SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT – GHOST STORIES

BLUE ÖYSTER CULT
GHOST STORIES
FRONTIERS MUSIC

One has to love and respect Blue Öyster Cult. When they decided to assemble and release an album of tracks recorded for but left off their albums from 1978 to 1983 (with one exception of “If I Fell” recorded in 2016), they decided to call the album Ghost Stories. It is a wonderful title with the band conjuring up ghosts of the past.  Thankfully, the music lives up to the title. Fans are going to love this album, but newcomers to the band will find a lot of songs here to enjoy too. For the most part, Ghost Stories features the classic line-up of the band, Eric Bloom (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Albert Bouchard (drums, vocals), Joe Bouchard (bass, guitar, keyboards, percussion, vocals), Allen Lanier (guitar, keyboards) and Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser (guitar, vocals).

Beginning in 1978 through to 1983, Blue Öyster Cult released a lot of their classic albums, and they achieved a great deal of success both with their albums and tours. Mirrors (1979) is a brilliant album that helped define Blue Öyster Cult’s sound. The thing about Blue Öyster Cult is that they were, next to Alice Cooper, the most melodic of all the heavy metal/hard rock bands. They focused on harmonies, melody, and tight playing. Take the opening track, “Late Night Street Fight”. It is an excellent song, and the guitar solos, and everything else fit together like a perfect puzzle. Other songs have the same energy and strength. “Shot In The Dark” is an interesting bluesy, story song with some fine piano and not the kind of song one expects from Blue Öyster Cult.

Other songs, such as “Gun” could have been a hit like “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” or “Godzilla” or “Burnin’ For You”. Whereas a song like “So Supernatural” shows a different side of the band, where they seem to be experimenting with a very different guitar, almost goth sound. It later transforms itself into a standard rocker, but initially, it is a very interesting sound from the band.

There are also some very interesting cover versions on the album, “Kick Out The Jams”, which is an example of how these guys could not only rock but create the perfect garage rock sound. “We’ve Gotta Get Out Of This Place” is much harder than the original by The Animals, and it becomes a Blue Öyster Cult song very quickly. The oddest cover is “If I Fell”, which comes from 2016. Here the band strips down to acoustic and, once again, dazzles their audience with those harmonies. It is very faithful to The Beatles version.

Blue Öyster Cult debuted in 1972, and they have been celebrating 50 years. The band has said that Ghost Stories is their last album. With lost gems like these songs, one hopes they can exhume other songs for another compilation, because these are seriously great songs. The band has worked with their producers to make the songs shiny and sound current. It worked, because, again, this album can sit comfortably with any other albums.

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