KILROY WAS HERE

Some earlier Styx was pretty good for 70s American progressive rock (almost an oxymoron at the time): songs like "Lady," "Suite Madame Blue" and "Come Sail Away" were decent radio-friendly efforts to follow the trail that the classic British prog bands had blazed. For my tastes, however, I always found that just as Coors Lite is beer for those who don't really like (or know) beer, so is Styx prog for those who don't really like prog. ("Prog-Lite," if you will.)

KILROY WAS HERE, and its ubiquitous single "Mr. Roboto" always brought on fits of gagging and retching for me back in the year of its release. This album is an aural abomination that serves as a textbook example of the worst sort of crimes against music that resulted when erstwhile semi-respectable prog bands collided with "new wave" and diminishing sales. I suppose the band had to eat, but couldn't they have just become used-car salesmen? (Anyway, the Simpsons version was vastly superior....) STYNX! See you at MacDonald's. I'll have the Plastic Burger.