THE COLUMBIA ALBUMS COLLECTION

Superb value

Box sets are not for everyone, but when they hit you at the right time they can be fantastic. This one hit me at the perfect time. I have not owned BOC albums since the vinyl/cassette days and was about to begin buying some individual albums on CD. I noticed this box, which sports their entire Columbia output (from their debut through Imaginos) in one convenient and low price box. With some tasty extra goodies. So the timing was perfect. If you were just thinking of exploring BOC and don't own too much, this is one awesome way to get the show shebang for a cool price.

This is not a "frills" box set so much, rather, it concentrates on the music and value. Every album up through Imaginos is included, many which are expanded editions with bonus tracks, and most with brand new 2012 remaster jobs. Each CD comes in its own mini-lp style sleeve, albeit pretty low budget ones, nothing fancy. These are held by the practical sized box, CD sized, so it can fit right on your CD shelves. None of that oversized BS that takes up tons of room, nor lame digi-pak style holders or tight slip sleeves. Practical and smart, though slightly low budget to keep the price reasonable. And this is not just the studio stuff, it also includes their three live albums from this period as well.

Goodies includes two discs of previously unreleased material, one a "rarities disc" and the other a collection of radio performances. "Some Enchanted Evening" gives you not only the album but also a live DVD concert. The sound is pretty weak to be honest but it is still fun to watch for fans. The booklet is OK although certainly not the reason to purchase this...it gives you detailed track lists and credit, a short Lenny Kaye commentary, and some photos-pretty mediocre. The last goodie is the bonus coupon with a code that allows you a free download of four different BOC shows, one each from the years 1980, 1981, 1983, and 1986. I have not listened to these yet but these look great.

If you already have decent sounding editions of the albums you love, you probably don't need this. But if you don't have much this is a super way to instantly own good sounding editions of all of their classic albums for one fair price. I've really enjoyed reacquainting with this band I haven't listened to much since I saw them last, 30 years ago!

Contains all albums but for Curse of The Hidden Mirror and Heaven Forbid and the OST soundtrack, obviously these are the Columbia only releases.

First up, the remastering. The first three and the first live album have been remastered fro the last remasters with the same bonus material. The overall improvements are a less abrasive sonic effect compared to the rather inexpensive original productions from the LPs and CD issues.

Agents Of Fortune sounds the same as the latest remaster so I think it's really just the first ones that have had a sonic upgrade the others sound the same as the CD issues presumably BOC or Columbia consider all the other albums to be ok which they are really. Spectres has had a couple of issues this one and the one prior with the bonus material.

Imaginos sounds like it also had a minor facelift but that is it really, the only remastered album without bonus material. Presumably this might spoil the highly involved concept album effect. Now it may not have been remastered but it sourced from the original tapes rather than the post production master. Or maybe it's just me, one way or another it sounds fine, clear and punchy.

Slightly off topic. A good example of production generation > DC > remaster is Queen's A Night AT The Opera. The CD remaster and DVD annotated with Brian May's notes are taken form the original tapes yet the later reissue (in that box set) has not but use tapes 2 generations down. I've not heard that master - it is probably fine but a digital audio conversion (DAC) to hard drive is best from the master tapes. As Queen had already done this with Opera I don't know why they did not keep that master. I know some engineers and record companies are oath to use masters as the condition may be not the best now and fear of further deterioration or harm is borne in mind. I do hope some remastering to digital is done as analogue processing is fine for LP format but sounds boxy and less palatable on CD with the more sonic space available. This is probably why a lot of people think CDs sound less good than the LPs.

Back to BOC Some Enchanted Evening (1978) has the original material plus the new bonus audio all of which makes this new version an improvement on old versions - i.e. still a great live LP, CD but better with more material. Good stuff. on every original issue. Also included is the DVD Some Other Enchanted Evening in full glorious 1978 TV video recording glory, mono and the lovely TV picture. It's a good gig and fine enough but there is nothing to deceive anyone into thinking this is 21st Century. A period piece of the USA's finest ever rock band (!) ;) in action. This CD / DVD has also been issued as a standalone issue.

The 1982 ET Live sounds the same as the LP and CD master issued prior to this. As do Revolution By Night and Club Ninja. No extra material on these.

I've yet to download but there are four concerts. I already have the 1983 Pasadena FM broadcast now officially released - the ROIO sounds great - presumably why it managed to get released.

I'll update this review when I know I have the bandwidth available to download the concerts (four); this way I'll know whether they are "nasty" mp3 files (ok for mp3 player, PC playback but inadequate for CD quality due to so much data lost on this format). I hope the files will be flac format for back up and our own conversion to WAV or other playback format if required. I know it sounds a tad ungrateful of me to moan about the download format but I do like the best sound I can get. However we do get an idea...

...as you get 2 CDs worth of bonus material. The Best of the FM Broadcasts lets us hear a 1 CD compilation of the downloads (making my ingratitude worse by the good quality official bootleg sound). These sound like pre FM masters which are about the best source material you can get outside of the original mixing master tapes. It's all good news really.

There is another CD this one full of rarities. These two would seem to be exclusive to the box set. I anticipate future BOC anthologies to feature occasional rare and bonus material likely to be sourced from these CDs and the downloads. Also floating around but not part of the set is a sampler 40th anniversary promo CD which I "found and downloaded" - gotta have the rare BOC however it comes!

Now, appearance and packing. The CDs are more or less LP replica but for the white border on the card covers identifying them as from the box set, just the same as the ELO box set. The box is nice looking but also observed to be a little light - I think it is recommended for record companies to issue box sets in more robust packaging, it does not take too much, a bit of hard card and box with lid but this could be a lot worse. There is a booklet which I would have liked annotated with mastering generation and such like details. Some may like a replica of the booklets of previous CD issues, if so you are out of luck. however you get an appropriate essay of the contents and details of personnel and everything else. All perfectly acceptable to the box set consumer.

If you are a BOC fan you probably have this, or will have it and if so I thoroughly recommend, it's a blast. If you have the LPs and are happy with those fine but you may want to check this out anyway. e.g. I have OFOOYK on vinyl and compared it with the original CD issue - same master and audio A/B comparison showed the sound to my ears to be the same; not really surprising. This one is a punchier upgrade. it, er, rocks even harder. Plus you get the bonus material which given the first five studio albums, the 2 CDs of bonus material, the expanded Enchanted Evening plus DVD is pretty good value.

To the general fans which is to whom I would generally address my comments, you may want to try a compilation something like The Essential or Workshop of the Telescopes 2 CD sets which should give you an idea if you are unfamiliar with BOC or have only heard the FM staples Reaper, Godzilla, Joan Crawford and wonder what else. Just make sure it has Astronomy on your compilation. However if f you have good idea of what to expect and think about getting this set it is fine value. I paid roughly 4 bucks a disc, probably less once I've downloaded the concerts (4 more live albums of concert Blue Oyster Cult!) making the per capita cost less.

The live releases sound good. They are all mp3s from the BOC shop. My only grip is I can never have enough versions of Astronomy and there are none on these broadcasts. They sound like the pre FM edited tapes and are quick and easy to download.

Summary It sounds fine (better than some contemporary issues of individual CDs such as the first three), it's good value and should last your lifetime or more.

Ratings - excellent addition to a prog rock and hard rock collection. Classic? - pretty much, it's easy to give this a 5 star rating bearing in mind the remasters here (first 3 and the first live album) are exclusive to this box set. The bonus material on the first five studio releases are available outside this box but there are 2 CDs worth and the downloads currently exclusive to this. If the concerts were included as discs and the liner notes replicated I'd have to give it five stars. It may have cost a bit more though so cheers to BOC for helping the costs kept down for the consumer. Of course some albums are regarded higher than others so I'll allow for that group thought mis-perception. I feel really mean not giving it five stars... 4 1/2 really.

The box is CD shelf sized, no T shirts etc (I wouldn't have minded but I'm not really worried,little extraneous packaging keeps the box set to easy to store on the shelf size. It's unfussy, and good value.

And the music is awesome, thank you Blue Oyster Cult.

This is basically your one-and-done Blue Oyster Cult collection, spanning their entire career with Columbia Records from their debut album to Imaginos. (Yes, in theory they have produced some material since then... but none of it is particularly significant compared to their 1970s and 1980s work.) You get the studio albums, you get the official live albums, you get a nice rarities collection, you get Radios Appear: the Best of the Broadcasts (a collection of 1980s live material which is a decent fourth live album - early editions of the set came with a code to download a now-pulled collection called Harvester of Lives of four live shows, but these are just the shows from which the songs on Radios Appear were selected and you don't really need more than that single disc in terms of that material).

As far as the first five studio albums plus Some Enchanted Evening go, the editions you get here are the standard remasters that have been around for some time, with the same bonus tracks. Other albums are present in new remasters, giving them a long-overdue tidy up, but don't have bonus tracks (one suspects that much of the material which would have served as such ended up on the Rarities and Radios Appear discs anyway). All of this is served up in a selection of cute little cardboard LP sleeve replicas - which breaks some of the gatefold artwork in some cases, but eh, when the value's this good that's no big deal.

Even superfans will want this collection for the rare cuts on there - and those who are less keen on BOC but still enjoy them enough to want a selection of their albums will find there to be plenty to explore here. If you are going to do a cheap and cheerful collection of a big fat chunk of a prolific band's discography, this is how you should be doing it.