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STYX - Don't forget now kids


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My review:

 

“Welcome to the grand illusion

Come on in and see what’s happening

Pay the price, get your tickets for the show…” – Styx, 1977

 

Forty-years later both ring true, this grand illusion that after a 14-year studio creative hiatus Styx would return at all, let alone with a worthwhile effort. And tickets as well, this time to planet Mars as the back drop to the “big show.” What in the name of Robert Orrin Charles Kilroy have Tommy Shaw and company gotten themselves into now and why in 2017 should anyone care at all, quite frankly?

 

When last we saw Styx emerge from a studio with more than a live album or another compilation, 9/11 was still very fresh and gone, gone, gone was Dennis DeYoung from the proceedings for the first time, well, err, ever! 2003’s Cyclorama was a mostly-enjoyable effort, besting the final DeYoung effort Brave New World (1999) by a neck. Hit and miss to be sure, but cuts like James Young’s These Are The Times waved enough classic Styx aroma in the air to make a fanboy croon, along with Shaw’s Yes I Am and One With Everything. Songs such as Bourgeois Pig and Kiss Your Ass Goodbye, well, not so much. And finally on board as the new captain, Canuck Lawrence Gowan ably stepped into DeYoung’s shoes with a similar cinematic flare, both live and on record.

 

Fourteen years and about a billion summer shed and casinos performances later, ears suddenly perked this year at whispers of a new recording, The Mission, a concept record no less (ruh roh!). But news of a creative stirring of any kind had fans hoping for the best. Their last go ‘round with a concept album resulted in the mixed bag, Kilroy Was Here, the 1983 release which on its own was one thing, but in a live setting - with band members adorned in stage dress, playing characters, and acting out dramatic scenes between songs in a manner better befitting consumption in the theater for the blind than the New Orleans Superdome – was another altogether. In fact, so bad was the band friction caused by this tour that Shaw departed and the band was basically on hiatus until reforming for 1990’s Edge Of The Century, still without their six-stringer. So when news of another concept idea was put into the ether, fans and critics alike knee-jerked to the perceived hypocrisy.

 

Long story short: the new album is glorious, a throwback record in both style and execution to the days when Star Wars was new and Roman Polanski wasn’t yet on the lam; recorded and mixed on tape, no less, just to up the authenticity ante. Not only is Styx hearkening back to their own glory days (think Equinox meets Pieces Of Eight), they’re also pushing the buttons of other 70s icons like Yes, Kansas, Queen, Pink Floyd, and ELO, both as subtle homage and downright tribute, to the point of uttering aloud now and again “Wow, that sounds just like Queen!”

 

The album begins in classic Styx style with the hyper-70s-sounding Overture semi-instrumental before segueing into the Gown-sung and rollicking first true song Gone Gone Gone, whose chorus and underlying synth flourishes make the definitive statement that the band would not merely be blowing smoke up the wazoo. (The most overstated thing in rock is a band declaring their new record gets back to the spirit of some fan-revered effort, but in this case it’s true).

 

The first half of the record, thematically speaking, gets “the mission” underway and finds the players under the expected peril one might expect with interplanetary travel (duh). While it’s difficult to outright ignore the Martian theme (listener beware: talk of space travel, mother ships, mother Earth, radio contact, etc permeates just about every song), what appears to be corny on the first listen becomes much more subdued on subsequent listens, to the point of being downright charming and essential the more you get to know it. At worst, even if you simply cannot stand the story at hand and dislike the rampant nerdery, it’s not a fatal flaw -- and if you let it in at all, you’ll find yourself sucked into the simple-but-effectively illustrated yarn.

 

Aiding digestion are the exceptional editing (a freakin’ lost art these days) and song sequencing. The cuts flow one into the other with cool and sensible effects, bits of personal conversation, attempted radio contact and other such things which sound utterly fantastic wearing a set of headphones, which while the cliché 1970s experience, it is truly the preferred way to listen to The Mission. Certainly not on your iPhone. The tonal dynamics of the songs also make sense given the points along the way in the story as well. For instance, things get darker, sonically, on Red Storm when contact is lost and the mission is in peril. The musical cues all suggest the tonal shifts with no discernible effort. Likewise, the final track, Mission To Mars, acts almost as a jaunty and triumphant epilog, part summary and part commercial jingle.

 

From purely a musical standpoint the songs are solid, with cuts like 100 Million Miles From Home, Locomotive, and the aforementioned Red Storm being Shaw-sung highlights. Another Shaw vocal, Radio Silence, is arguably the album’s best cut. His vocals throughout also successfully made the 40-year journey since the band’s peak, yielding almost nothing along the way. What a joy. I’m struck ironically on Radio Silence as well, as the literal radio silence the crew of this mission faces can also be a parallel to the silence that radio in 2017 will give this band whose biggest singles were big radio hits and remain staples on classic rock stations today. I’m not sure if they were strictly sticking to the script or if there was a subtle double meaning to this, but it’s one I hear.

 

Lawrence Gown has an arsenal of fine performances on The Mission as well. Lead single and album co-opener Gone Gone Gone, while better in the context of the full record rather than I perceived it as a stand-alone “here’s our first single” offering, it’s still the least of his efforts here. However, don’t be dissuaded. His second appearance on The Greater Good (a co-lead with Shaw) is most certainly a top tier cut. Gowan’s Time May Bend succeeds a bit less, but has a nice, chewy prog center just the same, and The Outpost is a wonderful curtain call for the flamboyant keyboardist, a song which triumphantly resolves the mission. This, kids, is a fantastic tune.

 

James Young is a bit diminished in the proceedings, his sole lead vocal occurring in the very short (barely two-and-a-half minutes) and schizophrenic Trouble At The Big Show. This is the album’s low water mark, unfortunately, but it’s nothing fatalistic; nothing fantastic either. Young’s perspective, lyrically, is of the skeptic. The tune is a bizarre quasi-blues Styx pastiche, less song than brief-but rambling transitory piece that inexplicably fades out of nowhere

 

There are a few other transitional pieces, some spoken, some sung, some instrumental. Of the sung bits, Ten Thousand Ways is 1:22 of loveliness that leaves you wanting more. Among the latter is Gowan’s rousing piano instrumental in Khedive, complete with guitar bits that trip over themselves as a twin guitar tribute to Brian May. It’s very cool and ridiculously obvious that it’s a nick, but it works.

 

That’s the thing about this whole damned thing: it works. It shouldn’t. It should actually be as silly as it all sounds, and yet it isn’t. It’s earnest and simple and wonderful. It’s also refreshingly short in the age of digital media, clocking in at a breath over 42-minutes. There is no saggy middle or overblown self-indulgence for sure. Songs and bits and pieces and story and transitions and more story flow effortlessly together and before you realize it, it’s over…and you’re playing it again and enjoying it more than you did the last time. Be certain of that.

 

It’s not a perfect album. Young could have used a song more like These Are The Days from Cyclorama, powerfully and definitively JY….or at least a follow-up to his lone vocal. As well, album closer, Mission To Mars, might have benefitted from another couple minutes of Come Sail Away-like triumphant flourish to round things out. In a real sense The Outpost is the declamatory closer and Mission To Mars is more coda than anything else. I go back on forth wanting more from the last track and being satisfied.

 

That I even want to go back and forth with anything Styx in 2017 is a minor miracle. While a fan, I’ve been hyper-critical of the band’s lack of new studio material since 2003. I find it lazy and I’m not at all interested in the “no one buys music anymore, so why bother” excuse. Frankly, it made me mad and, in my mind, Styx and their 14-year creative impotence were among the biggest offenders in an industry filled with classic rock malcontents.

 

Needless to say, I greeted news of a new album with relief. Frankly I kind of expected The Mission to ultimately underwhelm and if we were lucky enough to lift 2 or 3 good cuts from it, so be it. And while I must emphatically say that very few things are worth a 14-year absence, I can’t imagine being more pleasantly surprised and satisfied on so many levels than I am by The Mission, either to Mars or simply the one into my headphones.

Edited by Presto-digitation
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My review:

 

“Welcome to the grand illusion

Come on in and see what’s happening

Pay the price, get your tickets for the show…” – Styx, 1977

 

Forty-years later both ring true, this grand illusion that after a 14-year studio creative hiatus Styx would return at all, let alone with a worthwhile effort. And tickets as well, this time to planet Mars as the back drop to the “big show.” What in the name of Robert Orrin Charles Kilroy have Tommy Shaw and company gotten themselves into now and why in 2017 should anyone care at all, quite frankly?

 

When last we saw Styx emerge from a studio with more than a live album or another compilation, 9/11 was still very fresh and gone, gone, gone was Dennis DeYoung from the proceedings for the first time, well, err, ever! 2003’s Cyclorama was a mostly-enjoyable effort, besting the final DeYoung effort Brave New World (1999) by a neck. Hit and miss to be sure, but cuts like James Young’s These Are The Times waved enough classic Styx aroma in the air to make a fanboy croon, along with Shaw’s Yes I Am and One With Everything. Songs such as Bourgeois Pig and Kiss Your Ass Goodbye, well, not so much. And finally on board as the new captain, Canuck Lawrence Gowan ably stepped into DeYoung’s shoes with a similar cinematic flare, both live and on record.

 

Fourteen years and about a billion summer shed and casinos performances later, ears suddenly perked this year at whispers of a new recording, The Mission, a concept record no less (ruh roh!). But news of a creative stirring of any kind had fans hoping for the best. Their last go ‘round with a concept album resulted in the mixed bag, Kilroy Was Here, the 1983 release which on its own was one thing, but in a live setting - with band members adorned in stage dress, playing characters, and acting out dramatic scenes between songs in a manner better befitting consumption in the theater for the blind than the New Orleans Superdome – was another altogether. In fact, so bad was the band friction caused by this tour that Shaw departed and the band was basically on hiatus until reforming for 1990’s Edge Of The Century, still without their six-stringer. So when news of another concept idea was put into the ether, fans and critics alike knee-jerked to the perceived hypocrisy.

 

Long story short: the new album is glorious, a throwback record in both style and execution to the days when Star Wars was new and Roman Polanski wasn’t yet on the lam; recorded and mixed on tape, no less, just to up the authenticity ante. Not only is Styx hearkening back to their own glory days (think Equinox meets Pieces Of Eight), they’re also pushing the buttons of other 70s icons like Yes, Kansas, Queen, Pink Floyd, and ELO, both as subtle homage and downright tribute, to the point of uttering aloud now and again “Wow, that sounds just like Queen!”

 

The album begins in classic Styx style with the hyper-70s-sounding Overture semi-instrumental before segueing into the Gown-sung and rollicking first true song Gone Gone Gone, whose chorus and underlying synth flourishes make the definitive statement that the band would not merely be blowing smoke up the wazoo. (The most overstated thing in rock is a band declaring their new record gets back to the spirit of some fan-revered effort, but in this case it’s true).

 

The first half of the record, thematically speaking, gets “the mission” underway and finds the players under the expected peril one might expect with interplanetary travel (duh). While it’s difficult to outright ignore the Martian theme (listener beware: talk of space travel, mother ships, mother Earth, radio contact, etc permeates just about every song), what appears to be corny on the first listen becomes much more subdued on subsequent listens, to the point of being downright charming and essential the more you get to know it. At worst, even if you simply cannot stand the story at hand and dislike the rampant nerdery, it’s not a fatal flaw -- and if you let it in at all, you’ll find yourself sucked into the simple-but-effectively illustrated yarn.

 

Aiding digestion are the exceptional editing (a freakin’ lost art these days) and song sequencing. The cuts flow one into the other with cool and sensible effects, bits of personal conversation, attempted radio contact and other such things which sound utterly fantastic wearing a set of headphones, which while the cliché 1970s experience, it is truly the preferred way to listen to The Mission. Certainly not on your iPhone. The tonal dynamics of the songs also make sense given the points along the way in the story as well. For instance, things get darker, sonically, on Red Storm when contact is lost and the mission is in peril. The musical cues all suggest the tonal shifts with no discernible effort. Likewise, the final track, Mission To Mars, acts almost as a jaunty and triumphant epilog, part summary and part commercial jingle.

 

From purely a musical standpoint the songs are solid, with cuts like 100 Million Miles From Home, Locomotive, and the aforementioned Red Storm being Shaw-sung highlights. Another Shaw vocal, Radio Silence, is arguably the album’s best cut. His vocals throughout also successfully made the 40-year journey since the band’s peak, yielding almost nothing along the way. What a joy. I’m struck ironically on Radio Silence as well, as the literal radio silence the crew of this mission faces can also be a parallel to the silence that radio in 2017 will give this band whose biggest singles were big radio hits and remain staples on classic rock stations today. I’m not sure if they were strictly sticking to the script or if there was a subtle double meaning to this, but it’s one I hear.

 

Lawrence Gown has an arsenal of fine performances on The Mission as well. Lead single and album co-opener Gone Gone Gone, while better in the context of the full record rather than I perceived it as a stand-alone “here’s our first single” offering, it’s still the least of his efforts here. However, don’t be dissuaded. His second appearance on The Greater Good (a co-lead with Shaw) is most certainly a top tier cut. Gowan’s Time May Bend succeeds a bit less, but has a nice, chewy prog center just the same, and The Outpost is a wonderful curtain call for the flamboyant keyboardist, a song which triumphantly resolves the mission. This, kids, is a fantastic tune.

 

James Young is a bit diminished in the proceedings, his sole lead vocal occurring in the very short (barely two-and-a-half minutes) and schizophrenic Trouble At The Big Show. This is the album’s low water mark, unfortunately, but it’s nothing fatalistic; nothing fantastic either. Young’s perspective, lyrically, is of the skeptic. The tune is a bizarre quasi-blues Styx pastiche, less song than brief-but rambling transitory piece that inexplicably fades out of nowhere

 

There are a few other transitional pieces, some spoken, some sung, some instrumental. Of the sung bits, Ten Thousand Ways is 1:22 of loveliness that leaves you wanting more. Among the latter is Gowan’s rousing piano instrumental in Khedive, complete with guitar bits that trip over themselves as a twin guitar tribute to Brian May. It’s very cool and ridiculously obvious that it’s a nick, but it works.

 

That’s the thing about this whole damned thing: it works. It shouldn’t. It should actually be as silly as it all sounds, and yet it isn’t. It’s earnest and simple and wonderful. It’s also refreshingly short in the age of digital media, clocking in at a breath over 42-minutes. There is no saggy middle or overblown self-indulgence for sure. Songs and bits and pieces and story and transitions and more story flow effortlessly together and before you realize it, it’s over…and you’re playing it again and enjoying it more than you did the last time. Be certain of that.

 

It’s not a perfect album. Young could have used a song more like These Are The Days from Cyclorama, powerfully and definitively JY….or at least a follow-up to his lone vocal. As well, album closer, Mission To Mars, might have benefitted from another couple minutes of Come Sail Away-like triumphant flourish to round things out. In a real sense The Outpost is the declamatory closer and Mission To Mars is more coda than anything else. I go back on forth wanting more from the last track and being satisfied.

 

That I even want to go back and forth with anything Styx in 2017 is a minor miracle. While a fan, I’ve been hyper-critical of the band’s lack of new studio material since 2003. I find it lazy and I’m not at all interested in the “no one buys music anymore, so why bother” excuse. Frankly, it made me mad and, in my mind, Styx and their 14-year creative impotence were among the biggest offenders in an industry filled with classic rock malcontents.

 

Needless to say, I greeted news of a new album with relief. Frankly I kind of expected The Mission to ultimately underwhelm and if we were lucky enough to lift 2 or 3 good cuts from it, so be it. And while I must emphatically say that very few things are worth a 14-year absence, I can’t imagine being more pleasantly surprised and satisfied on so many levels than I am by The Mission, either to Mars or simply the one into my headphones.

 

Excellent! Right on!

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Wait, so James Young is a great singer, but Dennis DeYoung is weak vocally? Jesus... :wtf:

 

Can't stand Deyoung's voice homestly. Never modulates at all. voice is ALWAYS on one level.

 

his faux british thing makes me want to hit him with something heavy.

 

I don't miss him one bit actually.

 

and the ego on him.....geez.

 

Mick

 

You are my saving grace.

 

This.

 

That Dennis DeYoung solo album "Desert Moon" makes amazing aluminum toilet paper for when you have a piece of shite stuck in your arse.

 

 

Just saying.

 

i don't mind deyoung on the albums up to Cornerstone. Cause his presence was kept in check.

 

but when Cornerstone hit.....they Morphed to Dennis Deyoung featuring.......these other guys, lol

 

they pulled off a miracle with Paradise Theater. then......kilroy took a big dump on us all.

 

good riddance man.

 

Mick

 

Mick! You are the apple of my eye!! I couldn't have typed it better myself!! You get an A+++++++++++++++++++

 

Ironically the same humans who love Dennis hate James Young. "Kilroy Was Here" is a BUST. The best song on that shite record is "Heavy Metal Poisoning" sung and written by Young!!

 

"Kilroy" was all Dennis DeYoung, hence he was the catalyst that destroyed STYX!

 

Might as well be a fan of the Gay Paree! I mean really????

 

"DO LET IT END!"

 

I love both of them. In my mind, Styx "needs" DeYoung as much as Young and Shaw. The dynamic between those three singer/songwriters is a major part of what made Crystal Ball, The Grand Illusion, Pieces Of Eight, and Paradise Theater so wonderful, not to mention even Kilroy benefits from having all three voices present. I mean, The Grand Illusion is a brilliant example. That record needs Come Sail Away just as much as it needs Miss America and Fooling Yourself! Lose any one of them and it's missing a vital ingredient.

 

I love the new record, but it's just not quite the same band without Dennis.

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Wait, so James Young is a great singer, but Dennis DeYoung is weak vocally? Jesus... :wtf:

 

Can't stand Deyoung's voice homestly. Never modulates at all. voice is ALWAYS on one level.

 

his faux british thing makes me want to hit him with something heavy.

 

I don't miss him one bit actually.

 

and the ego on him.....geez.

 

Mick

 

You are my saving grace.

 

This.

 

That Dennis DeYoung solo album "Desert Moon" makes amazing aluminum toilet paper for when you have a piece of shite stuck in your arse.

 

 

Just saying.

 

i don't mind deyoung on the albums up to Cornerstone. Cause his presence was kept in check.

 

but when Cornerstone hit.....they Morphed to Dennis Deyoung featuring.......these other guys, lol

 

they pulled off a miracle with Paradise Theater. then......kilroy took a big dump on us all.

 

good riddance man.

 

Mick

 

Mick! You are the apple of my eye!! I couldn't have typed it better myself!! You get an A+++++++++++++++++++

 

Ironically the same humans who love Dennis hate James Young. "Kilroy Was Here" is a BUST. The best song on that shite record is "Heavy Metal Poisoning" sung and written by Young!!

 

"Kilroy" was all Dennis DeYoung, hence he was the catalyst that destroyed STYX!

 

Might as well be a fan of the Gay Paree! I mean really????

 

"DO LET IT END!"

 

I love both of them. In my mind, Styx "needs" DeYoung as much as Young and Shaw. The dynamic between those three singer/songwriters is a major part of what made Crystal Ball, The Grand Illusion, Pieces Of Eight, and Paradise Theater so wonderful, not to mention even Kilroy benefits from having all three voices present. I mean, The Grand Illusion is a brilliant example. That record needs Come Sail Away just as much as it needs Miss America and Fooling Yourself! Lose any one of them and it's missing a vital ingredient.

 

I love the new record, but it's just not quite the same band without Dennis.

 

I totally get it my friend! I would honestly have no problem with "The Mission" if the recorded it with Dennis instead of Gowan. That would be a real blast from the past!

 

Anyway on that note, I hate to be so negative right now because I think STYX is a top ten band for me.

 

So a few of the Rush Forum members have stated here that "Edge Of The Century" is a very good record.

 

Well I dug out my Japanese mini sleeve cardboard cd of this album and I actually opened it! It was sealed. I put this cd on tonight and I couldn't even recognize this as a STYX record.

There are a few pop hits on this record and I think they both suck.

 

"Edge" is dull and has Dennis DeDUNG all over it. "Edge Of The Century" is like Metallica's "St Anus" record. "Toilet Paper Trails" By RUSH. "Hell Freezes Bend Over" by The Eagles.

 

Boston has a few to flush down the shitter too after "Walk On."

 

JMO

 

I think Dennis DeHumanize would have ruined "The Mission" if he had any part in creating that record. So I take back my earlier comment.

 

Hey Dennis! If you lurk on The Rush Forum, read my words......

 

 

Go build a rocket ship and fly to a "DESERT MOON!"

 

 

And stay there!

 

Dennis DeSung is THE WEAKEST LINK!

 

I am OUT!

Edited by RUSHHEAD666
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My review:

 

“Welcome to the grand illusion

Come on in and see what’s happening

Pay the price, get your tickets for the show…” – Styx, 1977

 

Forty-years later both ring true, this grand illusion that after a 14-year studio creative hiatus Styx would return at all, let alone with a worthwhile effort. And tickets as well, this time to planet Mars as the back drop to the “big show.” What in the name of Robert Orrin Charles Kilroy have Tommy Shaw and company gotten themselves into now and why in 2017 should anyone care at all, quite frankly?

 

When last we saw Styx emerge from a studio with more than a live album or another compilation, 9/11 was still very fresh and gone, gone, gone was Dennis DeYoung from the proceedings for the first time, well, err, ever! 2003’s Cyclorama was a mostly-enjoyable effort, besting the final DeYoung effort Brave New World (1999) by a neck. Hit and miss to be sure, but cuts like James Young’s These Are The Times waved enough classic Styx aroma in the air to make a fanboy croon, along with Shaw’s Yes I Am and One With Everything. Songs such as Bourgeois Pig and Kiss Your Ass Goodbye, well, not so much. And finally on board as the new captain, Canuck Lawrence Gowan ably stepped into DeYoung’s shoes with a similar cinematic flare, both live and on record.

 

Fourteen years and about a billion summer shed and casinos performances later, ears suddenly perked this year at whispers of a new recording, The Mission, a concept record no less (ruh roh!). But news of a creative stirring of any kind had fans hoping for the best. Their last go ‘round with a concept album resulted in the mixed bag, Kilroy Was Here, the 1983 release which on its own was one thing, but in a live setting - with band members adorned in stage dress, playing characters, and acting out dramatic scenes between songs in a manner better befitting consumption in the theater for the blind than the New Orleans Superdome – was another altogether. In fact, so bad was the band friction caused by this tour that Shaw departed and the band was basically on hiatus until reforming for 1990’s Edge Of The Century, still without their six-stringer. So when news of another concept idea was put into the ether, fans and critics alike knee-jerked to the perceived hypocrisy.

 

Long story short: the new album is glorious, a throwback record in both style and execution to the days when Star Wars was new and Roman Polanski wasn’t yet on the lam; recorded and mixed on tape, no less, just to up the authenticity ante. Not only is Styx hearkening back to their own glory days (think Equinox meets Pieces Of Eight), they’re also pushing the buttons of other 70s icons like Yes, Kansas, Queen, Pink Floyd, and ELO, both as subtle homage and downright tribute, to the point of uttering aloud now and again “Wow, that sounds just like Queen!”

 

The album begins in classic Styx style with the hyper-70s-sounding Overture semi-instrumental before segueing into the Gown-sung and rollicking first true song Gone Gone Gone, whose chorus and underlying synth flourishes make the definitive statement that the band would not merely be blowing smoke up the wazoo. (The most overstated thing in rock is a band declaring their new record gets back to the spirit of some fan-revered effort, but in this case it’s true).

 

The first half of the record, thematically speaking, gets “the mission” underway and finds the players under the expected peril one might expect with interplanetary travel (duh). While it’s difficult to outright ignore the Martian theme (listener beware: talk of space travel, mother ships, mother Earth, radio contact, etc permeates just about every song), what appears to be corny on the first listen becomes much more subdued on subsequent listens, to the point of being downright charming and essential the more you get to know it. At worst, even if you simply cannot stand the story at hand and dislike the rampant nerdery, it’s not a fatal flaw -- and if you let it in at all, you’ll find yourself sucked into the simple-but-effectively illustrated yarn.

 

Aiding digestion are the exceptional editing (a freakin’ lost art these days) and song sequencing. The cuts flow one into the other with cool and sensible effects, bits of personal conversation, attempted radio contact and other such things which sound utterly fantastic wearing a set of headphones, which while the cliché 1970s experience, it is truly the preferred way to listen to The Mission. Certainly not on your iPhone. The tonal dynamics of the songs also make sense given the points along the way in the story as well. For instance, things get darker, sonically, on Red Storm when contact is lost and the mission is in peril. The musical cues all suggest the tonal shifts with no discernible effort. Likewise, the final track, Mission To Mars, acts almost as a jaunty and triumphant epilog, part summary and part commercial jingle.

 

From purely a musical standpoint the songs are solid, with cuts like 100 Million Miles From Home, Locomotive, and the aforementioned Red Storm being Shaw-sung highlights. Another Shaw vocal, Radio Silence, is arguably the album’s best cut. His vocals throughout also successfully made the 40-year journey since the band’s peak, yielding almost nothing along the way. What a joy. I’m struck ironically on Radio Silence as well, as the literal radio silence the crew of this mission faces can also be a parallel to the silence that radio in 2017 will give this band whose biggest singles were big radio hits and remain staples on classic rock stations today. I’m not sure if they were strictly sticking to the script or if there was a subtle double meaning to this, but it’s one I hear.

 

Lawrence Gown has an arsenal of fine performances on The Mission as well. Lead single and album co-opener Gone Gone Gone, while better in the context of the full record rather than I perceived it as a stand-alone “here’s our first single” offering, it’s still the least of his efforts here. However, don’t be dissuaded. His second appearance on The Greater Good (a co-lead with Shaw) is most certainly a top tier cut. Gowan’s Time May Bend succeeds a bit less, but has a nice, chewy prog center just the same, and The Outpost is a wonderful curtain call for the flamboyant keyboardist, a song which triumphantly resolves the mission. This, kids, is a fantastic tune.

 

James Young is a bit diminished in the proceedings, his sole lead vocal occurring in the very short (barely two-and-a-half minutes) and schizophrenic Trouble At The Big Show. This is the album’s low water mark, unfortunately, but it’s nothing fatalistic; nothing fantastic either. Young’s perspective, lyrically, is of the skeptic. The tune is a bizarre quasi-blues Styx pastiche, less song than brief-but rambling transitory piece that inexplicably fades out of nowhere

 

There are a few other transitional pieces, some spoken, some sung, some instrumental. Of the sung bits, Ten Thousand Ways is 1:22 of loveliness that leaves you wanting more. Among the latter is Gowan’s rousing piano instrumental in Khedive, complete with guitar bits that trip over themselves as a twin guitar tribute to Brian May. It’s very cool and ridiculously obvious that it’s a nick, but it works.

 

That’s the thing about this whole damned thing: it works. It shouldn’t. It should actually be as silly as it all sounds, and yet it isn’t. It’s earnest and simple and wonderful. It’s also refreshingly short in the age of digital media, clocking in at a breath over 42-minutes. There is no saggy middle or overblown self-indulgence for sure. Songs and bits and pieces and story and transitions and more story flow effortlessly together and before you realize it, it’s over…and you’re playing it again and enjoying it more than you did the last time. Be certain of that.

 

It’s not a perfect album. Young could have used a song more like These Are The Days from Cyclorama, powerfully and definitively JY….or at least a follow-up to his lone vocal. As well, album closer, Mission To Mars, might have benefitted from another couple minutes of Come Sail Away-like triumphant flourish to round things out. In a real sense The Outpost is the declamatory closer and Mission To Mars is more coda than anything else. I go back on forth wanting more from the last track and being satisfied.

 

That I even want to go back and forth with anything Styx in 2017 is a minor miracle. While a fan, I’ve been hyper-critical of the band’s lack of new studio material since 2003. I find it lazy and I’m not at all interested in the “no one buys music anymore, so why bother” excuse. Frankly, it made me mad and, in my mind, Styx and their 14-year creative impotence were among the biggest offenders in an industry filled with classic rock malcontents.

 

Needless to say, I greeted news of a new album with relief. Frankly I kind of expected The Mission to ultimately underwhelm and if we were lucky enough to lift 2 or 3 good cuts from it, so be it. And while I must emphatically say that very few things are worth a 14-year absence, I can’t imagine being more pleasantly surprised and satisfied on so many levels than I am by The Mission, either to Mars or simply the one into my headphones.

 

Your review has blown my mind!

 

I know you think the album is flawed but I listen to it everyday. It's 10 out of 10 for me.

 

Your review is also a 10!

 

A perfect read.

 

YOU ROCK!

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Wait, so James Young is a great singer, but Dennis DeYoung is weak vocally? Jesus... :wtf:

 

Can't stand Deyoung's voice homestly. Never modulates at all. voice is ALWAYS on one level.

 

his faux british thing makes me want to hit him with something heavy.

 

I don't miss him one bit actually.

 

and the ego on him.....geez.

 

Mick

 

You are my saving grace.

 

This.

 

That Dennis DeYoung solo album "Desert Moon" makes amazing aluminum toilet paper for when you have a piece of shite stuck in your arse.

 

 

Just saying.

 

i don't mind deyoung on the albums up to Cornerstone. Cause his presence was kept in check.

 

but when Cornerstone hit.....they Morphed to Dennis Deyoung featuring.......these other guys, lol

 

they pulled off a miracle with Paradise Theater. then......kilroy took a big dump on us all.

 

good riddance man.

 

Mick

 

Mick! You are the apple of my eye!! I couldn't have typed it better myself!! You get an A+++++++++++++++++++

 

Ironically the same humans who love Dennis hate James Young. "Kilroy Was Here" is a BUST. The best song on that shite record is "Heavy Metal Poisoning" sung and written by Young!!

 

"Kilroy" was all Dennis DeYoung, hence he was the catalyst that destroyed STYX!

 

Might as well be a fan of the Gay Paree! I mean really????

 

"DO LET IT END!"

 

I love both of them. In my mind, Styx "needs" DeYoung as much as Young and Shaw. The dynamic between those three singer/songwriters is a major part of what made Crystal Ball, The Grand Illusion, Pieces Of Eight, and Paradise Theater so wonderful, not to mention even Kilroy benefits from having all three voices present. I mean, The Grand Illusion is a brilliant example. That record needs Come Sail Away just as much as it needs Miss America and Fooling Yourself! Lose any one of them and it's missing a vital ingredient.

 

I love the new record, but it's just not quite the same band without Dennis.

 

I agree The Mission is missing some of that DeYoung flair. But it's a minor gripe. I love DeYoung, for the most part, but that ship sailed away a long time ago.

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Also - somewhat off topic - I am wondering why Styx's back catalog has not been remastered yet? Seems a mystery, when so many other classic rock bands have already done so. Now would be a great time to do that.
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Probably cost

 

But couldn't someone like Rhino take charge of something like that? They are the king of reissues. I would think they could work out a deal.

Edited by Wil1972
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Probably cost

 

But couldn't someone like Rhino take charge of something like that? They are the king of reissues. I would think they could work out a deal.

 

It's a good question. I wonder if there is some tie up or complications with publishing companies. Not sure who owns what with Styx's catalogue.

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Probably cost

 

But couldn't someone like Rhino take charge of something like that? They are the king of reissues. I would think they could work out a deal.

 

It's a good question. I wonder if there is some tie up or complications with publishing companies. Not sure who owns what with Styx's catalogue.

Copyright issues? Song writing royalties? Performance royalties? Who owns the original master recordings? Lack of demand? There are lots of reasons. It could be as simple as not being in agreement on how to slice the pie with Dennis DeYoung.

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Probably cost

 

But couldn't someone like Rhino take charge of something like that? They are the king of reissues. I would think they could work out a deal.

 

It's a good question. I wonder if there is some tie up or complications with publishing companies. Not sure who owns what with Styx's catalogue.

 

They were originally on A&M right? I think Universal Music owns A&M now. So I guess Universal would be in charge of that.

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Probably cost

 

But couldn't someone like Rhino take charge of something like that? They are the king of reissues. I would think they could work out a deal.

 

It's a good question. I wonder if there is some tie up or complications with publishing companies. Not sure who owns what with Styx's catalogue.

Copyright issues? Song writing royalties? Performance royalties? Who owns the original master recordings? Lack of demand? There are lots of reasons. It could be as simple as not being in agreement on how to slice the pie with Dennis DeYoung.

 

All of those are valid considerations. Hopefully whatever the issues they will work them out soon. I would definitely get the Equinox - Paradise Theater albums remastered.

 

**EDIT - Seems a couple of years ago Universal released a vinyl boxset of their classic albums. So it would seem there is a glimmer of hope that they will do the same for CD.

Edited by Wil1972
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Probably cost

 

But couldn't someone like Rhino take charge of something like that? They are the king of reissues. I would think they could work out a deal.

 

It's a good question. I wonder if there is some tie up or complications with publishing companies. Not sure who owns what with Styx's catalogue.

Copyright issues? Song writing royalties? Performance royalties? Who owns the original master recordings? Lack of demand? There are lots of reasons. It could be as simple as not being in agreement on how to slice the pie with Dennis DeYoung.

 

That certainly came to mind.

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Hmmm. Played it again today and it kind of clicked with me. My initial assessment was wrong, this is a good album.

 

Yeah, it's almost cliche to mention how an album gets better with repeated listens, but in this case it's no exaggeration.

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Hmmm. Played it again today and it kind of clicked with me. My initial assessment was wrong, this is a good album.

 

Yeah, it's almost cliche to mention how an album gets better with repeated listens, but in this case it's no exaggeration.

 

What Makes it better for me is I had completely given up on these guys.

 

Cyclorama was ok but more akin to a Solo tommy Shaw record than anything else.

 

This has been a miracle.

 

Mick

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Have you guys heard any of JY's solo records from the mid 80s that he did with Jan Hammer? They didn't get half the amount of attention that the Tommy and Dennis solo records did, but they're actually VERY good. Unlike Tommy and Dennis, a lot of JY's solo songs sound like they could very well be Styx songs.
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bought it.

 

 

Wow.

 

Yes.

Yes? This is a STYX thread! :P

 

Yes wishes they could still make an album like this, and they've wished that for a long, long time. R.I.P. Chris Squire, btw.

 

The Mission is the best album Styx have made since Paradise Theater. In fact, it's one of their best ever albums, ever. Right up there with Crystal Ball and The Grand Illusion.

 

Also, Mission To Mars sounds a bit like classic Yes at one point, so ha.

Hahaha! I totally agree buddy! YES SUCKS NOW! "The Mission" is easily my Album Of The Year at this point. The new Steven Wilson is probably the only one that might top it but I won't hold my breath! Ok ok ok, since you said I have to confess something. I stated earlier that "The Mission" is the greatest STYX album since "Pieces Of Eight." However, I don have a very big solf spot in my heart for "Paradise Theater." I just played it last night and it just brings back my childhood. I remember buying the lp with the laser etched images in the vinyl. I was 13 years young back then and it was one of the first albums I learned to play to on my drums. I remember playing to it for hours a day in the summer. So simple yet so much fun. I absolutely love "Paradise Theater" so I agree. "The Mission is their best album since "Paradise Theater."

 

If it weren't for Paradise Theater being so awesome, I'd have just said since the seventies, lol.

Hahaha! No doubt about it!!! "Cornerstone" is excellent too. Just get rid of "BABE."

I love Cornerstone. Just a great sounding album!
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I've always liked Babe. Shame that it's considered a sellout of sorts. I find it sincere and comforting.
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