Styx - Styx
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CD Details
Artist: StyxEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1998-11-24
Music Label: One Way Records Inc
Soundtracks:
- 1. Movement For The Common Man: Children Of The Land/Street Collage/Fanfare For The Common Man...
- 2. Right Away
- 3. What Has Come Between Us
- 4. Best Thing
- 5. Quick Is The Beat Of My Heart
- 6. After You Leave Me
Music reviews of Styx
Music Review: Styx' debut is a great introduction to a legendary band
Rating: 5 Stars
Some of the previous reviews have not been kind to this old 1972 album. In fact, even when it was still new it was criticized for it's "overblown pomposity" amongst other things. However, "Styx" is, indeed, one of Styx' LEAST pompous albums. When one compares it's songs to "Come Sail Away" or "Mr. Roboto" (both favorites of mine), one can see just how gritty their beginnings were. By '72, the band had been around for almost a decade (they formed in 1963), gone through 3 incarnations (first as The Tradewinds, then TW4 and finally Styx [which they settled on only a few weeks before "Styx,"], narrowly turning down another suggestion: Kelp), rigorous touring and constant refinement. With the recent departure of lead guitarist Tom Nardini and the addition of new lead guitarist James Young, the band now had the perfect foil to the rhythm guitar of John Curulewski (who sadly passed away in February of 1988). Combined with the three original band members; Dennis DeYoung on keyboards, Chuck Panozzo on bass and John Panozzo (who passed away in 1996) on drums; the quintet was finally ready to record their first album. The eponymous release contains their most gritty, guitar-driven music ever, before they struck gold with "Lady" (released the following year) and started leaning towards more progressive, synthesizer-driven music. The album kicks off with a prototype of the concept-album format which would succeed for later albums like The Grand Illusion (1977), Paradise Theater (1981) and Kilroy Was Here (1983). The piece (which lasts for over 13 minutes) is entitled "Movement For The Common Man" and is a tribute to the working class which the band comes from. It consists of 4 parts, the first being James Young's "Children Of The Land" which has Young singing lead to a chorus by the considerably higher voices of Curulewski and DeYoung (who, with Tommy Shaw [who replaced Curulewski in late 1975], would take over lead singing duties in later years, leaving Young only one or two songs per album). The song also features an interesting percussive solo by John Panozzo and a keyboard solo by DeYoung, betraying the grungy exterior of the rest of the song, which itself gives way to "Street Collage." A rarity for Styx and a strange addition to the album, it is somewhat akin to Simon and Garfunkel's 1968 piece "Voices Of Old People," featuring the silent majority on the Chicago streets complaining about things from welfare to the B.O. of hippies. This bleeds into "Fanfare For The Common Man" (later done by Emerson, Lake and Palmer) written by famous composer Aaron Copland. Young sings lead again as DeYoung's keyboard plays on, giving way to DeYoung's first solo vocal on "Mother Nature's Matinee," a DeYoung-Young co-write. The song is a dramatic departure from the rest of the "Movement," featuring only a acoustic guitar, bass, sparse drumming, flute and piano along with DeYoung's beautiful vocals. This, however, leads back into the rhythm of the earlier parts of the "Movement" in an instrumental that goes for a while before finally exiting, with a flash. Next up is "Right Away," a cover song with vocals by Young again, but with a chorus featuring a magnificent vocal trio by Curulewski, DeYoung and Young which would soon become the band's trademark. The song is a nice switch from the extravagant rock of the previous piece, featuring some background organ music by DeYoung. "What Has Come Between Us," another cover song, switches to glam rock, this time with vocals by DeYoung (who also plays the piano on the song's wonderful intro [the album's best]), who joins Young and Curulewski for the chorus. At one point, Young and Curulewski pair off for the guitar interlude which rarely appears on their later albums. I consider this to be my favorite song of the entire album, next to "Quick Is The Beat Of My Heart" and "Right Away." Next is "Best Thing," then the band's pet favorite and another Young-DeYoung co-write. As the band's first single (backed with "What Has Come Between Us," it went to #82 in Billboard, helped immeasurably by the band's non-stop touring and popularity in Chicago), it is the best representative of the band's later work, featuring nice acoustic guitar work by Young and synthesizer by DeYoung (with DeYoung and Curulewski singing the end refrain). Then comes the true rocker of the album: "Quick Is The Beat Of My Heart," another cover (the album features the least band-penned songs of any Styx album) sung by Young, who does a wonderful enough job as to make one wonder why he wasn't allotted more on later albums. The self-destructive tune also features a nice ending echo leading into the sixth and final tune of the album, a cover of a George Clinton song called "After You Leave Me" (a suitable ending, I think). It contains both keyboard- and guitar-driven portions. The song features lead vocals by Young (who sings a marvelous middle 8) but finishes out with the trio of Young, DeYoung and Curulewski, truly a portent of things to come. The album is a auditory treat for any Styx fan out there, even though there are some fans turned off by the lack of more songs by the band (only 1 and a half out of 6) or by the domination of lead singer James Young over fan favorite Dennis DeYoung, but I guarantee that any Styx fan will immediately add this one to their collection as one of their favorites. This being said, let me also state that I do not in fact, own the CD of this, but, in fact, the vinyl album, which features a completely different cover (the one advertised here is from a rerelease in 1980 and features an "art deco" cover, despised by many Styx fans), which is many times better than the later one (but much harder to find on CD) and features the band surrounded by flames and a scene of, what else, the river Styx.
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