Come Sail Away: The Styx Anthology (2004)
Disc One
1.Best Thing
2.You Need Love
3.Lady
4.Winner Takes All
5.Rock and Roll Feeling
6.Light Up
7.Lorelei
8.Prelude 12
9.Suite Madame Blue
10.Shooz
11.Mademoiselle
12.Crystal Ball
13.The Grand Illusion
14.Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)
15.Come Sail Away
16.Miss America
17.Man in the Wilderness
Disc Two
1.Blue Collar Man
2.Sing For the Day
3.Renegade
4.Pieces of Eight
5.Lights
6.Babe
7.Borrowed Time
8.Boat on the River
9.A.D. 1928
10.Rockin' the Paradise
11.Too Much Time On My Hands
12.The Best of Times
13.Snowblind
14.Mr. Roboto
15.Love is the Ritual
16.Show Me the Way
17.Dear John
18.One With Everything
 
Styx manages to blow this one badly.
First, they really didn't need an "anthology" release - the two greatest
hits albums that had already been released served that purpose just fine.
O.K. - you could argue that they had released three legitimate
albums since the pair of Greatest Hits releases (although one was mostly
live), and you could argue that it might be beneficial to include two
discs on one compilation instead of two. So in retrospect, maybe
this could have been a great idea. But, again, they blow it.
It was no longer a mystery to anyone that followed the band, that the bad blood between the
axed Dennis DeYoung and the only two remaining "classic" members James
Young and Tommy Shaw was indeed deep. Every interview that James Young
would give about anything - he would manage to stab DeYoung in the back
somehow. Sadly JY sounded less like an educated experienced musician
and more like a pouty 16 year old whose dad won't let him use the family
car. What becomes unforgivable is when these guys tamper with the
band's past - or legacy, and try to rewrite their history to accommodate
what they think it should have been. They don't obliterate
DeYoungs contributions - that would literally be impossible since he
wrote most of their hits, but they do careful exorcise many of his
contributions that their fan base adored. Yes, we know now that they
hated First Time, but many of their fans did not. So they simply don't
include it here. Likewise, Don't Let It End, which was one of
their biggest selling singles ever, is also excluded. It's not like they
"needed" room or anything. The band manages to throw in more obscure
cuts like Shooz (huh?) and Man in the Wildnerness
(although it did have a new guitar solo! Oooh! Aaaah!) and manage to
include five of the obscure early "Wooden Nickel" tracks
(Lady would have been enough).
So, what you have here is in fact a pretty good collection of songs
from the band's history. Just don't be fooled into thinking this is a
good representation of their best material. For that, stick with the
two "greatest hits" albums.
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