Blue Oyster Cult - Blue Oyster Cult

This remastered CD is not a new release, but I finally picked it up!

You can see my review of this incredible debut record elsewhere on this site , but this remastered version sounds freakin' awesome and that alone is worth the price.

But along with the fantastic sound, you also get 4 bonus tracks from their Soft White Underbelly days.

“Donovan's Monkeys”, along with the other originals, has lyrics by R. Meltzer, showing that he & BOC have a long history together! No, I have no idea what this song is about but it definitely sounds like they were influenced by Jefferson Airplane at this point. (Eric even mentions them in the new liner notes.) This is a great tune, up-tempo and rockin' in a SF/Airplane (I think I’m thinking of “3/5 of a mile in Ten Seconds” here) kinda way. I dig it a lot!

“What is Quicksand” is my least favorite of the bonus tracks. In fact, I thought it sounded like a throw-away, but upon reading the liner notes, this tune is something that existed for years and was also a demo when the band was called the Stalk-Forest Group. To me, it just doesn’t live up to their other songs, though it does have some interesting guitar work in it. But "A Fact About Sneakers" brings us back to the SF sound (maybe more Quicksilver Messenger Service here) with some cool harmonies and a pretty intricate backing track.

The real oddity is a comparatively traditional take on "Betty Lou's Got a New Pair of Shoes" that sounds like another SF band, the Flamin' Groovies. This would fit right in on their "Still Shakin'" record. This is pretty rockin’, but not something that I would expect from BOC (or SWU). Just goes to show that they had a wide variety of influences!

So, even if you have the original version of this record, I would highly recommend this for the sound and the ultra-cool extra tracks!