PIECES OF EIGHT

Selling out arenas with their brand of artsy radio friendly pomp-rock, Styx bashed on through the late seventies as if punk and disco never happened. By the time their 8th album, Pieces Of Eight, was released in Sept. `78 they were the rave of teenagers everywhere, eventually selling over 6 million units and yielding 3 of their best songs, Blue Collar Man, The Great White Hope and Renegade. This was Styx at their zenith.

If one can brush off some of the pomp, circumstance and pretention that occur on a few tracks ( which are not even that overblown ), a closer examination of the work will reveal styx`s compositional and musical prowess most notably Dennis DeYoung`s peircing multi-layered keyboard work and their proclivity for vocal harmonizations which were on par with those of Yes. An overall beautiful contrast is also achieved by presenting a series of major keyed songs on side one and then switching to minor keys on side two culminating with the orchestral title track that runs into an instrument trailer entitled Aku Aku ( from Easter Island folklore ) reminincient to the conclusion of Yes`Gates of Delerium entitled Soon. There is also a nice balance between harder rocking songs such as The Great White Hope, Renegade and Blue Collar Man and rock ballads such as the medieval-like Sing For The Day written in the unusual time signature of 6/8.

An album with optimistic themes of not giving up or giving in to the material world, Pieces Of Eight goes off the deep end sometimes on the majestic scale particularily on the Tolkein inspired Lords Of The Ring ( I think every rock star who grew up in the 50s & 60s read something from this guy ). Nonetheles, this is compensated by the searing energy that emanates from every track and optimistic themes which prevail throughout the work. This can be gleaned from some of the titles alone such as Sing For The Day and I`m OK while other tracks reflect on the consequences of addiction ( Queen Of Spades ) and the world of crime ( Renegade ). No parental advisories necessary here as Styx demonstrate that it`s possible to have solid heavy rocking songs with positive messages for kids.

Bristling with lyrical optimism and colourful musical dynamics, Pieces Of Eight is a very accessable album that sits on the fence between the art-rock of Yes and the hard rock of Deep Purple. 30 years later the album still holds its luminous spark bringing back high school memories for those who lived through it and for those who didn`t it is arguably the band`s finest hour on record.

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