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Matt Group: Admins Posts: 1186 Joined: Nov. 2002 Posted: May 28 2009, 07:09 This thread has asked people to list Mikes albums in order of preference. Similar threads have been created in the past. Out of curiosity I've done a wee bit of analysis on the various lists people have posted and thought I'd put the results here for posterity (before the original thread turns into a warzone and gets deleted like happened to the last one ;-). If more posts appear on the current thread (which would be great, please more people add their lists! ) I'll try and update the info below accordingly. Note I'm not a statistician so the methodology might be a bit weak. Feel free to do your own analysis! OK, here goes. The way I've ended up calculating it the overall summary list from everybody who has posted so far (current edit 30/5/09 - up to and including Holger) goes like this: 1. Amarok 2. Ommadawn 3. Incantations 4. Tubular Bells 5. Hergest Ridge 6. Five Miles Out 7. Crises 8. Music of the Spheres 9. QE2 10. Tubular Bells II 11. Platinum 12. The Songs of Distant Earth 13. Tubular Bells III 14. Discovery 15. Tubular Bells 2003 16. Islands 17. Light + Shade 18. Tres Lunas 19. Voyager 20. Guitars 21. Heaven's open 22. The Millenium Bell 23. The Killing Fields 24. Orchestral Tubular Bells 25. Earth Moving Not many surprises there for most people I imagine. The only comments I would make is a note on some of the lower listed albums. To be fair to them some of them were released for other purposes. Is it fair to include Orchestral Tubular Bells which was David Bedfords project? The Killing Fields which is a soundtrack outwith the context of the film? The Millenium Bell which was a concert project with an accompanying album?  Earth Moving however doesn't have any excuses OK, what else can we do with the data? I tried looking at average deviation to see which albums people tend to agree on and which albums views tend to differ more. So this isn't about whether the albums are good or not, just whether people agree if they are good or not! Results of that were as follows: Albums people agree about: TB QE2 Amarok TMB Albums people disagree about: TBII TSODE Discovery Tres Lunas I am astonished to see TMB listed there as an album people agree about. I guess it is just the overwhelming majority who list it as low dominating the statistics. Lies, damned lies and statistics! Finally, I wondered how the albums fared with time. Graphing results against release year I got the following graph: I found this quite interesting! Fair enough the early albums have a lot of support and there is a clear weird spike for Amarok but to me it seems like the low point is seen to be around Earth Moving with opinion of recent albums improving. Mike is on a roll! On that note I'll finish, bring on the next album to do a new set of lists :-) -------------- "I say I say I say I say, what's got three bottles and five eyes and no legs and two wheels" Back to top

wiga Group: Members Posts: 2113 Joined: Sep. 2008 Posted: May 28 2009, 08:09 Good Work!! Matt. The sample size needs to be bigger for a valid calculation, and more subjects are required - as you say. One problem  I anticipate, is that The Millennium Bell supporters may lay low and not cast their vote, in anticipation of a Bullet the Blue Sky kind of response - as it were. There seem to be significant supporters of TMB - I have read their posts, and there might be more...   It shouldn't become a war zone, it's not a competition - only personal preferences, and I for one find that very interesting. -------------- Barn's burnt down - now I can see the moon. Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1981 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: May 28 2009, 13:52 Well, my name is Scatterplot, I have to agree with your statistics, MO had a big spike in his early(3 to 7 albums), dying down in his computer-written-out stage(Islands, Earth Moving, TSODE) then gaining momentum with Amarok and TB2 forward,....and slowing with Tres Lunas, Light+Shade, then gaining with MOTS. Just observing. That's my job, I guess. Jim -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1981 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: May 28 2009, 14:29 PS: I think the moral of the story is the balance between manually played musicianship and technology. In my part of the world, the former is winning, with poor quality recordings ruling over technology. Which is unfortunate, because(and thanks in part to MO, the two can live hand-in-hand). I'm seeing a trend here, for a long time...it's better to have a crappy recording on a Lo-Fi four track and "feel it", than to have a high quality commercially attractive product. This might only be regional, but I see it here. Production aspects are being ignored. I'd love to produce some of these folks, funny thing.....it is friggin' impossible to try and talk to them about it. It falls on deaf ears as they just want to jibber-jabber about the song and not technical aspects. It seems to bore them. OK, they win and I lose in my quest to "interface" with the local music community in the last decade. Oh well. No wonder I like computers/sequencers over Blues/Country/Folk artists. It is really just a better "tape recorder" as I always say. Jim -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: May 28 2009, 18:18 Three points: 1. I included TMB, TKF and OTB in my list because other people included it in theirs. They are all included in Mike's discography as it is contained within this very website, and they are all included in his discography on his official website. He was involved in all three albums, so I just can't see why I shouldn't consider them as Mike Oldfield albums. 2. I'm one of the very few people in here who actually love Earth Moving (the album). I realize perfectly that I'm in a very restricted minority, buut just as you think that it isn't fair to count TMB, TKF and OTB, I think that it isn't fair to condem Earth Moving in a final, definitive and non-appealable way just because the overwhelming majority of Mike Oldfield fans (or at least the overwhelming majority of Mike Oldfield fans who write in this board) think it's a bad album. There may be people out there who like it as much as I do, you know. Okay, rant over. I normally don't get into any. Back to point 3... 3. I think that your analysis didn't pick TMB because the highest percentage of people who talked about TMB on this board, or mentioned at least once, are neither people who like it nor people who don't like it - they're indifferent to it. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

nightspore Group: Members Posts: 4770 Joined: Mar. 2008 Posted: May 28 2009, 20:14 Quote (Ugo @ May 28 2009, 18:18) 2. I'm one of the very few people in here who actually love Earth Moving (the album). I realize perfectly that I'm in a very restricted minority, I like a fair fraction of Earth Moving myself, Ugo - "Runaway Son" and "Holy" are favourites. I also like "Innocent", even though it is a very silly song! Back to top

Matt Group: Admins Posts: 1186 Joined: Nov. 2002 Posted: May 29 2009, 04:24 Quote (Ugo @ May 28 2009, 23:18) 1. I included TMB, TKF and OTB in my list because other people included it in theirs. They are all included in Mike's discography as it is contained within this very website, and they are all included in his discography on his official website. He was involved in all three albums, so I just can't see why I shouldn't consider them as Mike Oldfield albums. Yes they are Mike Oldfield albums, I was just trying to point out they differ from his other albums in various ways and this might partly account for their being near the bottom of many preference lists. However, maybe I should include them in the graph? They will show as low spikes in the same way as Amarok shows as a high spike but they should be there nonetheless. Next update! Quote 2. I'm one of the very few people in here who actually love Earth Moving (the album). I realize perfectly that I'm in a very restricted minority, buut just as you think that it isn't fair to count TMB, TKF and OTB, I think that it isn't fair to condem Earth Moving in a final, definitive and non-appealable way just because the overwhelming majority of Mike Oldfield fans (or at least the overwhelming majority of Mike Oldfield fans who write in this board) think it's a bad album. There may be people out there who like it as much as I do, you know. Like me, I put it higher up on my list than you did on yours! But there is no denying it is low on most peoples lists. This is based on a *really* restricted sample of the population mind you! Quote 3. I think that your analysis didn't pick TMB because the highest percentage of people who talked about TMB on this board, or mentioned at least once, are neither people who like it nor people who don't like it - they're indifferent to it. TMB is a weird one no doubt, it has in the past provoked such heated disagreement which suggests poeople aren't as indifferent to it as you might think. Some people seem to actively dislike it and when they clash with those who really like it sparks fly! -------------- "I say I say I say I say, what's got three bottles and five eyes and no legs and two wheels" Back to top

ex member 419 Group: Members Posts: 1177 Joined: April 2008 Posted: May 29 2009, 04:35 To go boldly where others may not go,     heavens open            amorok                    tb original recording    millenium bell              light and shade          tb 2                        music of the spheres  songs from distant earth   deb Back to top

Holger Group: Members Posts: 1506 Joined: Feb. 2003 Posted: May 29 2009, 04:42 Quote (Matt @ May 28 2009, 13:09) If more posts appear on the current thread (which would be great there are only 11 so far, please more people add their lists! ) I'll try and update the info below accordingly. Done! Good work, we haven't had this in a while, quite interesting! Back to top

wiga Group: Members Posts: 2113 Joined: Sep. 2008 Posted: May 29 2009, 09:13 Quote (Ugo @ May 28 2009, 18:18) I'm one of the very few people in here who actually love Earth Moving (the album). Now that's the kind of sentiment that impresses me - a man who is prepared to stand up and declare what he values, and is not afraid to go against the grain. A true Mike Oldield disciple -------------- Barn's burnt down - now I can see the moon. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: May 29 2009, 09:46 @ Matt: I guess that if you enlarged the sample just a little bit, the rather dubious honor of Mike's worst album would undoubtably go to OTB, as your graph highlights. About TMB, well, that record is so composite (there's a bit of everything in it...) and so weird that maybe it's a typical case of an album that "grows on you", so to speak. Some people have felt the growth, others didn't. @ nightspore: I too consider "Innocent" quite silly - in fact I think it's the silliest song with the silliest lyrics that Mike has ever written... "Northpoint" being a close second! But I can't help feeling its catchiness, its immediacy. I guess that's what makes a good pop song work. @ wiga: thank you. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

smillsoid Group: Members Posts: 548 Joined: Dec. 2008 Posted: May 29 2009, 22:23 Yes, very interesting.  I only put Earth Moving so low down, because it's just not what springs to mind when you think "Mike Oldfield."  It isn't a bad album - some songs on there are great, such as "Far Country" and "Blue Night" - and I'm quite partial to "Hostage"... perhaps it's associations with the time it came out, and fans thinking "he's given up on instrumentals, and only writes pop songs now!" I'll give it another spin. -------------- http://www.reverbnation.com/simonjmills Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1981 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: May 30 2009, 02:39 OK, I've followed this dudes' career like the back of my hand: 1. HR 2. Ommadawn 3. Incantations 3a: "since I dont wan't to edit all these numerals": QE2 4. Discovery 5. Crises 6. TB2 7. TB1 8. Voyager 9. TB3 10. Consequences of Indecisions(with Pekka Pahjola) 11. Platinum 12. Five Miles Out 13. Islands 14. TSODE 15. Exposed and all the Live recordings thereof 16. The Killing Fields 17. Amarok 18. Tres Lunas 19. MOTS 20. Guitars 20a: TB 2003 21. Light+Shade 22. Millenium Bell. 23. Heaven's Open 24. The Sally Angie 1968 I hope that cover's it all. I did not include Kevin Ayers recordings. Different deal. -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

Chris Ibberson Group: Members Posts: 88 Joined: Aug. 2011 Posted: Aug. 12 2011, 13:19 I can pretty well seperate into a Top Ten, which is as follows. 1.Ommadawn 2.Incantations 3.Tubular Bells 4.Hergest Ridge 5.Exposed 6.TB 2 7.Collaborations 8.Five Miles Out 9.Amarok 10.Songs Of Distant Earth 11-15 Crises/Platinum/TB3/Voyager/QE2 -------------- Diana Luna Lucina Back to top

Chris Ibberson Group: Members Posts: 88 Joined: Aug. 2011 Posted: Sep. 14 2011, 17:28 However... having enjoyed this forum for a month or so, I have re appraised TSODE, and I like it far more than when I bought it so... 01. Ommadawn 02.Incantations 03.Tubular Bells 04.Hergest Ridge 05.Exposed 06.Collaborations 07.The Songs Of Distant Earth 08.Five Miles Out                                                   09.Platinum 10.Crises 11.TB 3 12.Amarok 13.QE2 14.Discovery 15.TB 2 and an honorary mention for "Fine Old Tom" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKdTIe5Gseg     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUUJm7sAXNw -------------- Diana Luna Lucina Back to top

wiga Group: Members Posts: 2113 Joined: Sep. 2008 Posted: Sep. 15 2011, 06:26 Chris - intersting that you place Exposed and Collaborations as high as 5 and 6. And there is no Voyager, Guitars, Light+Shade, Tres Lunas, The Millennium Bell or MotS. Hmmm - controversial.     -------------- Barn's burnt down - now I can see the moon. Back to top

HR lover Group: Members Posts: 548 Joined: Sep. 2010 Posted: Sep. 15 2011, 06:42 I have a theory about Mike's best works. The more depressed or angry he is the better the albums are, because then he can put some extreme emotion in his music. Just a theory but if anyone can make a Mike Oldfield depression chart and combine that with the best albums according to us chart maybe we would see some overlap. -------------- Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. Back to top

Chris Ibberson Group: Members Posts: 88 Joined: Aug. 2011 Posted: Sep. 15 2011, 17:05 Quote (wiga @ Sep. 15 2011, 06:26) Exposed and Collaborations as high as 5 and 6. And there is no Voyager, Guitars, Light+Shade, Tres Lunas, The Millennium Bell or MotS. Hmmm - controversial.     Mainly because 1970-1979 is one very long purple patch for Mike. Argieres and First Excursion elevate Collaborations to lofty heights, A mostly excellent live version of Incantations, and in my opinion it was a very long and worrying gap from Discovery to my current flavour of the month--- TSODE. The mid seventies also saw "Fine Old Tom" "Odyssey" "Instructions For Angels" and "Downwind".       The defence rests M,Lud. -------------- Diana Luna Lucina Back to top

wiga Group: Members Posts: 2113 Joined: Sep. 2008 Posted: Sep. 19 2011, 04:10 Top 15 Revised - (after listening to Voyager this weekend in Cumbria) 1. Incantations 2. Ommadawn 3. Voyager  [wooo] 4. Hergest Ridge 5. Crises 6. Amarok 7. Tubular Bells II 8. Tubular Bells 9. Tubular Bells III 10. The Millennium Bell 11. The Songs of Distant Earth 12. Five Miles Out 13. Music of the Spheres 14. Light + Shade 15. QE2 Previous List - 1. Incantations 2. Ommadawn 3. Hergest Ridge 4. Crises 5. Amarok 6. Tubular Bells II 7. Tubular Bells 8. Tubular Bells III 9. The Millennium Bell 10. The Songs of Distant Earth 11. Five Miles Out 12. Music of the Spheres 13. Light + Shade 14. QE2 15. Voyager -------------- Barn's burnt down - now I can see the moon. Back to top

Chris Ibberson Group: Members Posts: 88 Joined: Aug. 2011 Posted: Sep. 19 2011, 15:22 Quote (wiga @ Sep. 19 2011, 04:10) Top 15 Revised - (after listening to Voyager this weekend in Cumbria) 1. Incantations 2. Ommadawn 3. Voyager  [wooo] 6. Tubular Bells II 7. Tubular Bells 8. Tubular Bells III 6. Tubular Bells 2!!!! now THAT'S controversial!!! and Voyager up to number 3!!!  This is a true indication of how great Mike Oldfield is, when we put aside one of his albums for a while, and then fall in love with it all over again. -------------- Diana Luna Lucina Back to top

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