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Cyclorama

Styx - Cyclorama Audio CD

A fair review of the Styx "Cyclorama" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Styx reviews here, or go back to the Styx tabs.

Band: Styx
Title: Cyclorama
Rating:

Release Date: 2003-02-18
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Do Things My Way 2: Waiting For Our Time 3: Fields of the Brave 4: Bourgeois Pig 5: Kiss Your Ass Goodbye 6: These Are the Times 7: Yes I Can 8: More Love for the Money 9: Together 10: Fooling Yourself (Palm of Your Hands) 11: Captain America 12: Killing the Thing That You Love 13: One With Everything 14: Genki Des Ka

A New Vision
But with just one listen to "Do Things My Way", which is likely a direct attack on DeYoung, and you'll hear a Styx that has found an identity. Without Dennis DeYoung at the helm of Styx most purists would just dismiss this project as a sour grapes recording. With DeYoung and JY and Tommy Shaw all fighting for some sense of artistic control over the group, the old Styx had individual moments of brilliance. Like a team with some star players who show a flash of brilliance, but without any team chemistry. Those were the DDY years. And if you listen to rock radio these days, not the back to the 80's schmaltz where Mr. Roboto rules, you'll hear "Blue Collar Man" or "Fooling Yourself". These are the songs that still get respect from classic rock. DDY's "Grand Illusion" is also still big. But the Shaw tunes have bite without the vaudevillian schtick that characterized anything DeYoung. And while Dennis can carry a tune, so can Canadian star Lawrence Gowan who has enough of DeYoung's vocal tendencies to make the new Styx sound old when it's needed. The album cover's Pink Floydian look suggests contents that are more AOR friendly and less theatrical. It also means the band gets back to rocking. And rocking is what Styx used to be about before "Babe". I loved "Fields of The Brave" with it's fantastic guitar parts and power harmonies that will have your ears wide open. The band has made an Alan Parsons-like attempt to deliver their trade with true credibility. This was a conscious and successful break from the tyranny of the old Styx to something that once again sounds like a band. .

Oh. My. God. What happened to this band?
It sounds. So, I gave this CD a try. . . . . . juvenile and contrived to my ears, and sorry if this is a repeat of the last reviewer's opinion, but they were RIGHT. This band is not Styx.

The harmonies and sound quality are inferior to Styx's standard. Tommy's voice sounds alright, and his melodies are alright. . . but that's about it.

What happened to this band?? They seem to be MISSING SOMEBODY?? Namely, perhaps the BEST vocalist I've ever heard? Dennis DeYoung.

Now I really know why I loved Styx, and despite my admission that Tommy is a decent singer/songwriter, his music falls flat without Dennis's production. The production on this CD sounds too much like they are trying to sound "young and hip. " Perhaps this is good for younger fans who never truly appreciated Styx during the "Equinox-thru-Paradise Theater" era. AKA, the band's heyday.

The whole band falls flat without Dennis, sorry guys. Now, I'm the first to admit, Dennis got a little silly and dorky during "Kilroy" and I never liked Cornerstone's mushy stuff all that well either, however, DDY's progressive rock songs are FANTASTIC, as well as the rest of the body of Styx's work during the same time period. With this in mind, I wish "Styx" would check out DDY's latest CD, and see that he never really did "lose it" His last CD has the production and sound of Styx. . . and it's spectacular in the style of Classic Styx (sounds like a cross between Pieces of Eight and Paradise Theater) It makes me wish they'd all just mend their wounds and GET BACK TOGETHER PLEASE??

As for this Lawrence Gowan person? I've got nothing against him, but he is NO substitute for the man who represented the heart and soul of Styx. . . In fact, I'd likely enjoy Cyclorama more if they called themselves ANYTHING other than Styx. Lawsuit or not, they stole the name from the one who STARTED this band. The hypocrisy astounds me. As much as Tommy wanted to say he was "full of rock songs," the songs on this CD honestly don't sound much more "rock-like" than Dennis's "ballads" he used to complain about. Some of the songs here actually sound more folksy than rock.

Tell me, how does a band go about ousting their founding member? How? John was dead (RIP), Chuck was never a key songwriter. That left Dennis, the person whose vision DEFINED the "trademark Styx harmonies and keyboards" Cyclorama is now being praised for. How can this band look themselves in the mirror every day? Get over Kilroy already. . . Dennis admits himself that he may have pushed a little too hard. But hey. it still sold didn't it? How does a band toss out the member whose songs PUT THAT FREAKING BAND ON THE MAP AND MADE THEM FAMOUS???? This makes me, ok call me a Styx Purist, sick. "Styx" has lost all its credibility as a band of hypocrites who shunned the very person that MADE them. The one who INSISTED on making Tommy Shaw such a vital force in that band. . . . !

By the way. . . . I do recognize the contributions of the others. . . . but they weren't what Dennis's were. The combination of Dennis/Tommy or Dennis/JY on several of their older tracks is OUTSTANDING.

Look, I'm not stupid, none of us fans were flies on the walls while Styx had interpersonnel issues, but all bands have them, don't they?

However, Styx should NOT be using the name stolen (that's right, it was stolen IMHO) from Dennis DeYoung. . . . THE catalyst behind the band's formation. It is because of this, I will never again go to a "Styx" concert. I have seen DDY, however, and I was totally flabbergasted when he played EVERY progressive song of his I have ever loved in his set. His voice has retained all of its haunting quality.

Let me close by saying this, it is my belief, if they did get back together? They could make a KILLER record. None of them have lost their musical abilities.

Tommy's songs on Cyclorama are not so bad, they're just missing that essential "Styx" element Dennis brought. Cyclorama is also missing Dennis' VOICE (this wrecks the album, IMHO) his uniquely gifted way of playing keyboards/synthesizers, and beautiful songwriting ability, thus making this album, by far, the weakest effort put out by "the band that insists on calling itself Styx" (seeing as Cyclorama is being put on par with Grand Illusion or Pieces of Eight. . . . NOT!) Even if Kilroy was weird (it was), at least DDY SINGS on it. . . . it's HIS voice that made the harmonies sound spectacular, and the overall singing spectacular in this band. No Dennis=No Styx. Sorry.

JY? He still can't sing, but he plays a pretty mean guitar and can occasionally write good music, which is good enough for me:)

BRING BACK DENNIS AND MAKE STYX "WHOLE" AGAIN. Or do the decent thing and RENAME yourselves please.

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Styx's first album sans Dennis DeYoung is also their worst

The album was the band's first since they fired co-founder/keyboard player/singer/songwriter Dennis DeYoung from the band he started along with former bass player Chuck Panozzo and his sadly deceased brother John on drums. Styx's most recent album of original material entitled Cyclorama was released in February of 2003. Without the three (we'll spare Todd Suchermann as he's a great drummer), survivors of the original band (original guitarist James Young, singer/songwriter/guitarist Tommy Shaw (not an original member) plus a returning Glen Burtnik on bass and Canadian star Lawrence Gowan replacing DeYoung created the worst album of original material Styx ever did IMHO. The songs are undoubltedly so forced and contrived.
I feel Tommy Shaw's a hypocrite. He said on the Styx Behind the Music quote "I was full of rock music" end quote, he was full of garbage. What do you call "Sing For the Day", "She Cares", "Boat on the River", half of his solo efforts and some of Damn Yankees' stuff was either folk, country or ballads or all of the above, who's he to kid.
Dennis DeYoung was the creative force in the band and when he got canned whilst fighting a debilitating illness which left his sensitive to light, it felt like a family member defrauding you for thousands, maybe millions of dollars.
Among the most blatant slaps in the face to Dennis are the songs: "Killing The Thing That You Love" (although Glen Burtnik is now joining forces with DeYoung these days after JY and Shaw fired him as well), "Do Things My Way", "Bourgeois Pig", "Fooling Yourself" (acapella arrangement with the great Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys) and "Kiss Your A** Goodbye" which sounds more like either an Avril Lavigne or Green Day than Styx.
"Waiting For Our Time" sounds like a power version of Mr. Big's "To Be With You". Another track "One With Everything" sounds like an Alice in Chains holdover from 1992's Dirt, I don't recall Styx ever being a grunge band. I did like "These Are the Times" but that can't save this abomination. Gowan's "Fields Of the Brave" and "More Love For the Money" are ridiculous.
I got this disc for free in May of 2003 but sold it after a few days when I realized how awful it was and I did listen to it with an open mind and ears but fell on the floor laughing at how bad this album was. I went to a record store and exchanged it for store credit for Led Zeppelin's How the West Was Won.
Buy any Styx album from 1972-99 instead and remember them when they were competent and not The Shaw-Young Band crap this is.

Styx Mark II:Jazz Odyssey
There's nothing wrong with being a loyal fan but let's face the facts:Styx stopped being Styx sometime in 1999. It's kind of amusing that some of the people reviewing this record are getting all worked up about a band that reached its creative peak over 25 years ago. The minute Tommy Shaw and James Young split from Dennis DeYoung,Styx was a done deal. I'm not saying that the band that calls itself Styx nowadays isn't any good,they just aren't really Styx. That aside,I think that Cyclorama is a good record,despite that fact that the band takes a few obvious pot shots at Dennis DeYoung. This band definitely has talent but maybe Tommy Shaw and Lawrence Gowan should be the only songwriters in future recording projects. James "JY" Young has always been the weakest songwriter in any incarnation of Styx and I'm not sure if he has anything left to say musically(Bassist Glenn Burtnik is no longer a member of Styx. I think they're gonna miss him. )If you want to hear a pretty decent rock & roll album,then Cyclorama is a safe bet. But if you're expecting that classic Styx sound,then you'll probably be disappointed. An even safer bet would be to go see them live because they still put on a good live stage show.

BRAVE NEW STYX (best work since PIECES OF EIGHT)

With old wounds beginning to heal after the separation from the bands previous keyboardist/ vocalist, STYX apparently has found once again the rock and roll monster that had been dormant since 1978. A BRAVE NEW WORLD shines upon the band STYX with a sound modernized yet irresistably reminiscent of days of yore. CYCLORAMA reveals a band that once again strives to develop a unified sense of construct within a widely varied styles of songs. . . with a heartwrenching conclusion that honors the fallen heroes of and after September 11, 2001.

ONE WITH EVERYTHING is a roaring return to the progressive hard rocking lament not too differentiated from MAN IN THE WILDERNESS and LOVE IN THE MIDNIGHT, that draws this album to a close leaving listeners wanting more.

FIELDS OF THE BRAVE, KILLING THE THING THAT YOU LOVE, and MORE LOVE FOR THE MONEY are modern tracks that impeccably harken back to the social satyre of STYX in its heyday. THESE ARE THE TIMES offers an emotional repose for STYGIANS as a call to arms for loved ones lost and (more so) loved ones who are fighting against the struggles to remain alive and well.

The hidden a capella track THE CHOSEN ONE is a one stanza recording written by Tommy in honor of those who would stare into the face of danger in effort to rescue others: In the background are sounds from the reconstruction site of the World Trade Center where the band visited when they provided their wonderful donation to the New York Port Authority Police.

If you were the one,
the chosen one
To sacrifice yourself,
in a moment of danger
Would you have the grace,
the courage it takes
To save the life of a stranger?

My only complaints about this album are the extraneous use of guests such as Billy Bob Thorton and Tenacious D, who add some needless interludes to an otherwise brilliant album.

STYX is back, and they bring with them a CYCLORAMA of sound that bests all of the works since 1978.

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You can see a complete list of all Styx discography, or go back to the Styx tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.