The songs keep coming...
The 80's were definately a time of real change and experimentation for Mike Oldfield. The mid 80's saw his direction turn to song writing with a more commercial edge. This resulted in a very mixed bag of pieces. Five Miles Out and Crisis did produce some solid, and some querky songs. Discovery continued this but somehow lost the originality. There are some sweet little melodies like 'Crystal Gazing' and 'Talk about Your Life' plus the excellent 'To France'(Maggie Reilly on vocals with all these), but the other songs with male vocalist er... what's-his-name? seem very weak. This style emerges later, and to a worse degree, on the 1989 album 'Earth Moving'. Discovery does redeem itself, however, with the brilliant end instrumental 'The Lake', which does mean that all self-respecting Oldfield fans should buy this CD. Enjoy.
Another solid rock album by Mike Oldfield...
This is a rocking album - while on "crises" mike was experimenting a bit with Hard-rock convencion, here he shines in it with big light - just listen to title track "discovery" (a bit simmilar to "Shadow on the wall", but it contains much more harder rhythm section), ultra catchy "Tricks of the light" or loud "Poison arrows"...they are maybe not a discovery in musical sense but definitly they Rock.Mike's guitar is full of anger and emotions in every track,and rhythm section (Simon Phillips of TOTO and Oldfield's Powerfull bass guitar) never were as powerfull as on this Album
The biggest hit from here was "To france" - etheral,full of celtic spirit song with unforgettable vocals by Maggie Reilly..."Talk about your life" is slightly different version of "To france" and contains much more spiritual music background and more expressive guitars.
The closing tune "The lake" is about 11 minutes long instrumental track and features sudden changes of tempo and a dramatic guitar-keyboard dialogues...It is one of Mike's best instrumetal tracks from the eighties...
The only song that sounds like a Filler is "saved by a bell" with not the strongest lyrics and Ugly vocals by Barry Palmer - melody is not catchy and guitars are irritating...
Well,if you like Eighties rock music and If you prefer Mike's eighties works you will surely love this one...I found it evry good actually after so many years from buying and i still love to listen to it,especially to "the lake"...
Aww, how cute! Cutesy cutesy! Eeee!
"The Lake"... Aww, so cute, like one of those Windows desktop wallpapers with little puppies! It is called "The Lake", and it sounds like a lake! And it has an "(instrumental)" label on its name, to let all hardcore fans know that he's still the same Mike Oldfield of Tubular Bells fame!But seriously, I never cared about "The Lake" that much. The actual songs here are far better. "To France", "Tricks Of The Light" and "Poison Arrows" are some of his finest pop compositions ever. Maggie Reilly's vocals are as gorgeous as ever, and Barry Palmer's delivery is quite convincing and unique. The ballad "Talk About Your Life", the 80's pop "Crystal Gazing", the 'rocker' title track and the power ballad "Saved By A Bell" are all good to some extent. Easily one of Mike's best collections of pop songs, seconded only by the side 2 of Crises.
"The Lake"? How does that one go again?
A LOVELY LITTLE CD
I RECENTLY BOUGHT THIS ALBUM & I THINK IT IS A LOVELY ALBUM TO HAVE PLAYING WHEN U ARE CHILLING OUT. THE LAKE IS A GREAT INSTRUMENTAL, TO FRANCE AND POISON ARROW ARE GREAT SONGS. I CANNOT FAULT ANYTHING ON THIS ALBUM.
Forever one of my favorite
This was almost 20 years ago when I picked up Mike Oldfield's Discovery by accident in the shop. I was intrigued by his music. The depth, the complexity of his music was something I've never experienced before. Each of the songs are great. My favorite is definitely "poision arrow". "The Lake" also is my favorite, although I have never listen to a single song lasts this long. But it just flows so well. Because of Discovery, I am since hooked to MIke's music. This is definitely his best album, in my opinion.
