishing trademarks. For example, the first piece, Taurus, is at times alternately mean and nice, a dichotomy evident in some of his other work. Taurus also contains some very adroit key changes which allow for contrasting degrees of musical brightness. The title track is perhaps the album's best; in fact, Mike shows daring here in dueling synthetic bagpipes against an electric guitar for a very engaging effect. Mike also uses Celtic-based melodies throughout the album as he has done during various stages of his career.

Has any single composer born anytime after 1950 composed more aesthetically satisfying melody lines than Mike Oldfield? And has any put them to work more effectively in his music? I honestly suspect not. Just listen to the one melody near the end of Taurus which he predicates the title track upon and take note of the heights he reaches. The melody is strong, to be sure, but Mike is able to do so much with it. (You don't have to listen too carefully to appreciate the difference between what he does with it on Taurus and what he does with it on the title track!) Very few composers can essentially stay with a theme for a long time and continue to add interest through subtle changes and well-conceived developmental tactics, but Mike is one of the very few who can not only get away with it, but make the approach one of his greatest compositional assets.

This is one of Mike's best; it comes highly endorsed.

Mike Oldfield's best known, of course, for his album-length suites and symphonically-styled works. But he's also done quite a few short pieces, especially on albums from "Platinum" onward. And this collection of those type of works is perhaps the best. Oldfield's multitracked self-played style here is augmented with extra players, including Phil Collins, and he even takes on such things as ABBA ("Arrival") here to amazing results. Oldfield in places rocks out, works with hymn-like pieces, returns to the glossolalic vocals from "Ommadawn", hands in some fine Celtic-styled bits, and so on...all in the span of one concise album. For those who don't exactly have the patience to sit through some of Oldfield's long pieces, this is a perfect starting-point, and it's certainly an album that's been a favorite of mine out of Oldfield's body of work since discovering it shortly after it was released. Definitely one to have.

There's a big influence of English folk music in this album. All the songs are mainly instrumental with celtic type lyrics used and sung by Maggie Reilly. Mike has always experimented with different ways of producing sounds. The synthesizer being an obvious choice. This album is a fantastic mix of acoustic and electronic. He uses all the drum machines and keyboards that epitomises the 80's era but in his own unique way. That's what makes his music such a joy to listen to. The production, with help from David Hentschel, is spot on. This album is pure Oldfield and an essential purchase for any fan.

QE2 being Oldfield's 1980 release and his 6th studio album and contains tracks both by Oldfield himself and cover of other groups, i.e., Abba and the Shadows. These covers being "Arrival" by Abba and "Wondeful land" by the Shadows. The album did very well and topped the charts in Germany. The booklet has fine linernotes by Dave Laing in which he describes the album and how fared when it was released. We also get a nice list of whom and what they play on every track. 4/5.

Those of you that don't get it, the title stands for the ocean liner by that name from the early 1980's when the vinyl version came out. And this CD is of a distinct British Flavor with several tracks. Overall I think this CD is much better than the one I just reviewed called "Platinum". From the sounds of what could be a Gypsy camp to the sounds of Old England, a good CD!

Sounds like instrumental progressive rock. Sound throught the album is a little bit thin but otherwise production work is very fine and I like those real horns (which were replaced by synths in next album).

One thing bugs me in this album: I don't personally like idea of Mike covering Abba & Shadows. I think those cover songs should have been published as singles. Albums should have Mike's own stuff or traditionals. However, Mike's versions of these songs are very fine. Shadows responded to Mike by covering Moonlight Shadow some years later.

Just like two other instrumental albums relased in 1980 (namely Tangerine Dream's Tangram and Jarre's Magnetic Fields) this albums features vocoder. That's OK, since I've always been a fan of vocoder sound.

Mike's own compositions are nice. The highlights are title track and Celt. Title track QE2 is one of my favorite songs. The second half of it has so catchy melody and sound...
Also the second half of Taurus I is funny.

Often good music is not commercially so succesful but
this album reached no.1 spot in German album charts. Nice.

"Qe2" came out between the rocking "platinum" and more complex "Five miles out".it could be heard that he is searching for more natural sounds.there is only little left from clear and crispy production of "platinum" - the production is different and the whole album has a bit darker sound than other albums.
"Taurus I" is a real gem from here - a 10 minutes long complex track with a lot of celtic motives and great Vocoder tricks.Mike's guitar and synths are outstanding.

"qe2","Sheba","Wonderful land","Arrival" and "Molly" are very positive and cheerful tracks.only "Mirage" and loud "Conflict" have that bit of Madness and darkness in them.
"QE2" is another great work from Mike Oldfield that should not dissapoint any of his fans.his mixture of distorted guitars,synths,celtic music and progressive rock didn't grew old up to now.a must have album!