Boston Boston (Vinyl LP) * * *

Boston was in the right place at the right time as an alternative to the disco and nascent punk-rock movements of 1976. Certified Gold one month after appearing on the Billboard albums chart, and platinum one month later, the band's self-titled debut spent a solid 2 1/2 years on the list producing the rock radio fixtures "More Than A Feeling," "Long Time," and "Peace Of Mind" along the way. From the sparkling opening acoustic passage to "More Than a Feeling" through the rollicking country-inspired ramble that finishes the closing "Let Me Take You Home Tonight," the now 17x platinum release unspools as a revelatory, anthemic, acoustic-electric yin-yang hybrid of power pop, hard rock, and classically influenced music. Brad Delp's leather-lung vocals, Tom Scholz's crunchy riffs, and their colleagues assured playing teem with romance, fantasy, possibility, sweetness, imagination, sentimentality, and happiness. Contagious in its appeal, it is the rare album that has no obvious peers – and an effort in which everything, from the studio approach to the intricate details to the climactic architecture of the arrangements, synchronizes in epic fashion.