The rock band Styx is like a bottle of fine wine: they simply get better with age, not just when it comes to performing live on stage, but also when it comes to recording new music. “Cyclorama”, a 2003 CD release, launches Styx into the future far from its top of the chart heyday songs back in the 1970’s. But it is not just Styx fans who grew up on their music since day one like myself (their first charted hit, “Lady,” was back in 1974) who are buying and listening to “Cyclorama”, but also a whole new, younger generation of fans. For the new generation, Styx is James “JY” Young, Tommy Shaw, Lawrence Gowan on keyboards, Todd Sucherman on drums, and Ricky Phillips on bass. Chuck Panozzo, the band’s original bass player, tours with them when his health permits.
Far from being rehashed commercial-sounding songs like “Come Sail Away” and “Too Much Time On My Hands”, “Cyclorama” is instead a return to the band’s roots of heavy-metal/progressive rock with an infusion of 21st century popular music. Who would have imagined the likes of Tenacious D, Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame, John Waite, and Billy Bob Thornton all taking vocal roles in the recording of this CD/DVD? Given this diversity, you can be sure that special magic Styx is well known for in their music is still there.
As with much of Styx’s music from the 1970’s, “Cyclorama” has its share of social messages as well as personal tributes. “These Are the Times” is JY’s tribute to his younger brother Rick, who died in 2000 from cancer (and also collaborated as a writer on the early Styx song “Young Man”, which appears on “The Serpent Is Rising” LP). Lawrence Gowan, the band’s keyboard player, provides lead vocals on the Beatlesque “More Love for the Money.” “Do Things My Way”, “Bourgeois Pig”, and “Kiss Your Ass Goodbye”, all hint at the band’s former keyboardist, but the first song, which also happens to be the first track on the CD, can just as easily refer to anyone – or any system – that attempts to use force to gain capitulation. “Genki Desu Ka”, translated from Japanese, simply means “How are you?” and contains a reprisal of “Kiss Your Ass Goodbye” along with some friendly banter among the band members. It’s an appropriate way to finish the CD, in a style not unlike “Grand Illusion” and “Paradise Theatre” that Styx is well known for. The reverse DVD side contains song lyrics, video, and surround sound which can be played on a DVD player or computer.
Even though JY and Shaw are the senior members of the group, their voices show no sign of aging. JY’s honey-sweet vocals (and he really has one-of-a-kind vocals) in “These Are the Times” really shine, as they do on “Captain America”, the latter being a hard-rocking song reminiscent of “Miss America” and “Midnight Ride.” Styx fans from the 1970’s will appreciate the progressive/hard rock songs on “Cyclorama.” As with those early Styx LP covers, this one is no exception in having a unique design: a large carrot on the front cover, with a second large carrot made up of many regular carrots on the inside gatefold. But the listener of the disc doesn’t get to see who the carrot is for until the CD/DVD is removed from its snug holder. A circle of stuffed toy bunnies hide behind the disc, and I can only imagine the meaning of the bunnies is that the music leaves the listener with a warm, fuzzy feeling, as Styx’s music has done in the past. Styx is still an escape world, as anyone who has attended one of their concerts can attest.
