Crystal Ball is it really that bad?

[Abitaman]

This is my least favorite cd of the A&M label, I even then I would rank in the worst 3 Styx cds out there, behind STYX, and THE SERPENT IS RISING. To me this cd is that bad.

JY is the only one who pulls is weight on this cd, and his song Put Me On, is at best a novelty song. It wears thin after a few repeated listening in a row. But I guess when you have one or two songs on a cd (JY's track record for rest of Styx cds), you better have something decent on it to listen to.

Dennis, I do not know where he was during the recording of this cd, but his mind wasn't in it. This is IMO his worst Styx cd. This Old Man, although lyrically a good song, the music and singing do nothing for me. I do like the instrumental in the middle with the cool sound effects, but that is it for that song.
Jennifer, there is nothing about this song I like! NOTHING! From the keys, to the singing to the lryics. Wish I knew why, but I skip this song almost as much as I do Plex. Toilet from SERPENT.
Ballerina, has some cool parts in it, but not enough to save it. Dennis really hits stride near the end of the song. More passion like that, and he could have saved the song(s) and maybe the cd. Clair de Lune was a cool intro to the song.

Tommy Shaw did somewhat better, Mademoiselle has a good beat great harmonies, Tommy does goo on the vocals. Shows promise of what the group could do together.
Shooz, they try hard to rock hard, but it never really does. A throw back in the Styx sound to Styx 2, as is most of this cd. Vocally Tommy seems over his head on this song.
The one saving grace for this cd is the title track, Crystal Ball. Awesome song. From the start of the song, you know it is going to be good. Builds slowly, before hitting a good stride, and never looks back. This song isn't a "rocker" but it rocks. The song outshines any thing on the cd, and is one of Styx best songs ever. Another promise of what is to come.
IMO, a very weak cd. What could have save it? Dennis. Tommy and Jy did their part, JY 1 for 1, Tommy 2 for 3. Dennis 0 for 3. This was a slump Dennis NEVER hit again, thankfully-ERIC

[Moon Beam]

I am not real familar with the album itself
However Crystal Ball is one of my all time
STYX faves this song has everything in it
My ears drip from the first sounds of it

[classicstyxfan]

Eric,

What were you smoking when you wrote this review ?
Crystal Ball is a grat CD, I'll take it over Cornerstone or Paradise Theater AND ESPECIALLY KILROY every day of the week, twice on Tuesdays !!!

I like Put Me On/Madamoiselle as a typical great start to a Styx album....what an intro to Tommy ! His work on side one was Both this song and Crystal Ball announced Styx indeed had a new force to be reckoned with in the group. The 12 string in the song CB is absolutely beautiful as well.

Dennis was in fine vocal form on all 3 of his songs, and the bridge of put me on. Lyricaly This Old Man is a touching song. I like the guitar work in Ballerina as well.

Shooz is so/so, agree with you on that cut a bit.

This is a solid CD, I am surprised to read your review of it.

[styxfanNH]

I also disagree with you Eric.

I like this cd a lot. In fact, Jennifer is one of my more favorite songs, The vocal entrance to that song is great and unlike any othe vocal entrance they have done.

But I also think you need to think of this as New Styx for the time. It was Tommy's first album, they were getting use to the new dynamics in the band, and it certainly foreshadows what was to come.

It's a solid album that fits what is happening in context with the band at the time.

I could listen to this album any time and regularly do.

On the other hand, of Dennis writes from personal experince, you have to wonder what was going on with him when he wrote Jennifer

[Abitaman]

It is one of the very few SRP I do not like . I think for the most part it is poorly written. And the fact that Dennis's songs are really lacking, hurt the cd-ERIC

[SuiteMadameBlue]

Eric wrote:

This is my least favorite cd of the A&M label, I even then I would rank in the worst 3 Styx cds out there, behind STYX, and THE SERPENT IS RISING. To me this cd is that bad.

OMG Eric!!! I know we have our opinions on here, but OMG!! I'm actually in shock that you feel that way about this album. No offense, but wow.

I forgot there's only 7 songs on this album/cd. I wonder if it would've been different if there were 4 more songs ? More Dennis? This is a pretty short cd come to think about it.

I've been listening to this cd sing Eric brought it up in the middle of the night last night.

"Mademoiselle" and "Crystal Ball" are my favorite from this album. Love the harmonies on "Mademoiselle"!!!

I agree with StyxFanNH regarding "Jennifer", "the vocal entrance to that song is great and unlike any othe vocal entrance they have done." You're exactly right. No clue about why he wrote about "Jennifer" - LOL Actually it might be in the interview that I did, can't remember - LOL I'll try to find out.

"Put Me On", is pretty good!! I'm pretty sure JY can sound almost the same if he sang this song today. But of course it wouldn't be the same without Dennis. The way he comes into this song would be missing and the harmonies. They wrote and arranged this song together (the big 3) and it shows. I love how it goes right into "Mademoiselle".

What other songs during that time go right into another song like these?

"Mademoiselle", again love the harmonies on this one. Damn, do I miss the big 3 together especially on songs like this one. Love Tommy on this one, totally!!

"Crystal Ball", what can I say? The very first Tommy song that I heard and fell in love with. All around a GREAT song!!

"Shooz", I always want to go out and buy a pair of shoes when I hear this song - LOL It's a fun song, good rhythm.
So get your rockin'
Rock n'Roll Shooz
They all love it baby, they keep
comin' back for more
Rock n'Roll Shooz

"This Old Man", love the lyrics. Reminds me of my Grandpa every time I hear it. Also reminds me that I need to go to Church again.

"Clair De Lune" & "Ballernia" beautiful opening. Love this song too. I wish that I could've seen the concerts where they had the Ballerina up on stage dancing to this song.

Love this whole album. I give it 2 thumbs up!!

[Abitaman]

Been trying to get conversation going. Not by being negative to be negative. But by honestly saying what I think.
I know what I think of each cd. But before I have typed anything on this, I have listened to that cd that day either going to or coming from college. It is a 74 mile drive, so I can listen to several cds.
In my opinion CB has not changed since I first heard it . Maybe one day, I'll think more of it. But hopefully everyone is listening to their cds again, and enjoying the music-ERIC

OHHHHHHHH, is it Lordofdaring that is from New Orleans area? If you read this, how is the crawfish crop this year. Thinking of making a run down there in a couple weeks if the price isn't to high and bring back a sack.

[SuiteMadameBlue]

Eric, it's great to be honest on how your opinions. I'm just pretty shocked that you didn't care for this cd.

As you mention more of the Styx albums/cds, there are going to be a ton of mixed reviews. I can't wait until Kilroy is posted or the Carrot cd - LOL

Every day I put in a Styx cd.

[bugsymalone]

Well….Crystal Ball…hmmmm...... It is amazing that the phenomenal Grand Illusion followed this one.

I always felt Dennis was not as invested in this album for some reason or other. There are moments, but not his best work by any means.

It does start very strongly with “Put Me On.” I really love this song and the fast forward windup intro into “Mademoiselle” is most enjoyable and very clever. I am a big fan of “Mademoiselle” as well. Great lilting rhythm and wonderful harmonies.

“Jennifer”….uhhh, no comment. OK, not MUCH comment. Not my favorite DDY song. The music isn’t bad but those lyrics!!!

“Crystal Ball” is a really wonderful Tommy song. I think one of his very best. He sings it beautifully.

Followed by….

One of Tommy’s (and JY’s) WORST songs ever “Shooz.” This song is beyond bad to me.

It took me a long time to both like, and appreciate, “This Old Man.” It is a great piece of songwriting and the break, where Dennis uses his voice to create the sounds of a factory, along with the counter rhythm of the music, is really very effective and contributes to the whole atmosphere this song is trying to portray, I feel.

This song about Dennis’ father is followed directly by “Claire de Lune”, which was his father’s favorite musical piece.

And that leads into “Ballerina” which is a lovely song by Dennis and Tommy. I like the sentiments expressed and Dennis sings it just right.

I do not think this is Styx' worst album by any means. It gets a lot of listens from this Styx fan.

Bugsy

[Abitaman]

Eric, it's great to be honest on how your opinions. I'm just pretty shocked that you didn't care for this cd.

As you mention more of the Styx albums/cds, there are going to be a ton of mixed reviews. I can't wait until Kilroy is posted or the Carrot cd - LOL

Every day I put in a Styx cd.

I have some type of SRP in my car once or twice a week. I try to rate Styx by Styx, Journey by Journey. SO an ok Styx cd is better say than a great Stones cd , and so on (if that made any sense)-ERIC

[jimmy19029]

I've always been very partial to Crystal Ball and thought it was a fine album. Put Me On kicks major ass! The title track is one of the best things Tommy's ever written.

[LordofDaRing]

Haven't had any crawfish yet Eric, but can't wait till the boils start...ahhh...nothing like sucking heads, pinching tails and drinking several cold ones. The third or fourth batch is usually the spiciest (yum). I have to agree with the rest, I love all the songs on this CD. This Old Man and Ballerina are truly STYX classics. The long fade out of Ballerina and the "la la la la" chorus stands in there with the long keyboard opening to Borrowed Time as a STYX Classic. Tommy's first effort and he writes the classic title track. I go back and forth between this one and Equinox on which one I like better.

[Abitaman]

Haven't had any crawfish yet Eric, but can't wait till the boils start...ahhh...nothing like sucking heads, pinching tails and drinking several cold ones. The third or fourth batch is usually the spiciest (yum). I have to agree with the rest, I love all the songs on this CD. This Old Man and Ballerina are truly STYX classics. The long fade out of Ballerina and the "la la la la" chorus stands in there with the long keyboard opening to Borrowed Time as a STYX Classic. Tommy's first effort and he writes the classic title track. I go back and forth between this one and Equinox on which one I like better.

To me Equniox is clearly the better.

Thanks for the update on the crawfish-ERIC

[gr8dane]

When Crystal Ball came out ,it was a major dissapointment to me.I compared to Equinox ofcourse and felt it was lame.
That was then.
These days I love it.The lame songs areen't really that lame.There is tons of good bits pieced nicelty together with some action that I did not notice before.

[Moon Beam]

Tell me,Tell me and then tell me again.....
So what does crawfish taste like boys?
I have never had the pleasure but like
some seafood and adore fish.

[SuiteMadameBlue]

Moon Beam says:

Tell me,Tell me and then tell me again.....
So what does crawfish taste like boys?
I have never had the pleasure but like
some seafood and adore fish.

I can tell you, they taste like chicken - LOL Just like the alligator meat I had down in Florida, just like chicken!!

During the summer, the kids and I go crawfishing - LOL We take dental floss and attach a small piece of tootie roll to it, put it in the water and pull up them crawfish. We try not to get pinched - LOL

I love shrimp, yummy and of course Lobster twice a year.

[Moon Beam]

Oh thats not good then if their texture is like
shrimp....I couldn't eat them.
love Lobster,not shrimp.

[kansas666]

I thought this album was somewhat of a letdown after Equinox. But it still has it's moments. For me, if I listen to it about once a year it is a masterpiece. But it doesn't hold up very well. Repeated listenings reveal the lack of depth to the music. But I still rank it higher than Cornerstone and Kilroy.

“Put Me On” is a great opener and one of JY's better songs. It only falls flat in the middle with that syripy Dennis tripe.

“Mademoiselle” is one of Tommy's best songs. I am surprised it does not get more play in concert. It just barely shows up in their medley now.

“Jennifer" Denny's voice is great on this song. But the lyrics don't really do anything for me.

“Crystal Ball” is a classic. This song introduced Tommy to the world and showed that he is a great artist and musician.

“Shooz.” is a balsey rocker. I'm glad they added it to their medley.

“This Old Man.” has a touching lyric. But I would rather hear Styx rock out.

“Claire de Lune” - “Ballerina” I saw a ballerina dancing on stage during this number and thought (what the f**k?) This was the first time I noticed a real disconnect between Denny and the rest of the band. As Tommy put it so well "Y'all came here for a rockshow right?!"

[shaka]

Ok, I agree with certain parts of what you said but I couldn't disagree more with others.

“Put Me On” Fun tune. I like the dynamics on how it can go from a rip roaring rocker to mellow then back to rip roaring. I especially enjoyed the transition to....

“Mademoiselle” I enjoy this song quite a bit. I thought the harmony guitars in the solo section were just great.

“Jennifer" What's Dennis' fixation with underage girls? When I first heard it I didn't like the lounge singeresque verse but then when the pre chorus hit this song really took off. For me this song is a guilty pleasure.

“Crystal Ball” One of Styx's best songs period. Easily as good of a song as Come Sail Away.

“Shooz.” One of Styx's best rockers. Tommy really lets it all hang out on this one. One of the coolest things about this song is that Tommy plays some awesome down and dirty slide guitar. In fact, this song is such a rock slide guitar tour de force I'd probably like it if it were merely an instrumental. Tommy shows versatility in the vocal. It's hard to imagine the guy singing the gutsy blues on this song also sang lead on Mademoiselle.

“This Old Man.” Lyrics good, song not so good.

“Claire de Lune” - “Ballerina” Dumb

[yogi]

The album I like to compare Crystal Ball to is Edge Of The Century.

This was Tommy's first orginal Styx album. Tommy did have a Styx tour under his belt when they went into the studio to record Crystal Ball.After the release of Crystal Ball Styx went on the road to play their new music live.

So what would of happened if the 'Tommy Shaw Experiment' ended after the Crystal Ball Tour?? How would of he been remembered??

Fast Forward now to Glen Burtnik and his first experience with Styx. His was the Edge Of The Century album then tour. After this tour the rug was pulled out from under him & Styx.

So whose First album was better??? There alot of similiarities between the two. Dennis (The Leader) gave both new members the spotlight. This included the title track & the first single. Both new albums were followed by extensive tours.

With Tommy, Styx already had 1 major hit and they were growing in popularity. They were a 'cool' group that was about to hit.

With Glen, Styx had numerous hit singles & albums, but they were an over the hill group trying to hit again with grunge about to explode on the scene.

Crystal Ball spawned one top 40 hit with Tommy's Mademosille. Edge Of The Century spawned two top 40 hits with Show Me The Way, and Love At First Sight.

So whose first album was better????

[BlackWall]

Over the years, I've constantly seen Styx being referred to as "Pomp/Rock", but I'd have to say that in their own unique way, that's kind of what made Styx what they were. However, with this album, I think there was an unusually heavy dosage of the pomp, maybe even a little too much for me.

I do like some of it, but it's not a very solid rock effort.. Unlike some people here, I'm not just equating "rock" with heavy music, however. In fact, one of the prime examples of "pomp" to me is "Put Me On", and I would have to say the best part of that song IS when Dennis chimes in.

"Mademoiselle" isn't so bad, but to me, this one contributes to the reasons that the band has always been made fun of a little. If I haven't heard this one for a while, or am in the right mood, I can kind of get it, but it's a little pompish.

"Jennifer": As an honest reviewer, I could probably say that this might be one of the worst songs Dennis has ever written, but then if I don't hear it for an extended period of time, I have to admit there's something I kind of like about it. I can't exactly put my finger on it, but I'm going to say that it's more the mood of the song than anything else that I find appealing.
It almost seemed like Dennis would take every other album off, at least to some extent. He really kicked ass on "Equinox", then on this album, he kind of stayed in the shadows, but for "The Grand Illusion", he was back in full force. The same could be said for "Pieces Of Eight"(he didn't write any of the singles), but he seemed to dominate on "Cornerstone".

As just about everyone else has expressed, I think the title track is by far the best cut here, and remains one of the best Styx songs in general. This showed what element Shaw would be bringing to the group, and yes, it was welcome.

"This Old Man": Again, I agree with most- nice lyrics, but I can't get into the way it was executed.

"Shooz": I can't really get into this one. I don't think it's really a bad song, but it doesn't really catch fire, and it doesn't sound too much like Styx. This reminds me more of a ZZ Top or Joe Walsh kind of sound. It's not really the fact that it doesn't sound like Styx that bothers me, I don't see anything wrong with experimenting a little; it just seems to be lacking something that would really catch. I wonder if this was some of the kind of stuff that Tommy was doing before he joined the band? If so, it might have been interesting to hear more of the style on later albums, just put to better use. Maybe we did get some, to some extent, though, in songs like "Renegade" and "Too Much Time On My Hands"..

"Ballerina": I like this one.. It runs a little too long for me, and I don't feel the need to play it too often, but I think this is one where the pomp was put to good use. It's not the kind of song I would play for one of my friends in the car, but I think it's Dennis incorporating theatrics into rock, something he does extremely well.

[DarrenUK]

Ballerina is a great song....one of my fave DDY tunes.........This CD is far better than Cornerstone, Killedstyxroy and EOTC

I rate it at 8/10

GI and PO8 being the 10/10 releases.....

[kansas666]

The album I like to compare Crystal Ball to is Edge Of The Century....

Fast Forward now to Glen Burtnik and his first experience with Styx. His was the Edge Of The Century album then tour. After this tour the rug was pulled out from under him & Styx.

I don't think it is very widely known. But Glen Burtnik is credited and performed on some of Tommy's tracks on Brave New World.

Then of course he went out on tour for BNW. So you could hardly say the rug was pulled out from under him.

[Abitaman]

So whose First album was better??? There alot of similiarities between the two. Dennis (The Leader) gave both new members the spotlight. This included the title track & the first single. Both new albums were followed by extensive tours.

I think Edge is the better cd by alot. Tour better too (of course they had all the hits to play on Edge -ERIC

[Abitaman]

Tell me,Tell me and then tell me again.....
So what does crawfish taste like boys?
I have never had the pleasure but like
some seafood and adore fish.

Crawfish are fantastic, if done right. Tried some up here at the local Walmart in Dyersburg, TN. YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!

Crawfish are even better when boiled with corn, mushrooms, potatoes, onions and whatever else you want. Boil this for a while then add Crawfish, boil again for 10 min. let sit in water for about 20 min (the longer they sit the spicier.
I put powder crawfish boil Zatarain's (?), big jar of jalapenos pepper, banana peppers, lemons, plus anything else, in my case ejw secret recipes.
Best when hot, juice flows right out of head of crawfish, the brains (juice ) is my favorite part. Tail is alot like boiled shrimp in texture, but IMO not a chewy.

Alright that's it, crawfish boil at my house -ERIC

[sadie65]

Stepping away from the crawfish portion of this topic.

Crystal Ball for me was an album that had some very good material (Put Me On and Crystal Ball)...some horrid material (Shooz and Jennifer) and some material that falls in between (Ballerina and Mademoiselle).

I do like the album overall, but feel it falls short for me in terms of their catalog of work.

[ek88]

I like this album, primarily Put Me On, Mademoiselle, and Crystal Ball. I, for one, dig the song Shooz. Jennifer was kind of a precursor to the slightly off center Styx song we'd hear on later albums. This Old Man reminds me a lot of Suite Madame Blue; very similar sounding, but a decent song. Ballerina's not too bad.