Given the amount of unreleased and otherwise rare tracks from Oldfield out there, this collection could have been Virgin's opportunity to lay the ghosts to rest and to finally do justice to the artist with whom the label was launched, back in 1973. In the event however, the collection was a major disappointment to his legions of established fans.

I think the biggest problem with it, is that it concentrates on trying to act as a 'primer' for new fans seeking an elaborate 'best of' compilation, rather than as a neat loose-ends exercise for collectors. The accompanying booklet is poorly written and is riddled with a multitude of typos and actual errors of fact, and the track listing itself is predictable, unimaginative and plays safe - all in the aforesaid attempt of acting as a primer.

For those of us who can boast complete collections however, the odd snippets of new material here are not sufficient reason to buy. For that reason then, I offer 5 stars for the music (if you're new to Mike's material), but only 1 star if you're already a fan. Buy TBIII instead - possibly as good as Amarok and certainly as emotionally charged. A return to form.

This is the best collection of Mike available, and what you get for your money is certainly worth it. Including rare tracks and remixes, plus all the Hits and Lengthy excerpts of Classics like Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn, Incantations, Platinum, Crises, and even the brilliant Wind Chimes, plus an added incentive, the whole of Tubular Bells 1. The only down side is that this collection only covers up to Heavens Open, which means all Oldfield between Tubular Bells 2 and The forthcoming Millenium bell is nowhere to be seen. Heres hoping they will plug that gap for a future release. As for the competition, dont even consider The Complete Mike Oldfield, it does not come within 50 streets of this far superior release, even with the unbelievable running time, 4 Cds worth of Oldfield at his best, the excerpts are longer than on any other collection, and everything is more or less here in one form or another. This is Outstanding Oldfield with his Outstanding Best.

He considerado que Mike Oldfield es uno de los mejores musicos del mundo, ademas de que he seguido su historial desde hace mucho tiempo y creo que no es posible hacer una mala critica de su trabajo, las personas que ni siquiera han escuchado esta musica, estaran equivocadas durante mucho tiempo, escuchar a Oldfield es como transportarse en el tiempo, a cualquier parte y en cualquier lugar, hay que saber de musica y saber apreciar la forma en que se desarrollan los sonidos de su musica, probablemente no exista alguien que logre unir a tantos artistas tan buenos solo Oldfield ha logrado superar la calidad hasta llegar a la excelencia. Esta compilacion es necesaria en cualquier coleccion de discos, y no es justo que otros juzguen este trabajo como malo, deben entender que si el libro que contiene no es muy extenso es porque no describe una biografia completa, solo lo necesario, ¿para que saber mas? si lo importante en este caso es saber escuchar.

Definitly this 4 discs set is the Biggest Oldfield's Best of album.it contains most of his biggest hits,even whole "tubular bells".the addition of singles not avaible alesewhere like the disco dancefloor hit "guilty", lovely instrumentals "Path" or "Legend" (one of my favourites songs).
But hte compilation is missing many of his hits that were released only on Vinyls and were not officially released on Cd like the phenomenal "pictures in the dark","shine" (with jon anderson","Music from video wall","In the pool","bones"...there are many of songs that are wanting to be released and are hiding somwhere in Internet, but Virgin never really thought of Releasing the Complete b-sides and rare tracks set.That kind of compilation is a definitive wanted addition to Mike's Oldfield collection - so if you are an advanced Oldfield fan "Elements box set" is not good for you because propably you have already most of Rare songs from Internet.if you are a begginer Oldfield Fan, there never was a better way to get into the music of this great musican.and of ocurse whole Box set is looking lovely - big book inside with nice photos and biography,the package is beautifull too.

The idea of an Oldfield collection is silliness!!!!
If anyone is familiar with their instrumental albums, get them in order!
Mixing the instrumentals with the pop-songs is a terrible idea.
Bad selection, stay away from these kind of collections!
The only Oldfield collection I could imagine is a collection of their pop-songs, but there is no best of like that unfortunately.
This Oldfield compilation is better than other compilations of his, that's why it has 3 stars.