Search - Blue Oyster Cult :: Spectres

REMASTERED WITH BONUS TRACKS AVAILABLE LATE 2006!

James H. Solmon | Whittmann Arizona | 05/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Thats right! Blue Oyster Cult's official web site under BOC news 2005 states that Spectres and Some Enchanted Evening will be reissued in late 2006! The cd will be REMASTERED WITH BONUS TRACKS! So before shelling out 25-30 dollars or more to rip off sellers for what was originally a budget cd for only 8.99 at most stores just be a little patient. The wait will be well worth it! Just a thought. I hope this will be helpful to those wanting to add this most excellent cd to their collection. But! If you can't wait then I most certainly UNDERSTAND!"

EXCELLENT follow-up to Agents Of Fortune!!

Jeffrey M. Smith | 02/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yet ANOTHER great piece of work from Blue Oyster Cult. Spectres continues what they started with Agents Of Fortune, and in some ways even improved it! BOC starts it off with the infamous rocker, "Godzilla", and immediately sets a fun and exciting feel that carries through out the entire album. While Spectres definitely has that "rock" vibe to it, it also has alot of atmosphere to it, perhaps more so than any of it's preceeding albums. To me the only possible weak track is "R.U. Ready 2 Rock", because although it starts off great, it periodically retreats to a high-pitched and somewhat inferior sounding chorus. But ALL the other tracks are exceptional, and this is one album of a few in the world that I can listen to over and over again and never get sick of it. The stand-outs are "Godzilla" (GREAT seeing it in concert!), "Death Valley Nights", "Fireworks" (my favorite), "Goin' Through The Motions" and "I Love The Night". "Night" is a real mellow, beautiful and hypnotic BOC song and is a far-cry from most of their other work, and is very addictive. However, as great as this album is, I'll have to admit that it took a little longer to FULLY get into than their previous albums, but I'm not sure why. But once I got it, I got it. Some albums (with any band) take a couple extra listens than usual to fully appreciate, but I've come to realize that those are sometimes the albums you soon rank as some of the BEST in your entire collection, and Spectres is NO exception to that rule. Only BOC could pull off such an amazing follow-up to Agents Of Fortune. With each impressive album they put out, it is no wonder they are collectively thought of as the "Thinking Man's Rock Band"- in that they put such a degree of integrity and thought into their music, which in turn is always a reward to listen to. Give it a listen- you won't be sorry!"

Unique and Underappreciated

jimmy_rants@yahoo | USA | 08/15/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Blue Oyster Cult was never really a heavy metal band: for all their darkness and guitar oriented ventures , they were really quality songwriters who played something different all together. "Godzilla", the most famous track on "Spectres" is surely a hard rocker, but thirty years after first hearing "Spectres", I'm still not sure how to define it.



Take "Golden Age of Leather", the second track. It starts with a boy's choir singing a lyric and melody a capella that is not repeated in the song. The song then shpaeshifts into 3 and maybe four unique tempos and sounds-straight rocking,several bridges with lush vocal harmonies that would make the Beach Boys proud, and quasi-mystical lyrics that tell a tale I still haven't fully deciphered. And yes- it's listenable AND interesting!



"Death Valley Nights" is a great ballad with Allen Lanier piano mastery and a haunting refrain accented with a nice guitar lead. "Fireworks" is another nice little ballad with a catchy but complicated intro riff and well timed back and forth lead and background vocals. Cult in my opinion never had particularly strong or distinctive vocals, but everyone one in the band seems to show up to share duties in some fashion or another, and that's laudable.



You might not like "Spectres" on first listen, many of my friends haven't. But a few close listens really exposes one to the true talent of this mysterious band and their ability to wrote songs with melodies and subtle sub-melodies and surprises under the surface. Very interesting!"