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Reviews: Blue Oyster Cult: Agents of Fortune

Reviews: 7

Review by swanlee May 16, 2003 (1 of 1 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
First off think was stereophile or one of the mags that trashed the SACD version of agents of fortune all I can sy to that is they are wrong and to use your own ears. While the SACD version won't make you think the unearthed some lost artifact of pop history is does sound really good.

This album lends itself very well to SACD a very smooth album with a fair amount of ambience effects. If you enjoy SACD and know the typical SACD sound of a smooth analog sound with a great amount of detail and airyness this SACd follows suit. The only bonus is the song Fire of unknown origin but its a good early demo of the song. The album itself is one of their best and most consistent works, I've found other BOC albums to be spotty most having 1-3 really great songs and a lot of filler but agents flows better and it's a good listen all the way through. They did a respectable job on the release and no one should complain.

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Review by vonwegen September 11, 2003 (1 of 1 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
Side one is good, side two falls off a bit, and all the other songs on this album are overshadowed by (you guessed it) track 3, which needs no introduction. The 5.1 mix of "Reaper" is lovely indeed.

Both the stereo and 5.1 mixes are fine on this album--but if you look at the CD re-issue, you'll notice several bonus tracks that don't appear on the SACD, including the original home 4-track demo of "Reaper". I think Sony is being really, really chintzy by not including these in the stereo track selections.

Also, the packaging leaves something to be desired--the CD re-issue has more photos and the back tray photo is not backwards like on the SACD. Also, it sure would've been nice to know which of BÖC's 3 guitar players played which lead bits on each song--given that the studio track listings included with each multi-track master tape have such info, I don't think it would've been so much extra effort. And considering how much SACDs cost, this should be expected.

In general, Sony's SACD packaging needs a thorough revamping. I dock the performance rating one star because of the missing bonus tracks & inadequate packaging, not because BÖC underperformed on this album.

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Review by Sckott July 22, 2004 (1 of 3 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
Excellent in stereo, but I thought the MCH mix was terrible. As a stedfast Rock Classic, it's a must have.

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Review by Toni August 28, 2004
Performance:   Sonics:
Sonics are quite good, improvement over the original rbcd is considerable. Anyway, the sonics aren't as good as in most more recent sacds. I liked the mc mix, it was a bit aggressive at times, but not over the top at any point.

Album has some great tracks, some decent and a couple of not so good ones. One extra track had been added, more would have been welcome, maybe some live tracks.

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Review by StyleAndEntertainmen April 23, 2005 (4 of 5 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
Agree with all the reviews here, but let me add:

This is a very listenable CD (I've played Dont Fear the Reaper about 10 times in a row :). The Sonics are quite good - especially considering most rock CD sound like crap on my very hi-res system. So thumbs up there! The mc mix IS agressive - did you want to hear a guitar lead coming from behind you? I dont. Even so, it's not full on behind but 60/40 back/front.. which makes it's tolerable. On the plus side of this mix, you will hear parts you never heard before. But mostly they are rythem parts which you really don't want to hear... do you? I dont. Now for the stereo mix. Overall, I think it suits this album better. Maybe I'm just to used to the original (LP :) but for this music and this mc mix I think the blend is better in stereo... course i haven't tried mono yet :)

Overall I recommend it with a B rating. Good audio quality, fair mc mix, good stereo mix, fair packaging.

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Review by gregs1104 January 30, 2010 (1 of 4 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
The stereo layer on here is way too bright, can't stand listening to it. I much prefer the MoFi CD to this SACD, as stereo versions go. Haven't listened to the multi-channel version enough to really rate its sonics, it didn't sound all that compelling either when I quickly browsed through it.

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Review by HeresJohnny August 3, 2011 (1 of 1 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:    
The stereo mix has a very low dynamic rating of 8 (so let's not talk about that anymore), while the mc mix improves on the MFSL with 11 vs. 10 dynamic rating. SACD MC sounds cleaner and improves on the frequency band vs. the MFSL as well. It's not one of the best sounding SACD I've ever heard, but it's still better than any of the CD versions.

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