Blue Oyster Cult

Agents of Fortune is a startlingly excellent album -- startling because one does not expect
Blue Oyster Cult to sound like this: loud but calm, manic but confident, melodic but
rocking. Every song on the first side is commercially accessible without compromising the
band's malevolent stance. One area of clear improvement is in the matter of lyrics; for the
first time there is less emphasis on absurd, crypto-intellectual rambling and more... More >

Just when I figured they were doomed to repeat themselves until the breakup, they come up with the Fleetwood Mac of heavy metal, not as fast as Tyranny and Mutation but longer on momentum, with MOR tongue-in-cheek replacing the black-leather posturing and future games. I wonder how long it took them to do the la-la-las on "Debbie Denise" without cracking up. (Grade: B+)