Search - Blue Oyster Cult :: Don't Fear the Reaper: Best of Blue Oyster Cult

Michelle D. from HAMPDEN, ME
Reviewed on 3/11/2021...

I had only heard the big ones (Burnin' For You and Don't Fear The Reaper) when I ordered this. True, those are two of the best ones on it, but my personal favorites are Cities On Flame and Joan Crawford. I think I just may be on the lookout for more BOC in the near future!

Sinister, Satirical . . . and a Little Skimpy

Greg | Michigan | 03/25/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"For curiosity seekers interested in a sampling of the Cult's recording career with CBS, this new "Best Of" is serviceable, but not as thorough as the 2-disc "Workshop of the Telescopes" put out a few years back. The songs on this new disc were compiled based on fan votes for the Oyster Boys' best material, so some of the inclusions are questionable (for example, why "Marshall Plan" but not "Monsters"? or "Goin Through the Motions" but not "Golden Age of Leather"?), but overall the track listing does an admirable job of offering the listener a window on the world of one of the most bizarre, talented, and underrated American rock bands ever. Too musically accomplished, too lyrically complex, and too intelligent to warrant the "heavy metal" label under which they are often grouped, the Cult has offered a darkly satirical take on American life and institutions since the early 1970s. In a sense, they might be thought of as the Steely Dan of hard rock, picking up the clean, well-scrubbed flagstones of society to see what's crawling around in the darkness underneath. Check out their brutal examinations of such American cultural obsessions as sentimental love (the copycat suicide-for-love fantasy of "Reaper," the S&M-inflected stalker narrative of "Burnin' For You," and the bleak but sultry vampire romances of "I Love the Night" and "Shooting Shark," the latter co-written with renowned poet Patti Smith), B-horror movies (the tongue-in-cheek "Godzilla," the hilarious and disturbing "Joan Crawford," the "bad taste" of which is designed to drive home a point concerning public interest in celebrity scandals), counterculture aspirations and failings (the cold, hallucinatory "Flaming Telepaths," the scathing hippie indictment "This Ain't the Summer of Love") and even UFOs (1983's blistering "Take Me Away," in which BOC prefigures the mid-90s X-Files/alien abduction craze by roughly a decade). The remastering on this disc and its detailed, well-written liner notes may interest hardcore fans who already own the whole BOC catalogue--this is the only place that you can get a remastered version of the classic "Joan Crawford," for example, which was why I bought the disc. The beginning fan can pick up the 2-disc "Workshop of the Telescopes," which includes a more extensive sampling of the band's CBS albums and also contains remastered tracks. But if you're just looking for a brief foray into the eclectic, paranoid, bitterly humorous and occasionally nasty musical philosophy of Blue Oyster Cult, this is as good a place to start as any."

Blue Oyster Appetizer

Tim Brough | Springfield, PA United States | 02/02/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I certainly can't find fault with any of the songs here. But what I can do is direct you to the double antholgy "Workshop Of The Telescopes," which has a more complete selection. BOC is a band that recorded at least four must-have albums and a load of super cuts in their later years, so this set seriously under-represents them. On the other hand, if all you want is "Don't Fear The Reaper," then by all means, go for it."