Universal's Mike Oldfield expanded remaster campaign begins with reissues of two of his more pop-friendly records: 1982's Five Miles Out and 1983's Crises, both of which will come packed with extras in September.
While both albums featured their share of ambitious and complex pieces like "Taurus II" and Crises' title track, there was an increasing presence of keyboards on both albums, notably the Fairlight CMI and Oberheim OBX synthesizers. On Five Miles Out, Oldfield made rare vocal appearances alongside Scottish singer Maggie Reilly, who'd first collaborated with Oldfield on 1980's QE2 and would work with him throughout the 1980s. Crises, meanwhile, features vocals from Reilly, British vocalist Roger Chapman and Jon Anderson of Yes.
While Crises yielded Oldfield's most successful single in Europe with "Moonlight Shadow," Five Miles Out yielded what is technically his most successful song in the U.S.: "Family Man," which was taken to No. 6 in 1982 by Daryl Hall & John Oates.
And what extras await you on the expanded editions of these albums? Find out after the jump!
Five Miles Out will be released as a three-disc deluxe edition - two CDs and a DVD. The first disc features the original, remastered album augmented with non-LP B-side "Waldberg (The Peak)" and a demo of the title track, while the second features eight tracks from a 1982 live show in Cologne, France. The DVD features the original album, newly remixed by Oldfield in 5.1 surround sound, as well as a promo video for the title track.
Crises, meanwhile, gets quite the deluxe treatment, available as a five-disc box set. The remastered album is augmented on Disc 1 with non-LP singles "Mistake" and "Crime of Passion" (along with its B-side "Jungle Gardenia") and 12" mixes and new "unplugged" mixes of singles "Moonlight Shadow" and "Shadow on the Wall." Discs 2 and 3 feature another live show, this time from Wembley Arena in the summer of 1983. Finally, the box closes out with two DVDs: one of promo videos and live footage, the other of the album mixed in 5.1 surround sound.
Additional formats will be available, including single-disc remasters and newly-cut LP editions. (Limited colored vinyl variants will be made available, as well.) Crises will also be given a standard Universal Deluxe Edition release, distilling the live material to one disc. All configurations will be available in the U.K. on September 1, with Amazon U.K. pre-orders (and Amazon U.S. pre-orders for the deluxe editions) live now.
Five Miles Out: Deluxe Edition (Mercury/UMC, 2013)
CD: Amazon U.K.
2CD+DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
LP: Amazon U.K.
Disc 1: Expanded LP (originally released as Virgin 204 500, 1982)
- Taurus II
- Family Man
- Orabidoo
- Mount Teidi
- Five Miles Out
- Waldberg (The Peak) (B-side to "Mistake" - Virgin VS 541, 1982)
- Five Miles Out (Demo) *
Disc 2: Live in Cologne - 12/6/1982
- Tubular Bells (Part One)
- Sheba
- Mirage
- Family Man
- Taurus II
- Mount Teidi
- Five Miles Out
- Guilty
Disc 3: DVD - 5.1 surround mix of original LP (plus "Five Miles Out" promo video)
Crises: Deluxe Edition Box Set (Mercury/UMC, 2013)
CD: Amazon U.K.
2CD: Amazon U.K.
3CD+2DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
LP: Amazon U.K.
Disc 1: Expanded LP (originally released as Virgin 205 500, 1983)
- Crises
- Moonlight Shadow
- In High Places
- Foreign Affair
- Taurus 3
- Shadow on the Wall
- Moonlight Shadow (2013 Unplugged Mix) *
- Shadow on the Wall (2013 Unplugged Mix) *
- Mistake (single A-side - Virgin VS 541, 1982)
- Crime of Passion (Extended Version) (12" A-side - Virgin VS 648-12, 1983)
- Jungle Gardenia (B-side to "Crime of Passion" - Virgin VS 648, 1983)
- Moonlight Shadow (12" Version) (12" A-side - Virgin VS 586-12, 1983)
- Shadow on the Wall (12" Version) (12" A-side - Virgin VS 625-12, 1983)
Discs 2-3: Live At Wembley Arena - 7/22/1983 *
- Woodhenge/Incantations (Part Three)
- Sheba
- Ommadawn (Part One)
- Mount Teidi
- Five Miles Out
- Tubular Bells (Part One)
- Taurus I
- Taurus II
- Crises
- Moonlight Shadow
- Shadow on the Wall
- Family Man
Disc 4: DVD
- Crises (Live At Wembley Arena)
- Tubular Bells (Part One) (Live At Wembley Arena)
- Moonlight Shadow (promo video)
- Shadow on the Wall (promo video)
- Moonlight Shadow (Live on Top of the Pops - 6/23/1983)
- Crime of Passion (promo video)
Disc 5: DVD - 5.1 surround mix of original LP
Grant says
It's interesting that the 1982 single "Mistake" is included with Crises, while its B-side, "Waldberg (The Peak)" is included with Five Miles Out. I wonder why they were separated.