Here's a novices opinion! Of course I know who Styx is but I've never bought a Styx album. I listened to all the recommendations on here, refreshed myself on "Come Sail Away" and "Lady" and surfed youtube further. I honestly really want to pick up that hits package now! I love the touches of piano in their music and the melodramatic flair in their music. That being said I guess I'm not a fan of progressive elements as well as others because in some songs I thought they should have trimmed the fat. It seems like I would wait a whole song and say well that part was cool but I haven't followed half the song. Besides the hits I knew upon further exploration I found I liked:
I am going to have to jump to Equinox recorded in 1975. This is the 2nd Styx album I bought after The Grand Illusion. While it's not quite in the same league as Illusion, Equinox had some good songs as well. My pick would be Midnight Ride with Suite Madame Blue and Born For Adventure close behind.
Light Up...self explanatory.
If anyone wants to talk about Styx II, The Serpent Is Rising and Man of Miracles then please go ahead, I never owned any of those albums.
OK, I can talk briefly about Styx II, Serpent Is Rising, and Man Of Miracles...
Styx II - The centerpiece, of course, is "Lady" - it's strange that the song that launched arguably the biggest band of the latter half of the 70's went unheard and unknown for a couple of years before being resurrected by a couple of Chicago DJs. Anyway, in addition, some stand out tunes are "A Day", a long, dreamy, acoustic oriented tune by John Curulewski..."You Better Ask", another one from John Curulewski - this time a funky, raunchy rocker about VD..."Father O.S.A.", a proggy offering from Dennis DeYoung featuring some good pipe organ work.."Earl Of Roseland", a DeYoung rocker about growing up on the south side of Chicago...and "I'm Gonna Make You Feel It", a straight up rocker and one of the best early Styx tunes.
The Serpent Is Rising - "Witch Wolf" a straight ahead rocker form James Young kicks it off, sounding a bit like Midnight Ride from the Equinox album. "The Grove Of Eglantine", probably the best song on the album, is next - early arena rock with some prog aspirations..."Young Man", another, more ambitious, rocker form James Young featuring some SMOKIN' organ soloing from Dennis DeYoung..."As Bad As This" is a bluesy, acoustic ballad from John Curulewski, which morphs into the silly "plexiglass toilet" part about halfway through..."Winner Take All" is a peppy piano-laced rocker, another early example of the arena rock/big vocals Styx would become known for..."Jonas Salter", another big power chord rocker with prog leanings..."The Serpent Is Rising" is a heavy, mid tempo rocker from John Curulewski - one of the heaviest early Styx tunes.
Man Of Miracles - The album starts out with a couple of straight ahead rockers co-written by James Young and John Curulewski, "Rock & Roll Feeling" and "Havin' A Ball"..."Golden Lark", a ballad that sounds like Yes or early Kansas..."Song For Suzanne" - early Alan Parsons Project meets early Queen..."Lies", a great cover of the Knickerbockers hit from the 60's..."Evil Eyes" and "Christopher, Mr. Christopher" sound like they would fit well on an early Kansas album...the title track, another very heavy tune sounds like it could be Uriah Heep.
My impressions, after giving these another listen, is how often early Styx reminds me of Yes meets The Beatles (with a dash of ELP and Deep Purple for good measure). Most of these first four Wooden Nickel albums are very ambitious. During this period (early to mid 70's) Styx is very reminiscent of where Queen and Kansas were at the time. Kansas took more of a prog direction, where Queen and Styx took similar musical directions, although as time went by, Queen kept more of their quirkiness and edge and scope, whereas Styx' corners became a bit more rounded and their sound became more of the stereotypical late 70's arena rock - actually Styx is probably THE prototypical late 70's arena rockers.
Any of these first few Styx albums are recommended for Styx fans and would probably be a pleasant surprise for anyone willing to put aside their biases caused by later, poppier Styx hits like "Babe" and "Too Much Time On My Hands".
Last edited by Lord Grendel; 11-15-2009 at 07:44 PM.
Reason: Added the covers.
One other revelation for me when listening to this early Styx stuff is what good musicians they all were. I had never given the Panozzo brothers all that much credit but they made up a pretty formidable rhythm section - not among the elite but certainly better than average. And Dennis DeYoung was always an excellent keyboard player, even though we had to listen to several of his syrupy piano ballads on the later Styx albums.
I always felt the same way, they were just a rock solid group of talented musicians. After Paradise Theater I stopped following them, for exactly the reason you mentioned. Pieces Of Eight I consider their last great recording. I bought the special "Gold" vinyl edition when it came out, it looked great, but unlike the plain old black vinyl the colored ones wear out a lot faster.
I now have MP3's of all three and am going to check them out.
Last edited by Lord Grendel; 11-15-2009 at 07:44 PM.
I heard from an old friend last night - she's like the world's biggest Styx fan seen them dozens and dozens of times - she said she MIGHT have an extra ticket for me in the front row for Tuesday night's Styx/ REO Speedwagon/ Nightranger concert. I'm eagerly awaiting her phone call to find out for sure.
After Runtfan's excellent post about the three albums I don't have, I will carry on.
After Equinox, came Crystal Ball released in 1976, and although it wasn't as popular as it's predecessor many critics felt it was a better record. I like them both about the same, but this album was Tommy Shaw's debut with the band, and created the strongest line-up Styx would ever have.(John Curulewski was a very good guitarist no reflection on him, but Shaw seemed like the missing element to take the band to the next level.)
Suite Madame Blue
Last edited by Lord Grendel; 12-06-2009 at 08:51 PM.
Only two more albums to go then my work in here is done.
This was my first Styx record, recorded in 1977 "The Grand Illusion". I wore my first copy of this one out and bought a Masterdisc vinyl album to replace it, cost me quite a bit but I Love this one so it was worth it.(I bought a CD version a couple of years ago, in a discount bin at the local Safeway supermarket, I couldn't believe they would have this classic in a pile with the usual compilations of bland pop elevator music, for $5.00!...)
This is also a concept album here's a quote from Wiki: "According to lead singer Dennis DeYoung, the album's theme was the struggle to overcome self-deluding superficiality in order to affirm one's genuine value".
Regardless of the theme the music is just plain good, as I stated previously this record and Pieces of Eight are my two favorites, I'm not alone either this smash hit started a string of 4 straight Platinum certified records, not bad for a band dismissed as light weight arena rock by some critics.
Re: Styx 
Besides the hits I knew upon further exploration I found I liked:
Life would be so much easier if my list of albums to buy wasn't taller than I am... 
Linear Mode
