Spectres (Extra Tracks)

by

Blue Öyster Cult

Edit

Spectres is not my favorite BOC album, or even top three favorite but, I was so pleased with the previous BOC remasters I had to get it. For $10.99 it was money well spent.

The remaster slightly improves the overall sound and clarity of the album and while the packaging is slightly less robust than the remasters of the first 4 BOC albums, it certainly has more to offer than the original cd release.

The bonus tracks are leftovers from the same recording sessions that yielded the album so I wasn't expecting anything fantastic. That said, I actually think Night Flyer is a stonger track than one or two of the tracks that made the original Spectres. Also, M For Murder is decent as is their cover of Be My Baby (surprisingly).

Overall a very solid remaster. I have already ordered the Legacy Edition of Some Enchanted Evening and as someone mentioned earlier...

Where is the remaster of On Your Feet Or On Your Knees???

If you're reading this review, chances are you may be like me - we're old enough to have Spectres on vinyl and remember it fondly ("Raise your can of beer on high" - indeed! haha!)! Now, the question is, is this worth spending your money on to replace your original copy? To that end, I won't try to convince you of the merits of the music here (you gotta love a good Buck Dharma guitar solo!) but I will point out that the remastering job makes this a completely different listen than what it sounded like on vinyl...and that's not necessarily a compliment!

This is certainly a minority opinion, but Spectres was always my favorite BOC studio release (and I've been waiting a long time for this remastered version!). It's been part of my collection since it was initially released on vinyl. I'm certainly no audiophile and I don't want to be a troglodyte extolling the benefits of analog vs. digital but, to my humble ears, the remastering job on this release is, to be nominally polite, going to take some getting used to.

If the goal in remastering includes taking advantage of the benefits of improvements in technology to make the music sound better, then this release fails miserably in that regard. However, if the idea is to just make it sound "different" from the original then ok, they sure succeeded.

Right from the opening pounds of the drums and notes from Buck's guitar on Godzilla (track 1) it becomes immediately clear that the recorded volume of the disc is pretty low. To my ear, the music sounds like you're listening from the otherside of a cardboard wall. Overall, I'd compare the sonics to the visual effect of looking at a favorite painting from a distance, only to move closer and see that someone has cut or torn it into pieces and tried to piece it back together. As much as your heart wants it to be the way it was, it ain't the same! The only time the music seemed to jump out of the speakers (and I've played it on three different systems already, same impression) is a couple times in Lanier's keyboard solos - and those sound fantastic! So why's the rest of the disc so flat?

By way of comparisons, yesterday I also randomly picked up dual discs of Robin Trower's "BLT/Truce" and Adrian Belew's "Lone Rhino/Twang Bar King" cds. Note that neither of those are labeled as remasters, just two old lps each (from roughly the same late 70's era as Spectres) on regular single cds. In listening to these two cds immediately after Spectres, the results were blatantly in favor of the audio being way better, definately on BLT and even more so (and WOW!!) on Lone Rhino. The instruments were loud, crisp, distinct, vibrant and clear. So, my opinion isn't just based on being so old that my hearing is completely shot...

As for the rest of the packaging, I'm generally a fan of bonus cuts, but the four on Spectres are probably better ammunition for those who tend to decry them as lesser cuts that weren't strong enough to make the original release. Even with the 4 extra cuts the total time of the disc is now about 53 minutes. Also, the liner notes and photos in the booklet are limited and add minimal value to the release (again, both the Trower and Belew booklets were more informative). 'Nuff said.

Put it this way, while I'm glad I bought Spectres for the good old music, I'm not impressed with the audio quality and, based on that, am not likely to casually spend more money on their other remasters (speaking of which, where the heck is OYFOOYK?!). My overall rating of 3 stars is based on 4 stars for the original music and 2 stars for the remastered sound.

Conversely, and musical tastes aside, based strictly on how the other two sound, I absolutely would consider more Trower and Belew twofers!