CD Odyssey Disc 1883: Blue Oyster Cult

With my car in the shop, this week will feature much longer music listening opportunities courtesy of…the bus! Here’s the first offering courtesy of my triumphant (?) return to public transit.

Disc 1883 is… Ghost Stories

Artist: Blue Oyster Cult

Year of Release: 2024 (original recordings from 1978 – 1983)

What’s up with the Cover? A ritualistic BOC logo inscribed on the floor, framed by four candles, has summoned three ghosts. I like to think they are the ghosts of Allen Lanier, Joe Bouchard and Albert Bouchard for reasons that I will reveal later.

Whoever they are, it is a good thing ghosts don’t get tired of standing, because there’s just the one chair.

How I Came To Know It: Blue Oyster Cult is my favourite band, and I’ve known them all my life. Of course I was going to check out their latest record.

How It Stacks Up: I have 12 of Blue Oyster Cult’s studio albums. Of the twelve, Ghost Stories comes in at…#11. Since this is my first BOC review in four years, and is also the final studio album awaiting review, here’s a full accounting:

1. Secret Treaties: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 866)
2. Fire of Unknown Origin: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 751)
3. Spectres.: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 514)
4. Self-Titled: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1505)
5. Agents of Fortune: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 463)
6. Cultosaurus Erectus: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 206)
7. Tyranny and Mutation: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1273)
8. Mirrors: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 685)
9. Imaginos: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 838)
10. The Revolution by Night: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 1159)
11. Ghost Stories: 3 stars (reviewed right here)
12. Club Ninja: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 780)

If you want to read more Blue Oyster Cult reviews (who wouldn’t) all the records above and also four live albums can be found here.

Ratings: 3 stars

I’ve loved Blue Oyster Cult since I was a star-eyed child searching for their hidden symbol in every album cover.

It is this abiding love that has made most of their recent studio albums such a letdown. From 1998 to 2020, BOC released only three albums and I liked exactly none of them. Having never experienced this before (just check out the fanboy ratings of the records above) my reaction went from an initial no-this-cannot-be! horror that morphed over the years into a despondent resignation as the final notes ended on 2020’s disappointing “The Symbol Remains”.

Was there never to be another worthy studio album from my childhood heroes? Well, cancel the pity party, because “Ghost Stories” announces the boys (all five of them) as back. After twenty plus years of waiting, we’ve got a keeper.

The record has an unfair advantage, in that it is actually a collection of studio recordings made from 1978 to 1983, remixed in 2024 and dubbed “the final studio album” upon its release.

This era of BOC music features two critically lauded classic records (1980’s “Cultasaurus Erectus” and “1981’s Fire of Unknown Origin”) which are bookended by two records of lesser acclaim (“Mirrors” (1979) and “The Revolution by Night” (1983). I happen to love them all.

Stylistically, “Ghost Stories” feels like it spans these records yet belongs to none of them. Every tune is a facet of Blue Oyster Cult, making the whole feel more like a collection of singles and B-sides. Despite this, there is a weird cohesion on multiple listens, akin to an ‘island of lost toys’ kind of vibe.

Blue Oyster Cult has always been blessed with the ability to try on a lot of different aspects of rock and roll. They prog out, they do stadium, they do doo wop and barroom blues. It’s all here on “Ghost Stories”.

The band was always blessed by multiple songwriters and singers, all contributing to something greater. What’s missing on those later studio records I couldn’t tolerate is the absence of key contributors like Joe and Albert Bouchard and (as of 2020) Allen Lanier. On “Ghost Stories” they are reunited with lifelong members Eric Bloom and Buck Dharma and the alchemy of the five of them sharing space and ideas returns from beyond the grave.

The opening track is “Late Night Street Fight”. It’s a Bloom/Joe Bouchard collaboration that ends up sounding like something off a late seventies Alice Cooper record. It’s not my favourite, but I love the way the band embraces that lascivious acid inspired sound all the same.

This is followed by Buck Dharma sixties crooner inspired “Cherry” which is pop schmaltz, with just the right amount of strange added. It’s a song about a girl, but somehow the band explores the dawn of creation at the same time. BOC is here to challenge you, even when wearing the skinsuits of sixties teen idols.

The third song is “So Supernatural” an atmospheric number from Joe Bouchard that sways its way into a room like a curtain blown by an unseen wind.

Rounding out the songwriter round, we have “Soul Jive” cowritten by Albert Bouchard and Patti Smith (a collaborator with the band at this time, as well as lover of Allen Lanier). This one has a mix of barroom guitar groove and a sublime bit of guitar work from Buck Dharma. Lanier adds some tasty touches of organ. All these sounds shouldn’t work together, but they do, and that’s the fearless magic of Blue Oyster Cult.

“Ghost Stories” also features the studio versions of “Kick Out the Jams” (MC5 cover) and “We Gotta Get Outta This Place” (Animals cover), both of which appear live on 1978’s “Some Enchanted Evening.” I prefer those live versions, but the studio versions are no joke.

Despite my fawning, the record is not perfect. There are moments where it felt like the band was trying too hard to play empty stadium rock anthems, and while they are OK, you can see why they didn’t make the cut on the albums at the time. The production feels a bit too clean in places as well, which I blame on the band’s decision to use AI to help master the original tapes.

That’s the only blame in me, though, and most of all I am thankful the band dusted off these old gems, polished them up, and reminded us one more time what this band was capable of when firing on all cylinders.

Best tracks: Cherry, So Supernatural, We Gotta Get Outta This Place, The Only Thing, Kick Out the Jams

CD Odyssey Disc 1882: Celtic Frost

Apologies for my lengthy absence, Dear Readers. I took a short vacation and music listening time required to bring you my always-scintillating insights never quite aligned. That sad state of affairs has now ended, and…I’m back.

Disc 1882 is… Vanity/Nemesis

Artist: Celtic Frost

Year of Release: 1990

What’s up with the Cover? The band have their “cool” faces on as they look out at us sternly from shards of broken glass.

Why the fragmented approach to the photo shoot? Well, you can’t tell from this photo, but all these dudes have Very Big Hair. I don’t think they would have fit on the cover otherwise.

How I Came To Know It: I knew Celtic Frost as a teenager. I loved the band name, but never got into them, so my knowledge was mostly second-hand by reputation (neither my brother nor I owned any). I was on an ill-advised (and since cured) break from metal in 1990 when this record came out.

I recently picked up their 1985 album “To Mega Therion” and liked it, so I decided to take a chance on this later offering.

How It Stacks Up: I have two Celtic Frost albums, and if you’ve been paying attention you already know which two. Of those, “Vanity/Nemesis” comes in at #2.

Ratings: 2 stars

Being trapped with this record for over a week means I got to hear it a lot. Often this plays to an album’s advantage, but not this time.

“Vanity/Nemesis” is a thrash metal record along the lines of early Metallica and Pantera, which are both bands I like. When I first put the record on I settled in quickly to the familiar sounds. The heavy chugging guitar is crunchy and deep, and the drumming is insistent to the point of being almost frantic. There are a lot of ingredients that should make for a solid record, and it had the particular advantage of being good driving music that I mostly experienced in my car.

There is even an early gem, in the form of “Wine in Hand (Third from the Sun)” that offers to pull you in. This song has some great Motorhead-style energy and an industrial underpinning that is part of what I appreciate about 1985’s “To Mega Therion”. The crunch of guitar comes in and out in the arrangement in just the right amount to leave you wanting more.

Unfortunately, this formula is not consistently delivered for much of the record. They don’t just double down on the crunchy guitar, they triple down, to the point of where it starts to feel forced. It is akin to moshing a bit too hard for a bit too long and throwing out your neck. All that crunch needs a bit of structure around it to make it work.

Celtic Frost gamely tries to provide this, but the changes of pace feel draggy and unfocused – like placeholders while the band impatiently waits to return to the crunch. The guitar solos also didn’t have the artistry to lift things up. They’re well played, but don’t add a lot to most of the songs.

All of this can be overcome with some grade A vocals, but apart from a couple tracks I list below, lead singer Thomas Gabriel Warrior did not do it for me. Warrior has a very distinctive style that is somewhere between the strangled rasp of Cirith Ungol frontman Tim Baker and the lascivious coo of ACDC’s Bon Scott. I love both those guys, and when Warrior is a bit “reeled in” I don’t mind him either.

Unfortunately, he is rarely reeled in on Vanity/Nemesis and his creative phrasing – which I think is supposed to sound dangerous and otherworldly just sounds…whiny.

The worst case of this is “Wings of Solitude” which is at its core a pretty creative tune, with a cool idea (what young metalhead hasn’t wished for “wings of solitude” at some point?). But Warrior’s delivery wrecks the fun, feeling overwrought and devoid of emotional resonance. Less cool Dungeon Master and more awkward kid tugging at your sleeve to tell you a disjointed version of the fantasy novel he’s reading. I acknowledge the line between these two is thin, but it is important.

The songs have weird and nerdy subject matter that is hard to follow, but as a longtime metal fan I know this is as likely to be a feature as a bug. I am more than happy to hear weird interdimensional, cosmic comic book stuff, but the weird also has to be cool, and often on “Vanity/Nemesis” it just ain’t.

Because of all of this, you want to sink into the basic chunking of the thrash guitar sound, but instead of that being a respite, its insistent presence feels more like it’s cornering you. Akin to that headache when you are still drinking late at a party and realize you should just go home.

As for this album, I am sure it will go to a lovely home one day as well. It just won’t be mine.

Best tracks: Wine in Hand (Third from the Sun), Vanity

PS: My version of the record is the 1999 re-release which has a couple bonus tracks, one of which is a pretty crazy cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes”. Intriguing, but still not enough to recommend the record.