MR

I used to listen to this album ALL THE TIME. I haven't for a long time as I've listened to other stuff in the years since 1978 when I bought it.

Crystal Ball, to me, is the BEST Styx album. It's got everything without all the commerciality of the later albums. Not that those were all 'hits' but it's just a great album. If I had to pick my favorite Styx albums, it'd be this one, Grand Illusion and probably Cyclorama. (Oh God, here it comes- bite me!).

Crystal Ball just had such a cool vibe all the way through. Love that one. Hey, was Ballerina performed live? That's a great great song. I seem to remember they might've played it on the Grand Illusion tour, but I can't remember, that was so long ago. Jennifer and This Old Man were probably the weakest tracks, but still great tracks and very "wooden nickel" to me with better production.

Just an opinion.

It's a good album....., but I thought that it was a HUGE step backwards when compared to Equinox.

yogi wrote:It's a good album....., but I thought that it was a HUGE step backwards when compared to Equinox.

I consider it a pretty big step forward, songwriting-wise. Much more stylistic variety and some very welcome new soulfulness, courtesy of TS. That variety lends itself to less musical cohesion (an issue that the band has struggled with ever since) and to my ear the production isn't quite as strong as Equinox's, but it was definitely a necessary step in the band's evolution. Still one of my favs.

stabbim wrote:

yogi wrote:It's a good album....., but I thought that it was a HUGE step backwards when compared to Equinox.

I consider it a pretty big step forward, songwriting-wise. Much more stylistic variety and some very welcome new soulfulness, courtesy of TS. That variety lends itself to less musical cohesion (an issue that the band has struggled with ever since) and to my ear the production isn't quite as strong as Equinox's, but it was definitely a necessary step in the band's evolution. Still one of my favs.

This was my perception as well. Equinox is also a masterpiece. Great album, but I think Lonely Child and Mother Dear are incredibly dated sounding. To me Crystal Ball comes off as a pretty timeless album. I would wonder if I had purchased Equinox in 75 and then CB in 76, I might've felt the way that yogi felt, but I think as it gets longer and longer ago, that CB just stands up better and doesn't sound so 1975. Just my opinion. Ballerina is one of my all time favorite Dennis tracks. I just dig the whole sentiment of it and the chord changes as well. Very cool. I like Madame Blue too, but maybe I've just heard it (and I played and sang it forever too) too much.

On the soul end, Tommy's slide work on Shooz (gotta be him, right?) is really good and definitely brings a bit of the blues in. I remember reading an interview with him during the Damn Yankees years when he said something to the effect of "Yeah, I did some slide in Styx once, and they asked me never to do it again" or something like that. He's a hell of a slide player.

yogi wrote:It's a good album....., but I thought that it was a HUGE step backwards when compared to Equinox.

Both great cds

Crystal Ball is great especially jennifer

Equinox was my first Styx album and my favorite.When CB came out I thought it paled big time due to it being so non E like.Mind you, I rarely listen to Equinox due to overplaying it.CB spends more time in my player these days.
And fwoy,I have to admit I agree with you.Jennifer is a splendid tune.

brywool wrote:I used to listen to this album ALL THE TIME. I haven't for a long time as I've listened to other stuff in the years since 1978 when I bought it.

Crystal Ball, to me, is the BEST Styx album. It's got everything without all the commerciality of the later albums. Not that those were all 'hits' but it's just a great album. If I had to pick my favorite Styx albums, it'd be this one, Grand Illusion and probably Cyclorama. (Oh God, here it comes- bite me!).

Crystal Ball just had such a cool vibe all the way through. Love that one. Hey, was Ballerina performed live? That's a great great song. I seem to remember they might've played it on the Grand Illusion tour, but I can't remember, that was so long ago. Jennifer and This Old Man were probably the weakest tracks, but still great tracks and very "wooden nickel" to me with better production.

Just an opinion.

Different strokes for different folks. I think Crystal Ball as an album is incredibly weak. Dennis's contributions were not his strongest. Despite some of the comments about it, Ballerina gets my vote as the most obnoxious penned DDY song. How many La La La La La La La La La La La Las do we need at the end. Song could have been cut in half and still been too long. Shooz is also obnoxious and just a bit stupid. The only redeeming tracks? Crystal Ball, This Old Man, and Mademoiselle (to an extent)..everything else is putrid.

brywool wrote:

stabbim wrote:

yogi wrote:It's a good album....., but I thought that it was a HUGE step backwards when compared to Equinox.

I consider it a pretty big step forward, songwriting-wise. Much more stylistic variety and some very welcome new soulfulness, courtesy of TS. That variety lends itself to less musical cohesion (an issue that the band has struggled with ever since) and to my ear the production isn't quite as strong as Equinox's, but it was definitely a necessary step in the band's evolution. Still one of my favs.

This was my perception as well. Equinox is also a masterpiece. Great album, but I think Lonely Child and Mother Dear are incredibly dated sounding. To me Crystal Ball comes off as a pretty timeless album. I would wonder if I had purchased Equinox in 75 and then CB in 76, I might've felt the way that yogi felt, but I think as it gets longer and longer ago, that CB just stands up better and doesn't sound so 1975. Just my opinion. Ballerina is one of my all time favorite Dennis tracks. I just dig the whole sentiment of it and the chord changes as well. Very cool. I like Madame Blue too, but maybe I've just heard it (and I played and sang it forever too) too much.

On the soul end, Tommy's slide work on Shooz (gotta be him, right?) is really good and definitely brings a bit of the blues in. I remember reading an interview with him during the Damn Yankees years when he said something to the effect of "Yeah, I did some slide in Styx once, and they asked me never to do it again" or something like that. He's a hell of a slide player.

Lonely Child is trying to recreate Lady...and it does it poorly.

brywool wrote:I used to listen to this album ALL THE TIME. I haven't for a long time as I've listened to other stuff in the years since 1978 when I bought it.

Crystal Ball, to me, is the BEST Styx album. It's got everything without all the commerciality of the later albums. Not that those were all 'hits' but it's just a great album. If I had to pick my favorite Styx albums, it'd be this one, Grand Illusion and probably Cyclorama. (Oh God, here it comes- bite me!).

Crystal Ball just had such a cool vibe all the way through. Love that one. Hey, was Ballerina performed live? That's a great great song. I seem to remember they might've played it on the Grand Illusion tour, but I can't remember, that was so long ago. Jennifer and This Old Man were probably the weakest tracks, but still great tracks and very "wooden nickel" to me with better production.

Just an opinion.

I loved that tape...have not heard it in a while..

The first Styx album I ever purchased was The Grand Illusion( 1977). I was sooo blown away by it. I bet I listened to nothing but that album for six months.

After that I went out and bought Equinox and Crystal Ball the same day. After hearing Equinox I rarely even gave the Grand Illusion a spin for months.

At the time I remember thinking that Crystal Ball was very weak compared to The Grand Illusion and Equinox. I rarely played that album.

To this day Equinox is the ONLY album that I ever wore out. I had to purchase that album again because I had played Side 2 sooooo much I literally wore it out( skipped in so many places).I will always believe that as far as albums go that Side 2 of Equinox was the best album side EVER. Side 2 of Pieces Of Eight #2 in my book, but not even close.

Saying that album sounds dated I suggest that you find the best stereo possible and crank up Midnight Ride, Born For adventure, Prelude 12 & Suite Madame Blue. Then post here again as to it sounding dated.

I DONT THINK SO!

At any rate Crystal Ball has grown on me more over the years. I felt then and I still feel now that Dennis's contributions on that album were real weak when compared to Light Up, Lorelei, Lonely Child, and his two TOTAL masterpieces Born For Adventure and Suite Madame Blue. I felt that This Old Man was by far his best song on that album.

It's a good album that has grown on me more over the years. Still it can't compare to Equinox(album before), or The Grand Illusion(album after).

I love Ballerina .... think it is a fantastic song

The lalalalalas at the end are I think DDY trying to capture the image of the Ballerina dancing and really getting into what she is doing ..... taking the dance to a high level and not stopping.

Apart from this song I also love the title track, Madmo and TOM

yogi wrote:The first Styx album I ever purchased was The Grand Illusion( 1977). I was sooo blown away by it. I bet I listened to nothing but that album for six months.

After that I went out and bought Equinox and Crystal Ball the same day. After hearing Equinox I rarely even gave the Grand Illusion a spin for months.

At the time I remember thinking that Crystal Ball was very weak compared to The Grand Illusion and Equinox. I rarely played that album.

To this day Equinox is the ONLY album that I ever wore out. I had to purchase that album again because I had played Side 2 sooooo much I literally wore it out( skipped in so many places).I will always believe that as far as albums go that Side 2 of Equinox was the best album side EVER. Side 2 of Pieces Of Eight #2 in my book, but not even close.

Saying that album sounds dated I suggest that you find the best stereo possible and crank up Midnight Ride, Born For adventure, Prelude 12 & Suite Madame Blue. Then post here again as to it sounding dated.

I DONT THINK SO!

At any rate Crystal Ball has grown on me more over the years. I felt then and I still feel now that Dennis's contributions on that album were real weak when compared to Light Up, Lorelei, Lonely Child, and his two TOTAL masterpieces Born For Adventure and Suite Madame Blue. I felt that This Old Man was by far his best song on that album.

It's a good album that has grown on me more over the years. Still it can't compare to Equinox(album before), or The Grand Illusion(album after).

It's the synths that make it sound dated to me. They weren't used in the same way on later albums. I like synths, just the ones n Mother Dear and Lonely Child date the album heavily for me. In fact, those 2 songs are what do it for me for the most part.

IMO Crystal Ball is the weakest Tommy Shaw era Styx cd-ERIC

I love Crystal Ball! Put Me On has all the cool elements of the classic Styx sound. JY's vocals were so much cooler back then, too! The album does a nice job of showcasing all three lead vocalists, as well as the unmatched backing vocals that Styx is so well known for these days! I dig Shooz, kind of Styx meets ZZ Top. And what can you say about Mademoiselle? Love the vocals and the feel good vibe of the song! You just can't help but improve your mood after hearing it. This Old Man sounds like Suite Madame Blue Part 2, but what a great template, at any rate. Everyone knows about the title track's merits. Just a solid album, start to finish, IMHO. Probably my third fave Styx release!

It is the sudtle things that put this album way over the top for me: The factory noises Dennis makes during This Old Man, the finger snapping intro to Shooz, the sped up track of Put Me On, those higher and higher harmonies during Ballerina and only Styx could turn a song like Jenifer (she's 17? yipes) into a great song. I hope DDY was 17 when he wrote it. Strangely, it is the title track that I skip through these days, maybe I just burned out on it over the years.

LordofDaRing wrote: It is the sudtle things that put this album way over the top for me: The factory noises Dennis makes during This Old Man, the finger snapping intro to Shooz, the sped up track of Put Me On,

I agree. It's nuances like those that give this record more personality than, say, TGI.

LordofDaRing wrote:only Styx could turn a song like Jenifer (she's 17? yipes) into a great song. I hope DDY was 17 when he wrote it.

I think the fact that he was nowhere near 17 when he wrote it is kinda the point of the song. Cool music, but creepy lyrics.

Strangely, it is the title track that I skip through these days, maybe I just burned out on it over the years.

Yeah, no kidding. Ironically, I sometimes forget the title track is on there until I hear it! Go figure.

Whats wild about this album is that for a good part of the album you are listening to Styx playing MS Funks music.

Parts of Put Me On are taken from an MS Funk song called Musical Charades.

The song Mademoiselle is almost entirely from the MS Funk song called Bitter Suite.

For those of you that havent purchased the MS Funk CD its a Styx fan must!!

It explains alot to me as to how Styx evoloved as a group. There is a huge difference between Equinox & Crystal Ball. That difference was Tommy Shaws MS Funk Influence.

I like the Equinox Styx much better than the Crystal Ball Styx. In my opinion The Grand Illusion , Pieces Of Eight & Paradise Theatre showed a middle ground between those two renditions of Styx

I think what I like about Equinox, CB, GI, POE, up through Paradise Theater is the tremendous variety of music on each album. It is what made these albums so much fun to listen to in their entirety. Each song had a unique sound and, to me, none really sounded like another for the most part.

And nearly every song, with the exception of a few for me, were really, really good songs that I wanted to hear over and over. I think that is rare for that many songs on that many albums over a period of that many years. It's quite stunning, actually.

Bugsy

I like Crystal Ball a lot. But it is not my favorite STYX album. Put Me On is a great song except for the Mellow part Denny sings in the middle. That seems so out of place. There are a lot of great songs. But I think it fades a little towards the end.

I do recall Denny having a balerina on stage with the band when they performed that song. It was a little strange if you ask me.

Crystal Ball was my first Styx album purchase back in the day....I used to listen to it endlessly. Personally I thought Tommy added so much to the band on this album, I know everyone is sick of the song Crystal Ball but it really is brilliant in so many ways.

"All alone and trapped in time......" one of my fave lines.

E

Definately a unit functioning as one. New guy gets the title track (how often does that happen), JY stays within his limited singing range and it is a great song, great musicianship throuout the entire thing.