Cyclorama

Performer: Styx
Producer: Tommy Shaw
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: 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. 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 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, yet never seems imitative. Longtime singer and 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 1970s 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 with 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.

Part of a rising tide of American "pomp-rock" groups of the 1970s, Styx combined prog-rock characteristics with hard-rock hooks and pop accessibility. Their high three-part vocal harmonies and radio-friendly tunes made them wildly successful into the early '80s, until AOR was eclipsed by new wave.

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