Styx Album: “Gold”

This wonderful two CD set..."Come Sail Away: The STYX Anthology" is a generous collection of their more well known material...the price is right...and even better for CDNOW Club members ! Aside from owning EVERY album...it's the PERFECT CD NOW "buy together" combo with "The Wooden Nickel Recordings" to give we STYX fans all we need for our listening pleasure ! Both pretty much make any other STYX "hits" collection obsolete ! Oh yes....for the diehard STYX fan...there are songs we'd love to have included that are missing....but that's what the individual albums are for...right ?

There's no need to comment on the set list...it's all very obvious. What else DO I want to comment on ? The sound quality....PRISTINE ! I have a pretty decent sound system in my SUV...and when I turned it up and played it loud...I got chills ! The remastering job on this collection is EXTRAORDINARY....and it makes me plead with A&M and STYX to PLEASE remaster the origional albums...this set sounds beautiful !

"Come Sail Away : The STYX Anthology " was released a year ago this May...and I don't understand why it took me so long to buy it ! If you love STYX music....do the "buy together" deal with "The Wooden Nickel Recordings" right now...and "come sail away" to the world of STYX....ENJOY !

I became a Styx fan about 2 years ago when I was a senoir in high school. The first time I heard the song Blue Collar Man (long Nights) I instantly fell in love with the classic lineup of Dennis DeYoung, The Panozzo Brothers, James Young, and Tommy Shaw. This was the very first Styx CD I ever bought and I loved it so much I had to go out and buy the rest of the Styx albums. I love every song on this CD from "Best Thing" all the way to "One With Everything". I do think that there are some songs missing though such as "Don't Let It End", "First Time", "Haven't We Been Here Before", "Queen Of Spades", and "Superstars", and there are no songs from BRAVE NEW WORLD which really is a great album. And I also feel that there isn't enough from the wooden nickel era. But that is the truth with every greatest hits or anthology album something is always missing to someone that is why we buy the individual albums and why artists release more than one greatest hits album.

But enough negative stuff this is a great album to start with. They start with their first Top 100 hit off their self-titled album STYX with "Best Thing". And then comes two songs off of Styx II The Top 100 hit "You Need Love" and the original "Lady" their first Top Ten hit. They then showcase "Winner Take All" off of THE SERPENT IS RISING and "Rock & Roll Feeling" from MAN OF MIRACLES. Then comes their best off of EQUINOX with their classic songs, "Loerelei", "Light Up", and the two parter "Prelude 12" and "Suite Madame Blue". Then comes the start of the Tommy Shaw era album CRYSTAL BALL with the songs "Crystal Ball", "Shooz", and the Top 40 hit "Mademoisselle". Then the THE GRAND ILLUSION with the songs "Come Sail Away", "Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)", "Grand Illusion", "Miss America" and the full length version of "Man In The Wilderness".

Then they start disc 2 with my favorite album PIECES OF EIGHT. They start out the 2nd CD with my favorite song too. "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)" they also have songs "Sing For The Day", "Renegade", and "Pieces Of Eight" from that album. Then comes the songs off of CORNERSTONE with their only #1 hit ever. "Babe" plus other songs like "Lights", "Borrowed Time", and "Boat On The River". Then comes the songs off of the album PARADISE THEATRE with "Too Much Time On My Hands", "The Best Of Times", "Snowblind", and the two-parter "A.D. 1928" and "Rockin' The Paradise". Then comes "Mr. Roboto" from their album KILROY WAS HERE. Then comes two songs from their first reunion EDGE OF THE CENTURY. Their Top Ten Hit of the 90s "Show Me The Way" and their spin on the music of that day with "Love Is The Ritual". Then comes the emotionally gripping song dedicates to their late and great drummer John Panozzo in "Dear John" off of RETURN TO PARADISE and then they finish off the anthology with "One With Everything" from CYCLORAMA which features Lawrence Gowan.

Well thats it sure its missing a few things but doesn't every greatest hits album for any band have songs that they miss. This a great album to start or end your collection. I highly suggest that you buy this album today.

From the mid 1970's through the mid 1980's, Styx cranked out one master piece after another. This anthology has captured all of this music together. The antholgy cover every period from the earliest days to the most recent releases. The beauty is that all of the truly great works that band recorded actually made it on to the disks. The heavy emphasis is one the golden period of the classic line up of the band with Tommy Shaw and Dennis Deyoung. It is nice to see some of the early work that is not so well known except for "lady". It is also nice to see some of the most recent work included to allow a long time fan to see what the band has done recently. In my opinion, the newer material is not the same quality of the old, but it doesn't mean it is bad either. If you are a STYX fan, this is the perfect collection from the band. Highly recommended.

While a double-album Styx anthology has great potential, this collection falls short of it. The album sacrifices a number of well-known singles from 1980 - 1999 for an abundance of lesser songs from 1972 - 1977. While the idea of including some early "Wooden Nickel" songs is a good one, do we really want to have "Rock & Roll Feeling" or "Winner Take All" on a definitive Styx Anthology? These two songs and the obscure song "Shooz" should be eliminated from Disc 1 to make room for some later Styx songs on Disc 2. Specifically, the album fails to include 4 top-40 songs from the 1980 - 1991:

Why Me (#26 in 1980)

Don't Let It End (#6 in 1983)

Music Time (#40 in 1984)

Love at First Sight (#25 in 1991)

How can you make a Styx Anthology without including "Don't Let It End", one of Styx top-10 singles and bigger and better song than a "hit" like "Mademoiselle"? In addition, the albums "Caught in the Act" and "Brave New World" are not represented at all on this Styx Anthology. Including "Music Time" and "Everything Is Cool" (the only hit single from "Brave New World") would solve this problem.

There are some neat features on this anthology including an unedited 7-minute version of "Man in the Wilderness", a re-mastered version of "Best Thing" from Styx I, and the addition of "One With Everything", a great tune from their latest album "Cyclorama". However, it is clear Tommy and JY avoided some great `80s and `90s songs to resurrect some obscure `70s material.

It would have been much better to include another song from "Cyclorama" or a track from "Brave New World" rather than incorporate such weak songs as Shooz, Rock & Roll Feeling, and Winner Take All. Though I was dissatisfied with parts of this album (all of which is on CD 1), it is a good collection overall... however, it could have been great.

Come sail away is a brilliant box set from arguably one of the greatest rock bands ever.This excellent box set contains classics like BABE,LADY and more.HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.