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Rating: For fans of the New York group, Blue Öyster Cult's career unofficially ends in 1981, following the release of the excellent "Fire Of Unknown Origin" and the departure of drummer/singer Albert Bouchard, whose rhythms characterized the quintet's best pieces with their typical lurching and almost jazzy feel, especially in the early albums from the 1971-1974 period.
The following years, also marked by the departure of bassist and composer Joe Bouchard - Albert's brother - were characterized by changes that did not benefit the band, and the release of albums that were certainly not bad (I am especially thinking of "The Revölution By Night" from '83) which, however, suffered from updating the group's hard sound to lighter and more radio-friendly sounds, akin to certain AOR of the time.
An unexpected and successful return to the studio by the original lineup happens, however, between 1987 and 1988, when the group members and Blue Öyster Cult's historic producer, Sandy Pearlman, return to record some old repertoire and unreleased songs within the concept album "Imaginos", originally intended for a solo album by the resurrected Albert Bouchard.
The main theme of the album, whose lyrics are forcibly cryptic - and naturally occult - as fans of the group well know, stems from the usual suggestions of Pearlman and Bouchard: the history of man, from minor episodes to great discoveries, is probably influenced by occult intelligences of alien origin, guiding humanity step by step, even through their emissaries, to unknown destinations. Sci-fi and gnosis are integrated into an apparently "low" and popular discourse, but perhaps more cultured than it may seem at first glance, referring to the limits of human knowledge, the relationship between man and the universe... all seasoned with an underlying nihilism, in my opinion indebted to Pearlman's Jewish roots and singer Eric Bloom.
The album, hailed by many as an authentic masterpiece, has a substantially "episodic" value, resulting, in my opinion, quite artificial, although this does not detract from the value of some pieces, which are indeed well-made and very interesting, considering the context (late '80s) in which they were performed.
Overall, the group's style is updated compared to the past, with greater emphasis on keyboard arrangements - giving almost sci-fi touches - and greater compactness in guitar sounds, here played by Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser and exceptional guests, including some well-known names in American hard rock (Joe Satriani, Aldo Nova, Kenny Aaronson), as well as Robbie Krieger of the Doors.
Paradoxically, it is precisely the rhythm section of the Bouchard brothers - an added value to the group at least in the first phase of their career - that is penalized by the update of the quintet's sound: the expressive freedom and interplay of bass and drums are sacrificed for uniform and uninventive rhythmic solutions, adhering to certain hard rock of the time, now oblivious to its trivial blues origins and the improvisational spaces that were inherent to it at the end of the '60s.
All this makes the work appear overly orderly, too prim, too artificial, without adding much, therefore, to Blue Öyster Cult's career, whose return to the music scene was hailed as a masterpiece more for sentimental reasons, or again, in response to the relative musical desert in which they operated within hard rock, at a time when the genre's cutting edge was, rather, the thrash of certain epigones, primarily Metallica.
This does not take away, of course, that flashes of class and interest can still be seen in the album, making the listening of "Imaginos" pleasant, elevating it certainly above the average of other works of the genre, as well as Blue Öyster Cult's discography from '81 onwards.
The interpretation of individual pieces by Bloom, in fact, appears particularly expressive, alternating almost theatrical declamations with spirited gallops; the overall atmosphere of the pieces - what one would call the group's mood - remains overall unsettling and disturbing, also thanks to theses that, in suggesting the existence of alternative realities, show us the boundaries - close to us - of the unknown. The technical expertise of the group and the guest musicians appears, moreover, beyond doubt.
The most significant pieces of the album, in this perspective, are the powerful "I Am the One You Warned Me Of", the melodic "Del Rio's Song", although the apex of the album is reached with the hypnotic "In the Presence of Another World". Interesting, although inferior to the originals, are the self-covers of "Astronomy" and "Subhuman" (now "Blue Öyster Cult").
Overall, a more than dignified album, but inferior to the works of the past.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
06 Astronomy (06:54)
The clock strikes twelve and moondrops burst
Out at you from their hiding place
Like acid and oil on a madman's face
His reason tends to fly away
Like lesser birds on the four winds
Like silver scrapes in May
And now the sand's become a crust
And most of you have gone away
Come Susie dear, let's take a walk
Just out there upon the beach
I know you'll soon be married
And you'll want to know where winds come from
Well it's never said at all
On the map that Carrie reads
Behind the clock back there you know
At the Four Winds Bar
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
Four doors at the Four Winds Bar
Two doors locked and windows barred
One door to let to take you in
The other one just mirrors it
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
Hellish glare and inference
The other one's a duplicate
The Queenly flux, eternal light
Or the light that never warms
Or the light that never, never warms
Or the light that never
Never warms
Never warms
Never warms
The clock strikes twelve and moondrops burst
Out at you from their hiding place
Miss Carrie nurse and Susie dear
Would find themselves at Four Winds Bar
It's the nexus of the crisis
And the origin of storms
Just the place to hopelessly
Encounter time and then came me
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
Call me Desdinova
Eternal light
These gravely digs of mine
Will surely prove a sight
And don't forget my dog
Fixed and consequent
Astronomy...a star (repeats)
07 Magna of Illusion (05:58)
Cornwall and the harbor
Where witches went mad more than once and
Until this day
In dreams at least
The lighthouse at Lost Christabel
Squat and hugely tilts
Upon the strand where Grandad's house was built
And having stood the test of time
The starry gale the bloody tide
Grandad's house though gaped with hooks
And filled with books
Could stand no more until
A certain prophecy
Once read - now stood
Before the world fulfilled
Now of these books in Grandad's keep
Some of them were new but mostly they were old
And the oldest was a scroll
A prophecy that read
When the riddle begins
The story will end
August the First 1892
And in the guise of destiny
Grandad quit Cornwall
"I'm a captain of a ship
My ship is charmed, and called Plutonia."
Stories on land, storms at sea
'Tween 1892 and '93
When Grandad sailed for Mexico
Ships charmed and ordinary
Sailed the glidepath to the sun
And when the sun proved false
As it always does
Some of them would be lost
And some would sail back home
It was no star
But a magna of illusion
I mean by that
The mirror found
In the chamber of jade grown like a seed
Deep within the ground
The mirror found
By one man
So on and off again
He sailed the Europe's rim
On and off, off and on
Until his time had come
Through tears and smiles
The last domain
The rods of broken crystal
On and off, and off again
Until his time had come
Late to the story that had been
But early to the riddle not yet begun
August the First 1893
The charmed ship Plutonia
Sailed like a ray into Cornwall
And none too soon it seems
That night the Captain's granddaughter
Would celebrate her birthday
"I've come a long way," said the Captain
"From Lost Christabel this night
Accompanied by my dog familiar
To blast your rafters with my surprise!
Granddaughter, it's a foreign mirror
Taken from the jungle by crime!"
Stories on land, storms at sea
'Tween 1892 and '93
When Grandad sailed for Mexico
When tables collapse
And floors have filled
And the party's over, it's all over
Sea-dogs and rockers will dwell on doom
I've warped the stuff of ground
What seems to be is not
Behind closed eyes
Realize your sight
Mine, granddaughter, proves a surprise
More light than sun
More dark than night then
More a snare than lust
09 Imaginos (05:46)
Imaginos
Approached the sun
In August in New Hapshire
Singing songs
Nobody knew
And stories left undone
See this fish
His scales turned green
Under such a sun
Such a sun...............such a sun
such a sun...............such a sun
such a sun
A tongue and pale
Of Texas light
Descended on the border
While the bird
Called Buzzardo
Rattled the bones
He picked the flesh from
See this fish
His scales turned green
Under such a sun
Such a sun...............such a sun
such a sun...............such a sun
such a sun
Checking the sign of the Moonfleet
Roll your wheel with mine
Sometimes in the light of day
The truth proves hard to find
Actually this Buzzardo
Was Imaginos in disguise
In disguise
Ooo Imaginos
Ooo Imaginos
Ooo Ooo Ooo Imaginos
Ooo Imaginos
Ooo Imaginos
Ooo Ooo Ooo
Imaginos
Approached the sun
In August in New Hapshire
Singing songs
Nobody knew
And stories left undone
See this fish
His scales turned green
Under such a sun
Such a sun...............such a sun
such a sun...............such a sun
such a sun
I'm Buzzardo in Texas............Last chance
I'm a pinwheel in Vermont........Last chance
And gorge the Bungo Pony.........Last chance Laaast chance Last chance
I'm a rocker a roller and a spinner, too
Below that scene of subterfuge...Last chance Laaast chance Last chance
Which is
The last chance border...........Last chance Laaast chance Last chance
.................................Last chance Laaast chance Last chance
On the border....................Last chance Laaast chance Last chance
.................................Last chance Laaast chance Last chance
On the border....................Last chance Laaast chance Last chance
.................................Last chance Last chance
The last exit to Texas
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