Listening Party - Man of Miracles

[Toph]

The Wooden Nickel swan song. Last album before the first A&M breakthrough and a few until they hit the big time. Is this a band that is starting to mature in sound? More straight ahead rock n roll. A lot less weird than Serpent. Where does Man of Miracles fall in your Styx album preferences?

Also includes Unfinished Song which took the place of Lies on some releases.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hcMYW6b ... 14787C4FD2

[Toph]

Bump

[Archetype]

My favorite of the Wooden Nickel era by far. It holds its own with a lot of the A&M material.

[Baron Von Bielski]

The worst album in the entire Styx catalogue IMO. Although I really like Unfinished song, is it truly part of this album? Anyways, poor album, but we're about to get one of their best.

[Toph]

The last Wooden Nickel album and what we have here is a band clearly searching for an identity. This album is choppy with some good songs mixed in with some craziness and shows a band that has no direction. Ironically, Unfinished Song is on this album and that is how I feel about the band at this point. They are rudderless and haven't really a clue.

That being said there are some gems mixed in here. Band has started inching away from the heavy prog/weirdness era and sounding a bit more accessible and mainstream. JY songs in particular are a bit more listener friendly and "poppy". DDY is in search of what he is to be as a writer - he's all over the map here with his selections. They aren't necessarily bad, they are just very eclectic and do not flow well.

Favorite songs: RnR Feeling, Song for Suzanne, Christopher Mr. Christopher, Unfinished Song
Nothing on this album do I find cringeworthy.

Here are the songs....
Rock N Roll Feeling - Did you notice that on every Wooden Nickel album that the lead track is a JY sung song? In fact, this is a pattern that would also be repeated on A&M albums Crystal Ball and Pieces of Eight. Here's another fact - JY has more opening songs on Styx albums than any other member (bet you didn't know that?) Of the 14 studio albums, he leads off on 6, DDY 4, Tommy 3, and Glen 1. Rock N Roll feeling has a good tune - but JY's lead is disappointing - his diction as much as his voice. Hard to understand the lyrics on this one.

Havin' A Ball - Still another JY sung tune with a questionable chorus. Is that the Brady Bunch singing backup? Clearly, a sign/sound of the times, but pretty weak. Lyrics are also not real intelligent either. Good Chuckie bass line though.

Golden Lark - What the hell is it with DDY and this stupid fake British accent? "Twas then that you thought your love always would lawwwst" Depressing song. You can tell DDY is totally lost right now on what he should be writing/singing

Song For Suzanne - Definitely hints at Broadway Dennis - "I'm just a maaannnn, please let me sing my song!" - Hello Rogers and Hammerstein. Actually has some interesting rifts and melodies.

A Man Like Me - The only song in which JY ever mentions his wife. The "ooh oohs" sound like future Styx choruses.

Lies - A cover but clearly shows the origins of Tradewinds/TW4 - I'm betting this song was played at a number of weddings/proms. Stays pretty true to the song until JY screeches in the middle....

Evil Eyes - Broadway DeYoung at the piano for this ballad. Not a fan of the chorus melody, but like the melody of the verse.

Southern Woman - Boogie woogie southern type beat - actually sounds closer to a Damn Yankees track than a Styx song.

Christopher, Mr. Christopher - DDY and his Catholic dogma questioning on full display again (after Father OSA on Styx II). A good song - one of the best of MOM

Man of Miracles - Lot of people including DDY like this song. I'm not one of them. Just eh..too dark for my tastes. Another example for bible beaters to gang up on Styx being a mystic/satanic band.

Unfinished - One of the best songs on MOM and a hint of the classic Styx ballad sound. Why this couldn't make the first cut, I have no idea. There are at least 8 songs its better than on this album.

And so, there we are, the end of the Wooden Nickel era. Mostly forgettable time for Styx, but a few good songs. Now onto to the big time, the A&M years

[masque]

Man Of Miracles is really my least favorite WN release.

even though this album is at the bottom for me, it contains some of the best styx related stuff as well.......1) the song man of miracles is one of my faves from the entire catalog and 2) the album cover is one of my all time faves regardless of the artist.

outside of that, it has one other song I really like alot in "rock and roll feeling" and a few others that I am ok with and then a few more that I literally cannot stand, "lies" (i know its a cover but i hate it), and "evil eyes".

"unfinished song" is a bit of a dilemma because it wasnt a part of the original release and I honestly dont think it was written at that time......I believe I read that it was written years later and never really finished (thus the clever title), but eventually finished enough to be included during the WN releases that took place in the late 70's early 80's with the dumb ass circus paint colored covers. if we consider it to be a part of "MOM" release then it is a song I really like alot, but it's not enough to save the album.

overall grade; 5.5

[ztyxlynne]

I am not a fan of any of the WN records. But on this album I do like Evil Eyes. Also Unfinished Song I think is so under rated. I wish I could hear it live.

[FormerDJMike]

I had two versions of this on vinyl. The first I had was that weird construction paper looking artwork reissue from RCA. That one had Unfinished Song on it. I love this album! Not a bad tune on it! Years later, probably 1987 or so I found a vinyl copy of the original artwork that included Lies. I had never heard that song before and never even knew it existed so I was actually quite thrilled to hear it at the time, to me it was a Styx song I had never heard before (and at that time I had never heard the original either). Love Havin' A Ball and R&R Feeling. I often wondered what Equinox would've sounded like if it would've been a Wooden Nickel release. On those albums John's drums had a very distinct sound.

I remember hearing that one time Dennis wanted to re-mix these albums but he was told the original tapes were no longer available. Would be curious to hear what he would've done with them, I bet he would have made them sound fuller and more like the A&M albums.

[FormerDJMike]

This is the one I had first and I had never even seen the original covers at the time. All of the reissues looked similar to this one.

[masque]

yes they did and they looked terrible.......the original Serpent and MOM covers were pure awesomeness......the re-releases were garbage and embarrassing.

[Toph]

Do not get the ladies in bathing suits or the pyramids on this one at all...

[brywool]

Those covers were an abomination. Terrible artwork for Styx. Good for Rick Astley.

[FormerDJMike]

RCA also changed the name of Styx II to Lady ad shortened the others to simply Serpent and Miracles. These are the version I had and it took me years to track down the original covers/releases.