Chapter 5 - Styx - The Grand Illusion

Chapter 5 

Styx is an institution. No, not the mythical river (which by the way is only 1 of the 5 rivers of the underworld, the Hatred one, the others being Lethe (Oblivion), Archeron (Woe), Phlegethon (Fire), and Cocytus (Wailing); it's full on functional logistics down there), the Prog-Rock band from Chicago. They opened for Kansas one time and immediately decided they should also try not to generically suck any more. Now, the obvious litmus test (sorry, the Acid House from yesterday hasn't quite worn off yet) of objective fame is having Weird Al parody one of your songs, but only slightly less official while statistically much more significant is Cartman just doing a straight up cover of your commercial breakthrough hit about your boat turning into a spaceship (i knew there was a clairvoyant reason Skip went fishing hiding in here somewhere). I don't think anyone will be surprised that Dennis DeYoung was depressed about how crummy their couple previous albums were selling when he wrote it. Fun fact, Shaw wrote Fooling Yourself specifically about the ants in DeYoung's pants back then. 

This review is sort of a double header, because Compy handed me two Styx albums. Not just any of their 17 though, he brought me their smash hit 7th album The Grand Illusion, and their official Todd in the Shadows Trainwreckord of an 11th album, Kilroy Was Here. Come sail away with me on a truly dazzling adventure. 

Dateline, 1977. This Rock and/or Roll lifestyle is not all glitz and glamour. You might say it's all an enormous facade. That's not a good album title though, The Grand Illusion is admittedly much better. I think instead of my normal rambles about whatever we should buckle down and look at the concept for not just this album, but the next 3. Spoiler alert, we'll find out where Kilroy was, then we'll subdivide Rush's Signals. There we go, dinner plans settled for the rest of the week, then the weekend will be a free for all like normal. 

So, how do we actually identify the grand concept of such an album? Truthfully, most people just gestalt the whole thing as beginning-middle-end. Here it's something like 1) fame and fortune are an illusion, 2) here are some examples, 3) just follow your dreams, whatever they are (even though there's a good chance the rockets will explode, and if not you'll probably die in the cold bleakness of space, it's the journey that matters, not so much the destination). Something like that, anyway. 

That's not good enough for me, let's actually analyze it, brick by boring brick (thanks, Paramore). 

As previously mentioned the first two songs have a real Supertramp quality to them, in that DeYoung is saying it's all a depressing slog, and Shaw retorts "chill, dude, jeez." Whether or not that holds up inside the context of the actual album, it's interesting. The point is that we have two different voices or perspectives in dialogue, but you could potentially condense them down to a single omnicient narrator; there's so far no reason why the "you" who thinks their life is complete confusion can't also be the "you" who is an angry/cynical young man. Divergent interpretations are fun. 

Do Superstars and Come Sail Away have the same dynamic from both perspectives? Actually, yeah, i think so. I'm kind of confused that we didn't have any medieval fantasy type stuff on side a, but i guess that's not actually obligatory. 

So, story wise we get a nice little sequence: 

1) We're all in the same boat in this illusion, so don't be tricked into buying a new car just to keep up with your secretly also miserable neighbors.

2) Why are you so upset? You've got a bright future ahead of you, just go find it.

3) i achieved the dream, but now that I'm here i can aver it still sucks.

4) i'm leaving this unfulfilling life to chase my own destiny, 'cause some space aliens who i mistook for angels told me to (head east? Hello, Teletubby sun baby, give my regards to Baxter Forest Twilight). Even if it doesn't pan out, at least i'm not sitting here being miserable for no reason. Come with me, it'll be fun. 

This is of course my own reading, and you should go explore your own, but i kind of like the back and forth dialog version, as opposed to the carnival barker/follow me version. Side B may moot that to smithereens, but we'll see what we hear when we smell it. 

Damn, i honestly forgot just how Heavy Metal Miss America really is. Aha! Castle Walls, there's the medieval fantasy stuff. And recap a couple main themes for the outro. 

Freakin' awesome album. I don't know about you, but i hear Side B as the innards of the story on Side A. Actual examples of how deep inside we're all the same, like the middle 3 paragraphs of a High School English essay. Maybe it doesn't give you the same carnival barker outside the peep show vibes it gives me, but it doesn't have to. Lots of fanfares and synth/guitar solos, a couple raunchy riffs, and all the Broadway belting you can handle. 

Tomorrow, they tell me, we get to watch it all go horribly wrong. Honestly i doubt it, i bet the album will be great for what it is, terrible for what other people wanted it to be. Or, maybe i'll be equally underwhelmed, who knows? It's an adventure, after all, and all we can do is try our best. It's not like the Goddess of Hatred in girraffe rather than river form is actually going to care if we succeed in our quest toward audio oblivion or not. She has much more important souls than ours to ferry.

Chapter 6