STYXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX page here... Equinox (And Other Plays With Nudity) Overall Album Score: 7.2 out of 10 I guess this is where the ole Styx vehicle started taking off. I think this not only because this seems more like a polished Styx album from their "classic" Grand Illusion years, but this is the earliest Styx album that's readily available in most stores that sell CDs! (Yeah ... I was once in the business of purchasing Styx albums ... I know of such things ... and this was one of the albums that I actually bought ...) Oddly enough, I hated it at the time. I remember liking Edge of the Century better. But I think it's an okay album now. Certainly, this is an improvement from Man of Miracles. The songs seem more like they were more well-polished this time ... as opposed to whatever they thought they were doing in Man of Miracles! I really rather like the first three songs of the album. "Light Up" has a nice party-time feel to it ... and has a good melody and fun instrumental arrangements to its name. "Lorelei" is probably among Styx's most enduring AOR anthems. "Mother Dear" isn't excellent, but at least it's good ... The rest of the songs aren't much. The overblown album-closer is probably the most notable of them, clocking in at six minutes long and seems related to such Styx staples as "Come Sail Away." Again, producing a great album eludes Styx ... That's not a great surprise, after all. Overall Album Score: 7.2 out of 10 (Not the worst Styx album on the planet. I'll alert the media ... or NOT!) Average Song Score: 7.5 (There are a few good songs in here. I like "Light Up" and "Lorelei" enough not to hate them. "Mother Dear" works good enough for me, too. The problem is the rest of the album...) Album Score: 7.0 (Three decent songs to start off with, and it sort of tapers off from there. This isn't exactly an endearing album for you to take to heart ... far from it.) Artist Rating: 7.0 (They always and forever wanted to be well-thought-of as artists, I guess, but they don't put forth much of an argument! At least they appear to try hard, though.) Track Reviews Light Up 9/10 Kind of an awesome song, I guess. ... I mean, I don't see anything wrong with it! ... The melody is pretty good (but not *great*), the instrumentation is nice (but not *great*) and this thing is as generic as hell, but ... who the crap cares about that these days? ... Not these young people, nosir. ... Heck! I think this song deserves a nine! What the crap??? Lorelei 9/10 ...Kind of famous for a Styx song. This one starts out with some quiet, calculated synthesizers. It has a pretty nice and catchy classic rock chorus. ... It's kind of annoying, but ... every Styx song is annoying. ... I like the melody. So, there. Mother Dear 8/10 This sounds like a Who song I know from way back, but ... This is Styx! They steal stuff from EVERYONE!!!! ... And, this piece of thievery didn't turn into a horrible song. ... That prog rock interlude in the middle of this song isn't the grandest, but ... are they ever? This is Styx! Lonley Child 6/10 Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh, as long as they've been sitting on the toilet in this album, they finally let out a big turd. ... This is a pretty horrible song to have to sit through. The melody might have been workable, but the presentation, arranging, and vocal work really was horribly done. Ew. Midnight Ride 6.5/10 This really isn't a whole lot better ... *Ohhhhhhhhhh, those vocals in the chorus are awful*, but at least it rocks. An extra half point for rocking. It still gets a crappy score, though, because it sucks. Born For Adventure 7/10 Another lame AOR song, but it's short and it's not annoying. So... Prelude 12 7.5/10 They want to be associated with prog-rock, forever, I guess, so here's the obligatory classical music instrumental passage. It's played by guitar this time, and it's completely pointless. Suite Madame Blue 7/10 Well, here's the regular prog-rock tune ... And, don't make a single doubt about it. This is one overblown piece of POOP. ... But this is Styx! Overblown prog-rock songs are their specialty! And boy, do they ever do it here! This song is six minutes long, and it only contains about 30 seconds of interesting ideas. The instrumental interlude is horrible ... But this is Styx! ... Really, this song isn't very bad, but it's certainly not good! Ick! Be the One who sends me comments about this album here!

All reviews are copyrighted by Michael Lawrence. Potty mouth!