Pieces of Eight = Overrated

[Toph]

This album just isn't as good as the band currently touring as Styx (or many of you) make it out to be.

First, if your a progressive rock fan, than there are plenty of Styx albums that are more progressive than this. In fact the two hits off this album were about as non progressive mainstream rock as you can get. To call this a progressive album is laughable.

Its a Grand Illusion "Me too" album and a poor excuse at that. You can look at the songs and match them up to the Grand Illusion songs and they become eerily similar. Don't believe me? Great White Hope = Miss America, Pieces of Eight = Come Sail Away, Sing For The Day = Fooling Yourself, Lords of the Ring (if sung by Dennis) = Grand Illusion, and I could go on and on.

It sold far less than Grand Illusion, its predecessor and sold less than Paradise Theater. It charter lower than Cornerstone, Paradise, or Kilroy.

It is the only Styx album from Grand Illusion through Edge of the Century to not have a Billboard Top 10 single on it.

Aku Aku is a dumb way to end an album

Its just not the end all be all that some of you make it out to be.

[yogi]

WAY WAY WRONG.

Side 2 was EPIC!!! Like Side 2 of Equinox, I literally wore that side out where I had to purchase a new album.

[Archetype]

Queen of Spades and the title track are some of the strongest songs Styx has ever released.

[masque]

hey toph, I dig your opinion.....thanks for sharing.....I just completely and utterly disagree with it.

I think POE is their second best album. I never claimed it was a progressive album. to me, I just like the songs period.

great white hope to my ears is JY's finest moment in styx. one of their best overall songs in the catalog.

I'm OK was dennis being dennis and it worked really well.....the guitar solo in that song is one of the best solos played by either guy.

sing for the day was tommy being tommy and I love the melody and verse lyrics alot......the keyboards throughout are fantastic!

the message was fantastic as a segue way into lord of the rings.

lord of the rings has always been a song I really really like.....its also a song that i realize maybe isn't as good as some of the others but it always worked for me.

blue collar man......one of a handful of songs that is the foundation of what styx was. classic....sounds incredible even today.

queen of spades.....dennis's shining full on rock moment. one of their best hard rocking songs and great to hear dennis cut loose like that. the solo, the laugh, the "you lose".....raises the hair on my arms while typing about it.

renegade. arguably the most important styx song ever, given the passage of time......this song is easily as recognizable as any other song they have done. played in football stadiums all over world even today. tommy at his finest.

pieces of eight....dennis at one of his best reflective moments. these are the kinds of dennis songs I like the best. the whole song just has a feeling of longing to it....so well done.....the middle "progressive" section is one of the finest recorded moments in styx history.

aku-aku is actually a great way to end the record. the music was beautiful, needed to be included, where else do you put it?


I do agree that it is styx "trying to be styx" after the success of grand illusion.... this album reminds me ALOT of kansas's "point of know return" album after "leftovrerture" broke them wide open.....it sounded like kansas trying to be kansas. same with styx.

however, both POE and POKR by both bands successfully did it without it seeming like a true rehash. they had a formula for sure and it worked in both cases. and to many listeners, you could even argue that the follow up by both bands stands on equal ground to the albums that broke them.

POE was an album written by a band that was on the road alot.....it's for sure one of their most guitar oriented albums, if not their most guitar oriented album with tommy......songs were written to rock arenas......and yeh, they still had their quieter moments like sing for the day and part of pieces of eight title track......but these songs were songs they knew would sound good an ego over well in big shacks. you see that all the time with bands......their songs start to reflect the kinds of places they will be playing them in.

i would never give up grand illusion to have POE, but I would also never want to live in a world without POE....i got to have both.


I think for you toph, part of the issue is that most everyone that follows styx real closely knows that DDY now looks back at POE and doesnt see it as fondly as most fans do......that's ok, because he has an issue with it because of two reasons, he felt he was a little dry at the time and that they were creating a type of music that was losing it's popularity at the time in his eyes.

moe than one thing can be true though......the album was fantastic, the songs were stronger than what he thought, and that was proven by the success of the album. but DDY was right that to stay on top of the heap, they did have to modify their sound to do that, and that was accomplished by the changes that happened with cornerstone and then once again the changes that happened with PT.

it's totally OK that you dont dig the album, or did it as much as most of us do......but there is no way you will even convince me or the majority of folks that listen to styx that POE is anything but a classic, super important history to the band we love.

[Boomchild]

Again it all comes down to opinion. Styx was trying to capitalize on the the success they had with GI. They were trying to recreate it on PO8 without it being a just a repeat of GI. For me, I am not so sure they succeeded. Many tout GI and PO8 as the best stuff Styx ever did. Even DDY thinks so with GI. For me personally though, these albums are not. I gravitate more frequently to other material and albums from them.

[masque]

Again it all comes down to opinion. Styx was trying to capitalize on the the success they had with GI. They were trying to recreate it on PO8 without it being a just a repeat of GI. For me, I am not so sure they succeeded. Many tout GI and PO8 as the best stuff Styx ever did. Even DDY thinks so with GI. For me personally though, these albums are not. I gravitate more frequently to other material and albums from them.

that's interesting.......rank your top 5 styx albums for me, I would love to see that!!!!

[Boomchild]

Again it all comes down to opinion. Styx was trying to capitalize on the the success they had with GI. They were trying to recreate it on PO8 without it being a just a repeat of GI. For me, I am not so sure they succeeded. Many tout GI and PO8 as the best stuff Styx ever did. Even DDY thinks so with GI. For me personally though, these albums are not. I gravitate more frequently to other material and albums from them.

that's interesting.......rank your top 5 styx albums for me, I would love to see that!!!!

Would be happy to do so. I need some time to do so. I like many things with all their albums that doing this kind of thing is hard for me.

[yogi]

Yogi's Ranked Styx Albums - Did not rank the Wooden Nickle albums- All had songs that I did like.
11. Brave New World- Some decent songs - Outside of Roseland did not like DDYs songs at all
10. Crystal Ball - Huge Step Backwards from Equinox - still a good album
9. Kilroy Was Here - ABSOLUTELY love Side 2 - Dislike Side 1

8. Cyclorama - Excellent album - Far Far better then 11- 9. Love Glen's songs JY stood out also on These Are The Times
7. Edge Of The Century - EPIC EPIC side 1. Maybe their best Side 1 of ANY album- Glen shines on all songs
6. The Mission - Love the Entire album outside of the closing track Mission To Mars - Gowan like Tommy is a STAR
5. Paradise Theater - Fantastic Album - Love side 1 and especially how the album closes starting with Snowblind
4. Cornerstone - This may be the ONLY Styx album where I can honestly say that I truly like EVERY song on it.
3. Pieces Of Eight - Unreal Side 2 its sooo good. DDY & Tommy ABSOLUTELY shine on Side 2- Wore this side out
2. The Grand Illusion - ABSOLUTE masterpiece - The album Flows perfectly
1. EQUINOX - Side 1 is GREAT &Side 2 is by far the BEST side of music I will ever hear.

Side note: Pieces of Eight will always stand as the GREATEST pile of Whale Vomit EVER assembled. For me albums 2-4 move around between those slots based on the day or week. DDY is a SUPERSTAR

[Boomchild]

that's interesting.......rank your top 5 styx albums for me, I would love to see that!!!!

Would be happy to do so. I need some time to do so. I like many things with all their albums that doing this kind of thing is hard for me.

So after giving this some thought, here is what I have come up with:

1. Paradise Theater
2. Equinox
3. Cornerstone
4. Crystal Ball
5. Pieces of Eight

[Archetype]

My top 5 Styx favorite albums.

The Grand Illusion
Pieces of Eight
The Mission
Edge of the Century
Brave New World