PIECES OF EIGHT

The last Styx I bothered to buy. The progginess is pretty much gone but there are some great Arena Rock riffs here..with "Blue Collar Man" and "Renegade" being 2 of the best Styx tunes ever created. Aside from these songs, the rest is typical Styx-over the top and sometimes poppy sometimes hard. Just about everything is thrown into the mix. Even a "Tolkeinesque" "Lords of the Ring" tune. This is the end of the line for anything good to come out of this band, from here on out it's Dennis DeYoung and his power pop ballads. 3 stars for a few good songs but not by much. As a followup to THE GRAND ILLUSION, PIECES OF EIGHT falls far short of my expectations.