Styx Album: “Cyclorama”

Description :

Styx: Tommy Shaw (vocals, acoustic, electric, baritone, 6 & 12 string guitars, mandolin); James "JY" Young (vocals, electric guitar); Lawrence Gowan (vocals, piano, organ, synthesizer); Todd Sucherman (vocals, synthesizer bass, drums, percussion, loops); Glen Burtnik (12 string electric guitar, electric, upright and sythesizer); Chuck Panozzo (bass). Recorded at Pumpkin Studios, Chicago, Illinois; The S.H.O.P.and The Cave, Los Angeles, California; Dr CAW Recording, Northbrook, Illinois, Colorado Sound, Denver, Colorado; Capitol Studios, Hollywood, California; Seventeenth Avenue Productions, Manville, New Jersey. The DVD portion of this release features a 5.1 surround sound mix, music videos, behind-the-scenes commentary, lyrics, and weblinks. This is a DualDisc, which contains a CD on one side of the disc and a DVD on the other. Styx: Tommy Shaw (vocals, guitar, mandolin); James Young (vocals, guitar); Lawrence Gowan (vocals, piano, organ, synthesizer); Glenn Burtnik (guitar, upright bass, bass guitar, background vocals); Chuck Panozzo (bass guitar, background vocals); Todd Sucherman (drums, percussion, loops). CYCLORAMA is the second studio album that Styx has made without former leader/singer/keyboardist Dennis DeYoung, with whom the group acrimoniously split a few years earlier. It's also the first to include DeYoung's replacement Lawrence Gowan, whose voice is in the same general ballpark as DeYoung's but never seems imitative. Longtime singer/guitarist Tommy Shaw is the dominant presence here, and his delivery of the ostensibly group-composed songs is full of energy and commitment. The songs themselves are not far from the material Styx tackled in their '70s glory days, minus the pomp-rock touches and with a bit more of an edge. That edge is most obvious in a couple of songs that seem to be directed at DeYoung, lyrics dripping in occasionally shocking vitriol. Though the DeYoung days are seemingly gone forever, CYCLORAMA suggests that the remaining members of Styx never wanted time to stand still anyway.

Cyclorama is an album released by Styx in 2003 and it is the first studio not to include founding member Dennis DeYoung. I was pleasantly surprised by how good it really is. I was told by one of my cousins to get Cyclorama but was skeptical because I wasn't sure they could come up with something good without DeYoung. Goes to show you how wrong I was. This album rocks fueled by songs like "Do Things My Way", Yes I Can" and "One With Everything" to name a few of the highlights. One thing that is true is that Cyclorama is a more democratic and team approach than their previous album "Brave New World. Shaw, JY, and Glen Burtnik came up with good material with a few contributions from then new member Lawrence Gowan.

Styx's CYCLORAMA is a great CD/MP3, and is their best since PARADISE THEATER. Contrary to what founder Dennis DeYoung would tell you, tough-on-crime guitarist-singer-songwriters Tommy Shaw and JY Young actually don't need him to make a great album, as the miserable BRAVE NEW WORLD will attest. In fact, his theatrical influences actually made it harder for the band to rock very hard in many places on their past albums, so going ahead without him (he was forced off a 1999 tour due to acute sensitivity to light) was clearly the right move, as keyboardist-singer-songwriter Lawrence Gowan fits much better with Shaw's and Young's hard rock and Southern-style country rock influences. The band also has many guests on this CD who, far from weighing it down, actually give the songs vocal variety aside from the usual high-harmony style of old. Influences such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Outlaws, and the James Gang, which had always been present in Shaw's and Young's guitar work from CRYSTAL BALL on, blend very well with progressive rock and AOR to create one of the best true rock albums of the 2000s. Somebody should recommend that DeYoung's grandchildren go to boarding school so they don't have to hear him call this lineup "phony."

Not a big fan of Styx, but with the extremely limited DVD-Audio selections out there (at reasonable, non-eye-gouging prices), I gave this one a try.

This DVD-A is very liberal with the rear channels. Songs 2, 3, 6 and 7 are especially good, even if a bit "musical theatre" for my taste. Regardless... when the chorus vocals kick in on these songs, my car's 7.1 surround sound system envelops me.

Am I a Styx fan now? NO. Do I like this DVD-A? YES. Very much so.