"By Mirrors it was all over"

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On 17 Aug 2013, at 09:36 , Tim Hall <tim at KALYR.COM> wrote:
> 
> Quote from cut-and-paste by a Severn FM DJ left against a Facebook post of mine.
> While I'd agree that BÖC's best work is earlier in their career, with Secret Treaties as the peak, I wouldn't be that dismissive of later albums, especially "Cultasaurus" and "Fire of Unknown Origin". I'd say that it was only after Albert left that the albums started getting really patchy.

I'd _overall_ agree .... though frankly it's tough to point fingers. People tend to canonize the early '70s albums and demonize the ones from later in the decade, but though _ST_ really is quite strong (though I've never been thrilled with the production, allowing that such things are very much a matter of personal taste!), as with most bands, there's good and less good on most of the albums.

Perhaps there's a little more less good on the later '70s ones, but I also think they are probably not so bad as people make out. In any case, not to the point that "by Mirrors it was all over". FoUO was perhaps compromised somewhat by the intended-but-not-realized association with the Heavy Metal film ("You'll use that special option in your car"!), and it would be easy to argue that the production pointed the way to the slick'n'soulness '80s, but, hey, it _was_ 1981 and I think of FoUO as a late-bloomer: the swan song of the classic lineup, and going out on a genuine high.

And it's too bad that the classic lineup then exploded -- or disintegrated --  but it was as it was.

Equally, I don't think RbN or CN are _all_ bad, nor would I necessarily attribute the apparent preponderance of badness to the lack of the Bouchard Bros.  To an extent, they may have even "lucked out" (so to speak, if you see what I mean) in not being associated with the less-well-received recordings of the band in a era that was, in general, not good to bands that had been big in the '70s! Admittedly, they are conspicuous by their relative absence (Joe appears as a co-writer on, like, 3 songs?) in the writing credits.  And, of course, Albert is conspicuous by his presence (and not only as a writer) on the not-realized-as-envisioned-but-still-astonishing-and-glorious _Imaginos_, which is really not a BÖC album, but would another career highpoint if it were. I certainly don-t stop listening that _that_! :)

> What's the list's verdict on the later albums, especially "Heaven Forbid" and "Curse of the Hidden Mirror". Do people still listen to them?

I put HF and CotHM into sort of the same category as RbN and CN: not all bad (and, IMO, much better in terms of production!) but suffering from lack of vibe and the song-writing strengths that made the '70s albums what you were. Buck is clearly capable of writing some great songs, and IMO Eric and Allen always had strengths in that department, but there was not enough going on in the writing to produce enough material that was up to the standard of that produced when The Bouchards and Sandy P. had had their oars in as well. One of the strongest pieces on either record is probably "Harvest Moon", a solo-penned Buck number that actually goes back to at least The Red & The Black trio of the late '80s/early '90s before winding up on HF in '98. 

So there you have it.

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
http://www.carlaz.com/