Album Name: QE2 Singer(s): Mike Oldfield Recorded: Denham, 1980 Released: October 31, 1980 Genre: Progressive rock Length: 39:51 Label: Virgin
Album Review
QE2 is a record album mostly written and performed by Mike Oldfield, released in 1980.
This was his sixth new album and featured original Oldfield compositions plus two short songs from bands ABBA ("Arrival") and The Shadows ("Wonderful Land"). The album went to number one on German album charts when it was released.
The Longest tracks on the album are "Taurus I" and the title track, "QE2". Both are typical Oldfield compositions, featuring various strong melodies using both modern and traditional instruments.
Some years later The Shadows responded to Oldfield's cover of "Wonderful Land", by releasing a cover of Oldfield's "Moonlight Shadow". The Cover songs were released as singles; and the helicopter cover for "Arrival" was a parody of ABBA's Arrival album cover.
The album was the first Oldfield album to feature Maggie Reilly as a collaborator. Some tracks on the album feature vocals sung through vocoder.
"Conflict" has an excerpt from J. S. Bach’s "Badinerie" (the last part of Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor).
The "Celt" lyrics were by Tim Cross and appear to be nonsense syllables chosen for their pleasing sounds rather than any actual meaning (many Oldfield works feature this).
"Molly" was made for his daughter, Molly Oldfield, who would later play keyboards on The Songs of Distant Earth.
The album and its title track were named for the Cunard Line ocean liner RMS Queen Elizabeth 2. In fact, if one looks closely at the album, it appears to be a closeup of the side of the ship, complete with water level marks in the lower left corner. The first pressing even had a porthole cut out in the sleeve. The inside of the original foldout LP sleeve featured a schematic of one of the Queen Elizabeth 2's decks as well as a stylified picture of her engines. Sadly these have not been reprinted in later reissues.