MR

I was just listening to Cyclorama tonight for the first time a about 2 years. This really is a great record. I wish they would record something new!!!

ChicagoSTYX wrote::D I was just listening to Cyclorama tonight for the first time a about 2 years. This really is a great record. I wish they would record something new!!!

I don't have that one but I did purchase Edge of the Century just a few days ago. I like a few songs here and there, but the record doesn't seem to have a focus. Looks like I changed the topic...I guess we can discuss post-1983 Styx efforts.

ChicagoSTYX wrote::D I was just listening to Cyclorama tonight for the first time a about 2 years. This really is a great record. I wish they would record something new!!!

Nice try

ChicagoSTYX wrote::D I was just listening to Cyclorama tonight for the first time a about 2 years. This really is a great record. I wish they would record something new!!!

Yes, it is a great album. Too bad it took you 2yrs to listen to it again.

It has been a CD i play quite often myself. since the day i got it (on release day BTW) i really haven't "stoped" playing it. sure a month might go by, but for me its my favorite. One With Everything & Waiting For Our Time To Come just rock! I love this band line up also.

ChicagoSTYX wrote::D I was just listening to Cyclorama tonight for the first time a about 2 years. This really is a great record. I wish they would record something new!!!

I totally agree. I've heard people gripe about things like Genki, Bourgeois, etc. but they're just bonuses as far as I'm concerned. I think it's THE most cohesive Styx album since Paradise Theatre and I actually prefer it over that one. I'd rate it right under Pieces of 8. I have to say (sorry) that I think Glen and Larry 's are the best tracks. I think the lead off Tommy track is also really great. Not sure why they didn't play that live.

It's a great record. One thing that sucks for future albums is that Glen won't be there. That guy adds SO much to the Styx picture. It's too bad that the band politics kind of had fans not listening to a very listenable album.
If I had to gripe about it, I'd say that they should've added another Glen or Larry track and pulled off one of Jys, though his tracks on this album are surprisingly decent.

weatherman90 wrote:

ChicagoSTYX wrote::D I was just listening to Cyclorama tonight for the first time a about 2 years. This really is a great record. I wish they would record something new!!!

I don't have that one but I did purchase Edge of the Century just a few days ago. I like a few songs here and there, but the record doesn't seem to have a focus. Looks like I changed the topic...I guess we can discuss post-1983 Styx efforts.

Best songs on Century are Glen's. Hands down.

brywool wrote:

weatherman90 wrote:

ChicagoSTYX wrote::D I was just listening to Cyclorama tonight for the first time a about 2 years. This really is a great record. I wish they would record something new!!!

I don't have that one but I did purchase Edge of the Century just a few days ago. I like a few songs here and there, but the record doesn't seem to have a focus. Looks like I changed the topic...I guess we can discuss post-1983 Styx efforts.

Best songs on Century are Glen's. Hands down.

...For me...not so much. I like the mix of songs, but I've never been especially fond of Love is the Ritual (I know, let the beatings commence now). Love All in a Day's Work.

I find for me, Glen being in the mix (any line up) is a mixed blessing. He does add a great deal, but for some reason, I just don't dig him as much as I probably should...(again, I know, let the beatings commence).

Peace

sadie65 wrote:

brywool wrote:

weatherman90 wrote:

ChicagoSTYX wrote::D I was just listening to Cyclorama tonight for the first time a about 2 years. This really is a great record. I wish they would record something new!!!

I don't have that one but I did purchase Edge of the Century just a few days ago. I like a few songs here and there, but the record doesn't seem to have a focus. Looks like I changed the topic...I guess we can discuss post-1983 Styx efforts.

Best songs on Century are Glen's. Hands down.

...For me...not so much. I like the mix of songs, but I've never been especially fond of Love is the Ritual (I know, let the beatings commence now). Love All in a Day's Work.

I find for me, Glen being in the mix (any line up) is a mixed blessing. He does add a great deal, but for some reason, I just don't dig him as much as I probably should...(again, I know, let the beatings commence).

Peace

Wow, LITR was the first time I ever heard Styx have a bit of soul injected into them. oh well.

"Edge Of The Century": Honest to God, my favorite tracks are "Love At First Sight" and "Not Dead Yet"(the latter not even being a Styx composition).
I dunno, I felt like either Glen(or Dennis) was attempting to go with the hair metal sound on "EOTC", and I guess most of it just didn't work for me.

"Show Me The Way" is a great song, with more of a classic Styx flavor, but it's honestly always bored me a little..

I know what I'm saying is a sacrilege of sorts, but I just didn't enjoy Glen's work as much on "EOTC".
That being said, he is one of the best moments on the other topic of conversation here, "Cyclorama".

"Killing The Thing That You Love" is really a moving song, and "Kiss Your Ass Goodbye" is so true to life..

For me, Glen, JY, and Larry carry "Cyclorama".. Tommy just wasn't at his best here; I feel like he played it too safe and predictable. I'm not saying he has no shining moments("Yes I Can" comes to mind), but he's just a little too happy go lucky for my taste on this one.

So often bands past their prime put out sub-par efforts. Brave New World is a good example. A lot of fans tend to wear rose colored glasses and will purchase and sing the virtues of whatever their heroes put out. But the general public tends to ignore these efforts.

Cyclorama is an anomaly. True, the general public ignored this album and last I heard, it sold far fewer than 100,000 copies.

But it is a GREAT album! It has strong songwriting, good production and great musicianship. I really wish this album had done better than it did. But it had so much going against it.

In 2003, file sharing was at its peak and this was before Itunes broke out and the industry had figured out how to make money with the intenet. STYX had already had their comeback album with BNW and it was a bust. The band broke up and their lead singer was out. And they were beginning to oversaturate the market with live performances.

I am not sure they can put out another album as good as Cyclorama. I am not sure they want to.

I do think Glen Burtnik played a major part in that album.

Cyclorama is a KILLER album. As Bryan (brywool) said, the tracks people gripe about are just play-around/piss-around tracks. Take those out and you still have an 11 song album, which is about the average length these days, and a killer one at that.

The synth/acapella lead-in to "Do Things My Way" starts things off great and for me the album never really looks back. Captain America might be the weakest song, and it's not that bad. Songs like These Are The Times, Fields of the Brave, Waiting for Our Time, More Love For The Money, Together, and Killing The Thing That You Love are all great songs with plenty of different hallmarks of "Styxisms," ranging from very accessible "pop-rock" to darker/more progressive (Killing, Times, One).

Criminally underrated.

ChicagoSTYX wrote::D I was just listening to Cyclorama tonight for the first time a about 2 years. This really is a great record. I wish they would record something new!!!

Didn't like it the first time...hardly a great record.

brywool wrote:

ChicagoSTYX wrote::D I was just listening to Cyclorama tonight for the first time a about 2 years. This really is a great record. I wish they would record something new!!!

I totally agree. I've heard people gripe about things like Genki, Bourgeois, etc. but they're just bonuses as far as I'm concerned. I think it's THE most cohesive Styx album since Paradise Theatre and I actually prefer it over that one. I'd rate it right under Pieces of 8.

Dude you are embarrasing yourself and your musical tastes...

sadie65 wrote:

brywool wrote:

weatherman90 wrote:

ChicagoSTYX wrote::D I was just listening to Cyclorama tonight for the first time a about 2 years. This really is a great record. I wish they would record something new!!!

I don't have that one but I did purchase Edge of the Century just a few days ago. I like a few songs here and there, but the record doesn't seem to have a focus. Looks like I changed the topic...I guess we can discuss post-1983 Styx efforts.

Best songs on Century are Glen's. Hands down.

...For me...not so much. I like the mix of songs, but I've never been especially fond of Love is the Ritual (I know, let the beatings commence now). Love All in a Day's Work.

I find for me, Glen being in the mix (any line up) is a mixed blessing. He does add a great deal, but for some reason, I just don't dig him as much as I probably should...(again, I know, let the beatings commence).

Peace

Releasing LITR as the first single was a bone headed move that cost Edge platinum status.

Right Toph.. keep thinking that. What pray tell would you have released first then? Not Dead Yet? Back To Chicago? Carrie Ann?

It didn't have anything to do with Grunge exploding or that A&M records wanted to go in that direction and move away from their older artists.

Can't go platinum when the label doesn't even care if you are 30,000 copies away from Gold either!

Jodes wrote:Right Toph.. keep thinking that. What pray tell would you have released first then? Not Dead Yet? Back To Chicago? Carrie Ann?

It didn't have anything to do with Grunge exploding or that A&M records wanted to go in that direction and move away from their older artists.

Can't go platinum when the label doesn't even care if you are 30,000 copies away from Gold either!

Honestly, I too think LITR was a very poor choice for a first single. I thought they needed a song out in front that sounded more like classic Styx, sung by a familiar voice. I'd have gone for SMTW first, then gone with "Edge" as the second single. But oh well, what's done is done, LOL. EOTC is uneven, but really good in a few spots. The band and label all screwed up in even measure in the marketing and promotion, in my view.

I hope all is well.


Sterling

I agree that after all the time that Styx had been out of the spotlight, they really should have put a Dennis lead track out there first, and "Show Me The Way" seems like the obvious choice. I suppose from a promotional standpoint, putting "Love Is The Ritual" out next would have been ideal, as far as getting Glen introduced at just the right time, but I honestly think more mileage would have come out of "Love At First Sight", and maybe then "All In A Day's Work". Maybe "LITR" should have just been a promotional single to rock stations..

Toph wrote:

brywool wrote:

ChicagoSTYX wrote::D I was just listening to Cyclorama tonight for the first time a about 2 years. This really is a great record. I wish they would record something new!!!

I totally agree. I've heard people gripe about things like Genki, Bourgeois, etc. but they're just bonuses as far as I'm concerned. I think it's THE most cohesive Styx album since Paradise Theatre and I actually prefer it over that one. I'd rate it right under Pieces of 8.

Dude you are embarrasing yourself and your musical tastes...

Bryan's probably got some of the best taste on any of these boards. Way outside the AOR bubble most people live in on these boards...