I also enjoy The Symbol Remains. Secret Roads is probably my favourite too. I've waited a long time to hear some of those Buck Dharma songs again !
And those evil Eric Bloom vocals are fine too.
Thanks to Richie Castellano for his hard work on the album. I may not always love his AOR tendencies, but he really brought a lot to the table and put his own stamp on the BOC legacy.
So far my favs are The Alchemist & That Was Me. CLassic BOC style!
Been taking a deep and first time or near first-time dive into the BÖC catalog recently, reading Jacob Holm-Lupo’s book as I go along. Really enjoying most of it! Since I don’t have preformed expectations about each album, I’m finding I like almost all of it so far. They can sure write hooks!
Listening to Cultosaurus Erectus right now. Fun to finally get to know it after being familiar with the cool album cover forever! To my ears, the song Fallen Angel sounds a lot like The Who - anyone else think that?
What do you think of Mirrors? Underrated album in their discography. "The Great Sun Jester" (lyrics by Moorcock), "The Vigil" and "Lonely Teardrops" are superb.
I think Mirrors is great! I stopped reading the chapters in Jacob’s book before listening to the albums because I didn’t want to be swayed by the “overriding” opinion. So far they have a very good “hit ratio” for me (i.e., I like most of the songs). Haven’t gone beyond Cultosaurus yet, aside from The Symbol Remains, which is great!
Great Sun Jester is right up there with Heep’s The Wizard for fantasy/rock/Prog/awesomeness/hilarity! Love it!
Secret Treaties, Mirrors, Cultosaurus, and The Symbol are my faves now. Nothing between Fire of Unknown Origin and The Symbol... seems any good...
Revisit Imaginos. While it's got a lot of additional players, that's a winner. Some fantastic material on that!
Don't give up on The Revolution by Night. Except for one song, I think that's a darned underrated record in their discography.
Club Ninja is really uneven. But there are songs on that one not penned by the band. The last song, "Madness to the Method," is good. At 7.5 minutes, it's the longest one they've recorded, too.
Yes, like previous posters I think it's worth taking the time to explore the albums after Fire of Unknown Origin.
The 80s albums suffer from being of their time sonically and songwriting-wise, but they all have some great material.
I would be interested in hearing a proper BÖC version of Imaginos, featuring all the guitar parts Buck reportedly recorded, but it most certainly won't happen. I still like the original album, as frustrating as it is (a 80s sounding studio thing built with session musicians, not really a BOC album or the Albert Bouchard solo album it was meant to be).
I pretty much agree exactly with what you said. "Imaginos" is not as good as it could have been, but there is still a lot of great stuff on it. "Revolution" and "Club Ninja" both have their moments. I would also highly recommend "Heaven Forbid" which is a great album for the most part.
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