Many die hard fans of Blue Oyster cult thought that their breakthrough album, Agents of Fortune, with it's hit single (reaching 12), "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," was due to the band's selling out.
And while there is no question that this album was more mainstream than its predecessors, in the summer of 1977, Blue Oyster Cult found itself in one of the trickiest situations for a rock band: recording the follow-up to a breakthrough hit.
By comparison, the follow-up album, Spectres, was only a modest success, reaching 43, although it does capture BOC at a high point in the band's career.
While there wasn't a "Reaper" on Spectres, there were crowd-pleasers like "Godzilla," stompers like "R.U. Ready 2 Rock" and the hooky, pop-flavored "Goin' Through the Motions," co-written with Ian Hunter.
Clearly, Blue Oyster Cult decided that "if it was worth doing, it was worth overdoing," resulting in a "wall-of-sound" production style as the band layered it on like never before.
And it worked. While I like many of the songs on the earlier BOC albums, Spectres benefits from the more polished commercial sound. This is my favorite BOC album, and there really isn't a bad song on it.
The reissued CD includes bonus tracks discovered when the original tapes were dug out for the reissue. A cover of 'Be My Baby' was from the pre-production sessions and the other bonus tracks, "Night Flyer," "Dial M For Murder" and "Please Hold" were leftovers.
I think I wore out a couple of vinyl copies of this album, and went on to buy the CD release and this reissue. Essential for all BOC fans (yes, even the fans of the early albums) and for fans of straight ahead seventies rock, this is an excellent album, well-produced with great songs and a band in their prime.
GOZILLA
GOIN' THROUGH THE MOTIONS
R U READY 2 ROCK
