And Here Were Seen The Scars Of Age
Posted on | March 15, 2007 at 7:52 am | 5 Comments
Capsule CD Review time!
Artist: Blue Öyster Cult
Disc: Spectres (Expanded Edition)
Released: 1977 (original vinyl), 2007 (reissue)
Number of tracks: 14
Total disc time: 53:39
Original album content: It’s hard to think about Spectres as something other than a companion piece to BÖC’s first mega-hit album, Agents Of Fortune and its very popular single (Don’t Fear) The Reaper. It will always live in the shadow of that earlier success. The followup has a bit of a “sophomore slump” aspect to it, even though it was the Cult’s fifth studio album. Like Agents, the songs reflect BÖC’s (then) newfound democratic writing style, where each band member would do his own demo and then bring it to the band for completion. The album gave the world the second big BÖC hit, Godzilla (which, though good, is something of a novelty trifle to this day, known mostly for its bottom-heavy riff and cute lyrics). Much better is the epic Golden Age Of Leather – the only song I’ve ever heard that contains the phrase “flaccid plumage”. I’m also quite fond of the longing-filled Death Valley Nights and the filigree lovely I Love The Night. Nosferatu is another pretty good epic. R.U. Ready 2 Rock has not aged well (I still can’t figure out what “I ain’t gonna catch those countdown blues” means). The remaining four songs are nice little pop-rock gems, fun to sing along with, but not especially spectacular.
Bonus tracks: There are four previously unreleased songs, all from the original sessions and recently polished. I’ve never heard any of them before. The best of these is Joe Bouchard’s Night Flyer (sung by Buck Dharma), which has a really nice guitar/piano riff. The verses and refrain are catchier than the chorus, which often happens with BÖC tunes. This song would not have been out of place on the original album. Dial M For Murder (a Buck song sung by Eric Bloom) is passable but not particularly memorable. Albert Bouchard’s Please Hold (also sung by Eric) is pretty dull and forgettable, though it’s growing on me due to a hook in the refrain. The cover of the Ronettes’ Be My Baby (sung by Eric) is an interesting novelty, mostly because it’s an unusual song for a group like the Cult to be covering, and also because they cover it very straight. The sound quality on this one track is pretty bad, like the original master tape was not in good shape.
Sound quality: If there was any actual remastering done on this, I can’t detect it. Sounds just like the original CD release to me – kinda flat. And the volume is still too low.
Liner notes: Alas, no lyrics. Lenny Kaye provides an essay on the album that has some interesting information, including some things I didn’t know. It’s pretty short though.
Worth the upgrade? For diehard fans like myself, yes, if only for the bonus tracks. For someone interested in the Cult who doesn’t already have the album, or for someone upgrading from the original vinyl, it would be a good purchase over the original CD release. And it’s cheap.
Hard to believe this album is 30 years old already. Sheesh, I’m freakin’ OLD.
Latre.
Comments
5 Responses to “And Here Were Seen The Scars Of Age”
March 15th, 2007 @ 4:35 pm
As far as I’m concerned, BOC peaked on their first album and it’s been a consistent downhill slide ever since. That belief puts this disc way down the list .
Of course, I say the same thing about Wilco, so what do I know…
March 15th, 2007 @ 6:19 pm
For shame! Everyone knows that Secret Treaties (their third album) is the peak!!
Who’s Wilco?
March 15th, 2007 @ 7:50 pm
Hey, I love “Godzilla”!
March 15th, 2007 @ 7:57 pm
“Wilco” is the human character in “Get Fuzzy,” Flasshe. You really should get out more.
March 16th, 2007 @ 12:34 am
Nice review of _Spectres_. I need to listen to it again. I keep putting off turning my BOC LPs into CDs.
Did you review the reissue of _Agents_? Put the best from _Agents_ (”Vera Gemini” still rocks my world) and _Spectres_ together and you’d have a hell of an album.
But not as good as _Secret Treaties_.
Our best years have passed us by.