On Tyranny And Mutation, side one held the classics and side two the filler. This is also quite true of Agents Of Fortune. The pop flavorings that first appeared on Secret Treaties are in full bloom here.

“This Ain’t The Summer Of Love” opens the disc with a throbbing pulse in the bass and rhythm guitar with bright lead guitar chords and a catchy vocal melody above, then ends after a radio-friendly 2 minutes and 20 seconds. Lanier’s piano and unpleasantly high-pitched vocals dominate “True Confessions”, the moderately forgettable second track. The third track is Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser’s AOR masterpiece “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”, which combines a soothing repeated arpeggio line, swirling guitars, and laid-back vocal delivery with that infamous cowbell. It’s follower, “E. T. I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)” is less famous, but just as enticing. It combines a great guitar riff with piano chords and an equally poppy vocal hook. The first side closes with “The Revenge Of Vera Gemini”, on which Bloom trades gruffer vocal lines with Patti Smith over a syncopated bass line and spare guitar chords ascending chromatically through the chorus.

Side two begins with “Sinful Love”, another attempt at mixing hard rock accompaniment with pop vocals that does not work as well as anything on the first side. “Tattoo Vampire” is simply strange. The riffs are interesting, but the vocalists screaming “vampire” through an effects chain ruin the song. “Morning Final” starts with a nice slow guitar solo over shimmering piano, but the heart of the chord-driven rock song is forgettable. The bass riff and simple chord progression that make up “Tenderloin” work surprisingly well and a few short but well-placed solo save the song from obscurity. The album ends with a ballad, “Debbie Denise”, that might have been passable if it had stayed within Eric Bloom’s comfortable voice range.

The CD reissue includes four bonus tracks, two of which are worth having. The first is a demo of “Fire Of Unknown Origin”. A very different version would be released on the album of the same name 5 years later, but the demo is better. The second bonus is an unreleased rock & roll song, “Sally”, which is at least as good as some of the album cuts. There is also an early demo of “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”, which is only interesting for those who would like to see how easily one of the great songs of the ‘70s could have been terrible. The final bonus track is “Dance The Night Away”, a terrible plodding ballad.

The strength of this album is its well-known single, but listeners who enjoy “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” will find several tracks with similar merits. As with previous Blue Oyster Cult releases, pure metalheads will be disappointed.