There are certain songs that you hear when you are a child that
\nstick in your mind as you grow older. One of these songs for me was
\nStyx’s “Come Sail Away,” a song that I enjoyed listening to in 1977
\non good ol’ WLS-AM (Larry Lujack, come back…
\nplease<\/i>), though in my 6-year-old mind, I thought that Dennis
\nDeYoung was singing for someone to “take that drum set away”. (Call
\nme a fool, but I still like my version better.)<\/p>\n
The album where that song can be found,
\nThe Grand Illusion<\/i>, contains many other songs that Styx has
\nbecome known for over the years, but while it doesn’t have much
\nmore than that to offer, it still is a guilty pleasure.<\/p>\n
You can hear how the band tries to link certain songs together;
\nat the end of the title track, if you’re listening carefully, you
\nwill hear a snippet of the rhythm that would become the
\nintroduction to the following song, “Fooling Yourself (The Angry
\nYoung Man)”, and on the album’s closer “The Grand Finale,” not only
\ndo you get the melody of “The Grand Illusion,” you also get “Come
\nSail Away” partially tied into the track.<\/p>\n
I’m not ready to declare
\nThe Grand Illusion<\/i> to be a concept album, because frankly, I
\ncan’t tell what it was supposed to be. (It wouldn’t surprise me if
\nthere was some common theme running through the album; Styx most
\ndefinitely did this on
\nParadise Theatre<\/i> and
\nKilroy Was Here<\/i> later on in their career.) And seeing that
\nDennis DeYoung isn’t talking to me these days – see if I ever help
\nhis daughter on a test in college again – we may never know.<\/p>\n
So, barring pure speculation on my point, what we’re left with
\nis the music. And you gotta admit, the songs that have become
\nstaples for Styx still sound great (if only a tad dated after 21
\nyears). “Come Sail Away” is still a great track that builds from a
\nsimple piano base to a strong ballad, then into one of the best
\nrockers that Styx has ever done. The lead guitar work of Tommy Shaw
\nand the mood music created by James Young all make this track a
\nclassic. Likewise, Shaw’s performance on “Fooling Yourself” stands
\nout among the works on the album. (Two other radio hits, “Miss
\nAmerica” and the title track, also have lost little of their punch
\nover the years – “Miss America” becoming even a stronger track as
\nthe years go by.)<\/p>\n
Of the remaining tracks – not counting the “tie-it-all-together”
\nnumber “The Grand Finale” – only “Superstars” proves to be a
\ndisappointment. The other two tracks each have their merits, though
\n“Man In The Wilderness” and “Castle Walls” still don’t rank among
\nStyx’s best work. Maybe part of it is that these songs get a little
\ntoo serious in the subject matter. I’d like to say that “Castle
\nWalls” is a little too sci-fi, but let’s face it, albums like
\nCrystal Ball<\/i> and
\nCornerstone<\/i> all had a sci-fi bend to them as well, so who am
\nI to criticize on this point?<\/p>\n
Is
\nThe Grand Illusion<\/i> a satisfying album overall? Actually, no
\n– you might find yourself expecting a lot more out of the release
\nthanks to the hit singles. But while the album is no masterpiece,
\nit is no failure, either; there are some moments on this disc worth
\nchecking out that you won’t find on any of the greatest hits
\ncompilations.<\/p>\n
\nThe Grand Illusion<\/i> may be one for the fans, but is also a
\ndisc worthy of your attention if you want to know more about Styx
\nthan what you hear on the radio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5844],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-39367","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-styx","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39367","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=39367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39367"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39367"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}