Workshop Of The Telescopes - Blue Oyster Cult

Spectres - Blue Oyster Cult

Following the success of their more pop-oriented Agents of Fortune, Blue Öyster Cult understandably furthered this style with the even blander Spectres, much to the chagrin of old-time fans but clearly the right career move at the time, from a purely financial perspective. The songs here are even softer than those on the previous year s release, and to make things more insulting, there are even a couple of anthems to rock - most notably the text-message-prophesying R.U. Ready 2 Rock - that couldn t sound less like an authentic rock song if they tried, complete with soft unison singing, an almost complete lack of guitars, and clichéd piano playing that I d be tempted ...

Tyranny And Mutation - Blue Oyster Cult

Tyranny and Mutation sees New York rock band Blue Öyster Cult s progressive tendencies starting to break through to the surface, though it s still essentially a hard rock album at heart, with traces of what would ultimately come to be defined as heavy metal. Buck Dharma s guitar is mostly based in a blues-rock sound that can get a little repetitive and serves to date this more than the works of other bands of the time such as Black Sabbath, but his playing style is still sufficiently varied across this release to keep things interesting, particularly considering the album seems to have been consciously divided into opposing "red" and "black" sides ...

Agents Of Fortune - Blue Oyster Cult

Agents of Fortune represents the most obvious point at which Blue Öyster Cult "sold out," though in essence their music had possessed a distinct commercial edge right from the onset, preventing them from ever truly being an underground band. Following the success of their more progressively-minded Secret Treaties, it s clear that a decision was made regarding stripping the band s sound of its more obtuse elements (aww) and focusing on songs that would possess greater mainstream appeal, a career move that obviously worked considering the subsequent chart success of (Don t Fear) The Reaper that saw this soft, catchy and ultimately tedious song reaching ...