Mike Oldfield - QE2

Japanese digitally remastered limited edition issue of the album classic in a deluxe, miniaturized LP sleeve replica of the original vinyl album artwork. Album Description

Mike Oldfield- QE-2

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! July 11, 2008

Mike Oldfield's best

This is Mike Oldfield's best album. I've loved it since I had it on LP. Sheba alone knocks me out. One of the pieces borrows from Mozart. The original Tubular bells is a close second. His Best:
1. QE2
2. Tubular Bells
3. Crises
4. Hergest Ridge
5. Platinum.
A lot of his other stuff is uninteresting. Crisis has 3 great vocal songs by Maggie Riley and Jon Anderson. Hergest Ridge copies Tubular Bells style of long pieces constantly changing. July 24, 2006

Very fine album

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. August 7, 2003

Outstanding celtic-styled Mike

"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! May 17, 2003

Wow !

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 .. October 16, 2002

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