THE COMPLETE WOODEN NICKEL RECORDINGS

Well my good score -due to the enthusiastic moments only- regarding the recent 2005 tour of the new-line up, is my attempt to ask the critics for listening to their strong performances live on stage nowadays: as a matter of fact this US band is able to convince their denigrators about its quality, despite of forgetting the ingenuosness of a few commercial music songs,giving us a lot of easy-listening music passages !! Certainly I remember the first time I listened to Styx and my first impression as well received from the melodic notes at the piano by Dennis DeYoung...it was pleasant but nothing more than a melodic pop rock version of the early Genesis,being also enriched by means of several references to such 70's classic and melodic hard rock (coming for instance from bands such as Uriah Heep); but after all, considering their strange attitude to a kind of accessible pompous rock, being anyway seldom banal, We have to appreciate this US band!! Their lyrics are the unique bad example of course, nevertheless their impact live, especially their most progressive songs, are like an hurricane on stage!! This collection doesn't make you think of a great band, but anyway if you take care of their attention to details (especially during their pleasant solos in the recent Tour recalling the old times), you have to change your mind!!

Such a great professionalism on stage,also taking care for the songs written by the original members, as the execution of the old songs played by the new-line up (Chuck Panozzo is the sole survivor of the original ensemble) is much more persuasive,more over making them earn a special mention!!