Being a native Chicagoan, it’s almost in my genes that I have an
\naffinity for the rock group Styx. I gre up listening to songs of
\ntheirs like “Come Sail Away” and “Babe” overtake the airwaves of
\nstations like WLS, when they were the premier kick-ass rock station
\naround. I even went to school with the daughter of
\nvocalist\/keyboardist Dennis DeYoung (quite a charming girl, to be
\nhonest). When the band returned to the scene two years ago with the
\nlive album
\nReturn To Paradise<\/i>, I welcomed the band’s comeback wih open
\narms, and even thought the new material on the disc showed signs of
\na return to greatness.<\/p>\n
So why do I feel bad that I’m disappointed in
\nBrave New World<\/i>, the group’s first studio release in almost
\n10 years? Maybe it’s because the group has turned away from the
\nrock vein that first made the band famous and have gone down the
\nweaker path of adult-contemporary schlock.<\/p>\n
It’s not that Styx isn’t trying to play rock – they make several
\nstabs at it during the course of the album. But the biggest problem
\nis that the emphasis on the powerful guitar work that powered such
\nsongs as “Renegade” is gone. If the rhythm guitars are heard at
\nall, it’s buried in the mix – surprising, seeing that guitarists
\nTommy Shaw and James Young (along with DeYoung) produced the
\nalbum.<\/p>\n
There are a few signs of home early on. “Brave New World” sounds
\nlike something that Shaw would have included on his recent solo
\nalbum
\n7 Deadly Zens<\/i>, and has the most hope for the album. DeYoung
\nturns in a few nice ballads with “While There’s Still Time” and
\n“Goodbye Roseland,” both of which sound like vintage Styx work.<\/p>\n
But things quickly turn Utopia into Dante’s inferno on
\nBrave New World<\/i>. Tracks like “Number One,” “High Crimes
\n& Misdemeanors” and “Heavy Water” show how poor rock can sound
\nwhen it is executed wrong. The songs are not exciting, and they
\njust don’t live up to the expectations one would have of a typical
\nStyx song. “High Crimes & Misdemeanors” brings back memories of
\n“Love Is The Ritual,” one of the weaker songs off their previous
\nstudio effort
\nEdge Of The Century<\/i>. Don’t even get me started on “Just Fell
\nIn”; I don’t know what the band was thinking with this one.<\/p>\n
Even a lot of the ballads on
\nBrave New World<\/i> fail to impress. “Fallen Angel” is not
\ntypical of DeYoung’s work, and while it starts off more promising,
\nit quickly falls apart. The songs that aren’ quite ballads but
\naren’t quite rock numbers, like “I Will Be Your Witness,” “Great
\nExpectations” and “Everything Is Cool” just don’t sound like the
\nright direction for Styx to be taking. Even the harmony vocals –
\none of Styx’s best-recognized trademarks – don’t have any kick to
\nthem.<\/p>\n
I’m not saying that Styx’s reunion is a bad thing; I honestly
\nbelieve that this band has a lot of life left in them and their
\nmusic. But if
\nBrave New World<\/i> is a sign of things to come with Styx, then
\nyou can cancel my reservation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5844],"rating":[11205],"class_list":["post-39193","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-styx","rating-rating-d-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39193"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39193"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}