Blue Öyster Cult - The Box Set Series [4CD] (2014)

The real question is, did we really need this four-disc set? The original Blue Öyster Cult reissue program by Sony was ambitious, with the first four studio albums reissued in 2001 as deluxe editions with excellent remastering, extended liner notes, and bonus material that ranged from early Stalk-Forrest Group sessions to live cuts and alternate takes; these were followed in 2007 by Spectres and the live album Some Enchanted Evening, leaving some of the band's original titles still in their first CD incarnations from the 1980s -- with all the sonic limitations that implies. This box set is an excellent best-of, and is sold for a budget price, yet it is still just another compilation whose contents every real BÖC fan owns in various incarnations -- and probably more than once. While the best of BÖC is represented here, the band's legacy would be better served by remastering the rest of the catalog.