You'll find more Styx ... at the main page ... freak. Stynx Overall Album Score: 5.6 out of 10 Dang it. Very early on in my initial foray into rock music, Styx was one of the very first bands I ever listened to ... and, consequently, one of the very first bands I adored. So, years later, after having long abandoned my adoration for this band, going back and reviewing their albums will be a weird experience! And don't expect particularly high scores, either! ... Well, actually the first four Styx albums I'm reviewing I never heard before ... and it's a good thing that among the six Styx CD's I own, this isn't among them. Indeed, I haven't heard *this* before! And I'm glad I didn't wasted money on this hunk of garbage. This album is pretty consistently dull, I say. This album has everything: it's overblown at times, annoying at times, and completely trite all the time. ... Yeah ... This album really isn't worth anything. You're better off just listening to King Crimson again, or something! The album begins with a remarkably unremarkable "update" of Aaron Copeland's "Movement for the Common Man." ... It's a 13-minute track and there's not much good about it. ... The only real decent song in here is "Quick is the Beat of My Heart" even though the title of that song would suggest that it sucks a lot. ... It only sucks a little bit. I don't particularly hate Styx ... I just find their music oftentimes trite and inessential. ... Don't worry, though. I tell you with confidence that this is among the band's worst releases. Overall Album Score: 5.6 out of 10 (Not a good first run, I say. The songs are more annoying than anything. DeYoung's vocals are total crap at times. The melodies are either non-catchy or utterly non-existent. Finally, the artistic pretension in this album wasn't matched by any sort of real talent. Yeah ... Styx sux.) Average Song Score: 5.7 (Consistently horrible! Most of these songs have something dreadfully annoying to them. The best song, "Quick is the Beat of My Heart" just doesn't have that many annoying aspects about it!) Album Tilt: 5.5 (A real chore to sit through. But I'm not docking off major points here, because as I said, at least this thing is consistent.) Artist Rating: 5.5 (...Well, I can see where they had at least some valid artistic ambitions. An update of Copeland's "Movement for the Common People" isn't such a bad idea, after all. It's just that Styx obviously wasn't the band to carry it out.) Track Reviews Movement for the Common People 12/20 Common people must be stupid! And really deprived of real entertainment. ... Well, the good news is that, even though this is a 13-minute song, it has sections. So, it's not the same song strung out to 13 minutes! It's a bunch of songs strung together! ... Unfortunately, the individual songs aren't very good. ... I mean ... they certainly could be worse, but they are hardly classics. The first section of the song is alright, even though there is no good reason that I shouldn't be listening to King Crimson or Genesis instead! The middle part has a rather lenghty piece of dialogue ... that I don't even pay attention to, because it's POINTLESS. The instrumentation stuff after that is pretty stupid and follows a set of tedious chord progressions that ... yeah ... very difficult to listen to. There's a sort of hard-rocking progressive-rock song to follow that ... which isn't bad. ... But it's not good whatsoever! ... Styx wasn't off to a very good start with this 13-minute song-of-poop ... but another grand piece of good news: This is the only time they try to pull off this. Because they suck at it. (And they suck at a lot of other things, too, but ... I'll get to those at another time, certainly.) Right Away 5/10 Okay ... here's the first ever *regular* Styx song. These VOCALS SUCK!!!!! Not only are the lyrics total crap, but that freaking singer is ANNOYING TO DEATH!!!! ... But ... heck, at least they kept this hunk of poo under four minutes long. What Has Come Between Us 6.5/10 The very beginning of this song is total crap with stupid and annoying chord progressions. The rest of the song is pleasant but with an annoying chorus. (I really like that harpsichord in this one ... instrumentation is probably, after all, Styx's greatest talent.) ... Unfortunately, that only consists of about 1 minute of this song, and ... yeah ... the rest of it is just freaking annoying. Best Thing 5/10 The best thing is ... not Styx. This is another horrible song that's pretty annoying throughout. ... Nice guitar solo, though, but ... that's it. Quick is the Beat of My Heart 7.5/10 Without even reading Styx's lyrics, can you not tell that the band is completely and utterly trite just by reading the song title? This verrrry much embodies Styx's utter stupidity! ... "Quick is the Beat of My Butt" would have been a better title. ... It didn't take much effort for me to come up with it, either. ... But alas, they are writing music for the common man. And the common man needs juvenile songs like "Quick is the Beat of My Heart" for some reason. ... Nevertheless, this song isn't horrible, except for that organ in the stupid instrumental interlude in the middle of this. It's kind of fun to listen to sometimes. The melody works enough, and I like that scratchy-guitar sound through this. The lyrics are beyond stupid, but ... that's Styx's unfortunate signature. After You Leave Me 4/10 Dude!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This song is freaking boring! The melody has precisely ZERO hooks in it. Dennis DeYoung's vocals are completely crap here. (...He's had this problem throughout the album, but it's particularly horrible here ... he should tone down those freaking vocals! They're going all over the place!) ... Ohhhh, the lyrics ... *tragically buries face in palms in fear of the future of music* Styx me with some of your comments here!

All reviews are copyrighted by Michael Lawrence. Diet Coke corrodes the teeth.