But the 7 songs in between are mostly pretty good, and a few are better. “The Great Sun Jester” is the median of sci-fi author Michael Moorcock’s collaborations with the band; not as good as “Veteran of the Psychic Wars” but better than “Black Blade.” Allen Lanier’s “In Thee” and Albert Bouchard’s “You’re Not the One (I Was Looking For)” are two of BÖC’s most straightforward love songs — no one in either tune seems to be any kind of supernatural entity — but they’re also both melodically sturdy and surprisingly unclichéd. Werman’s bag of production doodads does less damage to the title track and “Moon Crazy,” than to “Dr. Music,” maybe in part because their lyrics are better. “I Am The Storm” has some very silly lines (and weird scansion in the chorus) but it’s catchy and I like it. The pièce de résistance for me is “The Vigil.” It’s a lengthy epic about (I think) extraterrestial visitors that even Tom Werman can’t sabotage; if I assembled my own BÖC best-of, it’d be a shoe-in.

Star rating: 2.56