Moderator: Andrew
ChicagoSTYX wrote:Boomchild wrote:ChicagoSTYX wrote:
As of 8:45pm today The Mission is at #27 on the overall sales chart on Amazon.
To think back to all the past discussions here about how chart positions and performance of singles from Styx albums really means nothing. Evidently now it does.
You're right, to the average fan it means nothing. To the artist, its huge. From my point of view, the better it sells, the better chance we will see more new music from the band in the future. Btw, now at #10 on the rock chart and #20 overall.
masque wrote:who write's songs about going to space?
like what was already said, floyd and bowie to name a few......but i'll add in;
styx
elton john
billy thorpe
queen
kansas
rush
do you need anymore examples? look, people will either dig it or not. personally, i think a story about man's first manned trip to Mars is actually very interesting, because there is a real good chance most of us will live to actually see that happen. so for me, i find the story interesting. if you don't that's cool. but don't dismiss because you think "nobody does it"......see the list above.
scarab wrote:masque wrote:who write's songs about going to space?
like what was already said, floyd and bowie to name a few......but i'll add in;
styx
elton john
billy thorpe
queen
kansas
rush
Kansas has a space song?
Boomchild wrote:So against my general opinion of the current Styx, I have listened to this new album and here are my thoughts.
First, I would have expected more from this project taking into account how long "the band" says they have been working on this project. On the production side of things I would say that the sonics of this album are good. Certainly more professional sounding then the Regurgitation releases.
Now onto the material and presentation. When listening to the harmonies on this album I could not help but think "Queen" instead of Styx. I really didn't hear anything in the harmonies that really screamed Styx. The vocal effect in "Overture" seemed very "Mr. Roboto-ish" though. When it came to JY's vocal performance on "Trouble at the Big Show" it seemed to me like he was "phoning it in". No real enthusiasm plus there didn't seem to be any real "hook" to the song. Which I think is very common for JY. I did feel that Gowan's keyboard sounds on this album were more like Styx then what I have heard in the band's live performances.
There was nothing on this album that makes me really want to hear it again. Usually when I have listened to Styx albums and the solo albums I would find myself wanting to hit "repeat" on some of the songs right after the first listen. That wasn't the case here. One of the reasons that I couldn't "think Styx" when listening to this material is due to the fact of the heavy use of an outside writer. Having more material from JY would have made it feel more like a Styx product to me. I think it would have served them better to stick to material created by "the band" itself. Which leads me to suspect that Tommy was the only real person excited about doing an album. I'm strictly going by those that have the power in the band. To me "The Carrot" album had more of a Styx feel then this project does. Finally, I thought back to Chuck's comments in the BTM episode when talking about KWH. He said that band members as well as fans were asking "What is This". That they couldn't get the concept. In my opinion, the same could be said for "The Mission".
S2M wrote:Awesome list! And of those listed, Arjen Anthony Lucassen's 'Ayreon' did it best...Dream Sequencer, Flight of the Navigator, Into the Electric Castle, Star One, and 01011001 are top notch.
As much as I wanted to love this 'Space Opera'...I couldn't.
Archetype wrote:masque wrote:who write's songs about going to space?
like what was already said, floyd and bowie to name a few......but i'll add in;
styx
elton john
billy thorpe
queen
kansas
rush
do you need anymore examples? look, people will either dig it or not. personally, i think a story about man's first manned trip to Mars is actually very interesting, because there is a real good chance most of us will live to actually see that happen. so for me, i find the story interesting. if you don't that's cool. but don't dismiss because you think "nobody does it"......see the list above.
In addition to the previously mentioned artists, the following have also released successful songs/albums about space
Iron Maiden
Pagan's Mind
Nightwish
Kamelot
Jean Luc Ponty
Ayreon
Dream Theater
Megadeth
And this is just quickly off the top of my head. Tons of musicians have incorporated space themes into their art.
Monker wrote:You know, I would take your review more seriously if you stopped the passive aggressive bullshit terms like "Regurgitation" and "Carrot album". Because of that, you come across as very biased and someone who did not take a serious listen and only did it to "regurgitate" a negative review and be able to say, "at least I listened to it."
Jodes wrote:I guess I'll come out of lurking again.. (Due to the reaction to the 100 Years/DDY Charting in Canada post of mine) I'm not going to comment on the entire album.. my views are my own and when it comes down to it, nobody really gives two shits on one person's opinion. So I just need to say what I have to say because if anyone is going to understand, it may just be other fans.
Was I surprised when Styx released Gone Gone Gone? Yes and no.. They've done that the past few years - Just Be, Everything All The Time, Difference In The World, Can't Stop Rockin. At first I was like.. umm okay, high energy song to kick off the set, nothing wrong with that and it can definitely blend nicely into Grand Illusion, Blue Collar Man etc. I do like it better than those songs I've mentiond, I don't catch myself singing along to those other ones.. It's stuck in my head for sure lol.
I thought I was an "insider" about all things Styx (knew about the Gowan announcement weeks before it was made official.. I even have a funny/surreal story about Gowan joining Styx - but that's for a different time). It caught me off guard and to be honest I was kicking myself for not knowing about it. To be honest I didn't know what to expect from the Mission. I've listened to the album several times and again I will keep my thoughts of the entire work to myself..
But Radio Silence.. holy shit.
Since 1999 I've been waiting for "that song".. A song to transport me back to when I was a skinny, messed up, depressed and it seems I spent a lot of time alone trying to find answers in the music, since in seemed like they were the only ones with the answers. Something to help inspire, something I can relate too. Dennis, Tommy and JY were those guys to me growing up. There really wasn't anything on 100 Years or Cyclorama - great songs on both projects but nothing that stuck out, stopped me dead in my tracks to say "wow".
Fast forward 30 years - I'm not saying mid life crisis, but things have taken a stressful turn and here I am again feeling that I just don't have anyone to talk to that truly understands the situation I'm in (it's a unique one let me tell you). Then I saw they released another single, so I decide to listen to Radio Silence on spotify on my crappy computer speakers and even before I get 30 seconds in my wife is like "what the hell are you listening too, we don't have time.. we have stuff to do" so I bite my tongue wanting to scream, but I just realized that would just build onto an already volatile situation. So I put it off for a day or two.
Then I finally listen to it in my car.
BOOM.
There it is..
I haven't felt like this since I was listening to classic Styx biking around the city walls of X'ian in China. I was that kid again..
Now to only hope that things work out for the best in the near future.. This song is a start.
Thanks for reading.
Pacfanweb wrote:Wife got the album, I listened to it. I thought Styx was a rock band. It's not a very "rocking" album to me.
Not that it's bad, it just is to "light" for what I would want from this band.
Archetype wrote:Pacfanweb wrote:Wife got the album, I listened to it. I thought Styx was a rock band. It's not a very "rocking" album to me.
Not that it's bad, it just is to "light" for what I would want from this band.
Rocking just for the sake of rocking sounds contrived and awful. These songs were naturally written and they sound fantastic
masque wrote:I think what happens is that people take a comment and run with it......when tommy says they wanted to rock, I think what that meant was they didn't want to do songs that sounded like "barry manilow" and "air supply", which babe and first time clearly did.
I dig that. but for the casual fan they see no difference between babe and boat on the river.....they both sound like non rocking "ballads" to the causal listener.
but to the more discerning listener or especially musicians, those two songs are EPICALLY different in tone and feel. to my ears a song like babe is very much a barry manilow type sugary ballad.....nothing wrong with that, the world needs that, and I occasionally need that. but a song like boat on the river sounds like a song like norwegian wood by the beatles........not a sugary ballad. it's just different.
to millions of people they probably prefer songs like babe to boat.....but to me, even years and years before I ever knew there were issues about the songs that were being written in the band, I always preferred boat over babe, 10,000 to 1. hell i even prefer never say never to first time.....but that's just me.
so, with all that said, when you listen to the new album, it doesnt rock like great white hope of renegade......but it also doesnt inlclude anything with the same kind of feel and tone as babe or first time and I think that is more than fine with tommy and JY and was the primary thing they wanted to avoid....not saying it is right or wrong, it's just my take on it.
masque wrote:Archetype wrote:Pacfanweb wrote:Wife got the album, I listened to it. I thought Styx was a rock band. It's not a very "rocking" album to me.
Not that it's bad, it just is to "light" for what I would want from this band.
Rocking just for the sake of rocking sounds contrived and awful. These songs were naturally written and they sound fantastic
I think what happens is that people take a comment and run with it......when tommy says they wanted to rock, I think what that meant was they didn't want to do songs that sounded like "barry manilow" and "air supply", which babe and first time clearly did.
I dig that. but for the casual fan they see no difference between babe and boat on the river.....they both sound like non rocking "ballads" to the causal listener.
but to the more discerning listener or especially musicians, those two songs are EPICALLY different in tone and feel. to my ears a song like babe is very much a barry manilow type sugary ballad.....nothing wrong with that, the world needs that, and I occasionally need that. but a song like boat on the river sounds like a song like norwegian wood by the beatles........not a sugary ballad. it's just different.
to millions of people they probably prefer songs like babe to boat.....but to me, even years and years before I ever knew there were issues about the songs that were being written in the band, I always preferred boat over babe, 10,000 to 1. hell i even prefer never say never to first time.....but that's just me.
so, with all that said, when you listen to the new album, it doesnt rock like great white hope of renegade......but it also doesnt inlclude anything with the same kind of feel and tone as babe or first time and I think that is more than fine with tommy and JY and was the primary thing they wanted to avoid....not saying it is right or wrong, it's just my take on it.
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