Blue Öyster Cult

Although much of BÖC’s early oeuvre traversed the midpoint between, say, Velvet Underground and Black Sabbath, the band’s softer side explored the logical extension of mid-’60s American garage psychedelia as catalogued on Lenny Kaye’s Nuggets compilation (BÖC’s own trippy origins—post-Soft White Underbelly and Stalk-Forrest Group—are documented on the four demos tacked onto the end of the reissue of Blue Öyster Cult), with a Dylanesque sophistication worthy of pre-Aja Steely Dan. Ergo, 1974’s Secret Treaties was BÖC’s most fully realized record, with eight tracks that span just over 40 minutes—“Career of Evil,” “Subhuman,” “Dominance and Submission,” “ME 262,” “Cagey Cretins,” “Harvester of Eyes,” “Flaming Telepaths” and “Astronomy,” you’ve gotta love titles like that, right? The reissue adds three outtakes from Secret Treaties and single edits of “Career of Evil” and “Born to Be Wild.” Genius.