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Styx Album: “One with Everything [Italy]”
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One with Everything [Italy] |
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Release Date:2006-11-14
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Type:Unknown
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Genre:Classic Rock, 1970s Rock, 1970s Soft Pop
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Label:Frontiers
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Explicit Lyrics:Yes
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UPC:8024391031124
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Review - :
{\Rock} bands classified as "{\progressive}" have been pairing off with symphony orchestras for decades, sometimes with positive results, a good example being {^Procol Harum Live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra}, that group's biggest-selling album. According to guitarist/singer {$Tommy Shaw}, who has been fronting {$Styx} since a legal settlement with former singer/keyboardist {$Dennis DeYoung} gave him, guitarist {$James "JY" Young}, and mostly retired bass player {$Chuck Panozzo} the right to perform under the band's name in 2001, the group mostly avoided hooking up with orchestras until an offer came in from {$the Contemporary Youth Orchestra} ({$CYO}) of Cleveland, OH, a massive ensemble of 115 musicians along with a 56-member choir, all of them teenagers. Their live encounter with {$the CYO} constitutes their second release on {@Universal}'s {@New Door} imprint, formed to revitalize the careers of veteran acts with large catalogs in the company's archives, following the 2005 covers collection {^Big Bang Theory}. Actually, the idea of coming up with {\orchestral} arrangements for {$Styx} songs is not a bad one, or, at least, it wouldn't be if the present group were willing to choose from its entire repertoire, including the more melodic {\ballads} written by the departed {$DeYoung}. But a decision seems to have been made to avoid giving royalties to the band's former leader, so the songs all have to be {$Shaw} compositions, numbers written by the present group, or covers. The result is a record that finds {$Styx} rocking harder than they perhaps should under the circumstances. {$The CYO} may be a worthy outfit, but most of the time it's nearly impossible to tell because they are inaudible as pitted against the amplified {\rock} group. Early on, it sounds as if the mixing desk hasn't quite configured the room correctly, a common enough problem at concerts; the sound improves noticeably as the disc goes on. An early highlight is an arrangement of {&"I Am the Walrus"} that follows {$the Beatles}' original closely. The choir seems to be having a wonderful time singing "Woah" in the chorus. It's good, but it's not what one expects from {$Styx}. The orchestra gets to peek out here and there, notably in the introduction to {&"Miss America,"} but it spends a lot of the evening doubling {$Lawrence Gowan}'s keyboard parts. At least it can be said that the youngsters are getting a good sense of what an {\arena rock} concert is like, as {$Shaw} treats them to a range of clichéd stage remarks such as, "One word: awesome!" He also talks about wanting to play all night, which, as usual, is a signal that the show is about to end. For no apparent reason, there is a new, original, studio-recorded track in the middle of the disc, {&"Just Be."} It suggests that this faux {$Styx} may be trying to turn into the faux {$Pink Floyd} of the late '80s. [The 2006 {@Frontiers} edition is a straight reissue.] ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
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![Styx Album: “One with Everything [Italy]”](http://www.poprockbands.com/covers_yaS/styx/2006_170_168_One%2520with%2520Everything%2520%255BItaly%255D.jpg "Styx Album: “One with Everything [Italy]”")
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