Curulewski is kind of the forgotten Styx guy, but he was really good. Prelude 12 sounds very Steve Howe, so I suspect he was the main guy bringing in the prog on those early albums.
Yeah...that's a good point, because some of that disappeared when he left.
Let's do
Crystal Ball!
It seems pretty clear that whoever put this package together was going to a restart on Styx's career. I really liked the inner sleeve with the long biographies. The bit about how they had so much faith in Tommy Shaw that they named the album after his song seemed cool at the time but now seems super contrived. James Young is ALMOST an afterthought on this album. He has only two joint writing credits and only one song where does some, but not all, of the lead vocals.
Put Me On: I had been prepared for this song by my friend who said it's a real burner, which it is. It opens with more swirling synths, followed by some classical influenced keyboards and chord progressions. It then smacks you in the face with the opening, "put me on, I'm your brand new record album." Probably the only song I've ever heard that speaks from the point of view of a record album (and who better to personify it than JY). The song then brings it way down with a soft bit, sung by DDY, which is supposed to represent the ebb and flow of an album. And then the song ends with some heavy riffing and soloing. Still a favorite of mine.
Mademoiselle: This is our first taste of Tommy Shaw. The writing credits are to DDY and Tommy, and Tommy takes the lead vocals. Lyrically, it's a bit of a vanilla love song, but it's a very solid song.
Jennifer: Several pages back, I think I described this song as DDY's ode to pedophilia. It's a VERY '70s song and it's basically about a guy with the hots for a 17-year old girl (certainly not unheard of in rock circles in the mid-'70s) and talking about how she thinks "she's much too young to keep me satisfied," but that only seems to turn him on more. Strong choruses, though and certainly not a bad song. Just a little weird.
Crystal Ball: Tommy Shaw announces his arrival in grand fashion. Tommy wrote and performed an early version of this song with his prior band, Harvest. Has a very CSN feel to it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSgV__rqb5o . The Styx version opens with Tommy playing acoustic guitar and singing by himself. The structure is verse, verse, prechorus, chorus, and DDY and JY join in with some oohs and aahs for the prechorus, and then the full band kicks in hard for the chorus. We then get a synth solo over a quiet bed, and then the song kicks into overdrive for a final prechorus and chorus. The transition right before the final chorus starts is so simple and so well thought through. The song ends with an excellent electric guitar solo over the same backing as the earlier synth solo. It's such a well-written song, and hearing the development from how it started speaks volume for the craftsmanship of the band.
Shooz: This song illustrates the other, rockin' side of Tommy Shaw, and he co-wrote it with James Young. It's easily my least favorite song on the album, and the best way I can describe it is that it sounds like a ZZ Top song with less "dirty" guitars and much better vocals (from Tommy).
This Old Man: The first of two DDY songs to end the album. Not surprisingly given where and how he grew up, Dennis had a fascination with the blue collar worker. The first half of the song is DDY singing over acoustic guitar, and then it builds to a Broadway-esque middle section before the full band kicks in with a heavier section before an ELP-esque instrumental section (I think it's pretty clear that DDY was a Keith Emerson fan). The song builds in intensity with a guitar solo and a "majestic" outro section.
Clair de Lune/Ballerina: For the first 70 seconds of this piece, DDY adapts the Clair de lune section (solo piano) from Claude Debussy's
Suite bergamasque. The "Ballerina" section starts with solo piano and DDY singing, with organ and, eventually, the full band joining. The song builds in intensity in typical Styx style, and the Broadway influence is heavy throughout. Styx was never big into odd times, but there are a lot of prog elements in this song (they didn't all disappear with Curulewski), and you can start to hear the grand designs that were ultimately DDY's undoing. A couple of excellent guitar solos, coupled with some well done "la la" sections bring the song to a close.
Perhaps a slight drop from Equinox, but Crystal Ball is on the same level of quality as Suite Madame Blue, and the addition of Tommy Shaw opened up several new doors for the band.
Topic: Styx appreciation (Read 84010 times)
