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!

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.