SPECTRES

Little by little, the quality of the BÖC albums is decreasing: from a peak with ''Secret Treaties'', the drop was obvious with ''Agent Of Fortune'' but not in terms of sales which probably led the band to some sort of willingness to re-create a copy of their previous album.

The overall mood is at times AOR-ish and can't move me at all (''Godzilla''). Fortunately, some very good hard-rocking tunes are also available: my fave from this work is by no doubt ''Golden Age Of Leather''. Although it holds all the archetypes and clichés of the genres, it is a very pleasant upbeat rock song with some fine vocals and a strong rhythmic all the way through.

The band is much more pop oriented and quieter now which sounds as an heresy in ''77 (''Fireworks', ''Goin' Through The Motions'' the poorest track from this offering IMO). They could have gone wilder and crazier instead, but they decided to head for another direction. Too bad.This leads to a rock ballad in the vein of ''Death Valley Nights''. It sounds as an average Alice Cooper tune.

But this is still OK though when compared to the funky ''Searchin' For Celine'' which is not at all my cup of tea. The New York Dolls oriented ''R.U. Ready 2 Rock'' is a funny and good old rocking track, which is fine after such a poor number.

There aren't no real great songs to be found here. Not too many blunders either would you say (although ''Celestial Queen'' does belong to this description as far as I'm concerned). But was this really what was expected from the band: a middle of the road rock album? I guess not. This album is fully radio formatted with most of the songs clocking under four minutes and the syrupy ballad ''I Love The Night'' is not truly thrilling to say the least.

I don't like this album very much to be honest. Too soft, too average to be worth more than two stars in my ranking.