Styx - Babe: The Collection
Over here in the UK, Journey were a mythical creature: a rarely seen American vision of long hair, high pitch vocals and wonderful guitar solo's. Foreigner were more frequent visitors to our radios and tv screens, maybe because they had one of our own in the band (Gawd Bless 'im) - but Styx, they were just plain weird - weren't they?
As one of America’s most iconic and successful bands of all time, Styx is so much part of the national consciousness in the US that their songs appear in mainstream TV shows and films on a regular basis.
To those of us raised on Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy, Styx seemed to be a bizarre combination of Prog Rock, Show Tunes, Radio Rock and blistering guitars.
Styx rose to fame in the late 70s and early 80s as pioneers of the pomp rock genre. This is what happened when American bands took prog rock influences from the likes of Yes, Genesis and ELP, and added in a melodic feel to make the music more commercial. They were the first band in the States to have four consecutive albums from 1977 - 1981 selling over two million copies each.
This album is a significant collection of the band’s most prolific and golden era, featuring various styles from power ballads like ‘Babe’ which reached number 6 on the UK charts in 1980 and #1 in the US in 1979 to US hits ‘Lady’(#6, 1975), ‘Come Sail Away’ (#8, 1977) and ‘Show Me The Way’ (#3, 1990) to rock gems
including ‘Renegade’ (#16, 1978) and ‘Too Much Time On My Hands’ (#9, 1981).
There are some absolute classics on this album - yes you have to get past some of the cheesier moments and of course Mr Roboto - but then apart from the tracks already mentioned there is Snow Blind, Blue Collar Man & Shooz.
Styx are on tour in the UK with Foreigner and Journey right now :
4th June - Wembley Arena, London
5th June - LG Arena, Birmingham
7th June - Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle upon Tyne
8th June - M.E.N Arena, Manchester
9th June - SECC, Glasgow
The CD is available now via Spectrum Audio and the track listing is:
1. The Best Of Times (Album Version)
2. Too Much Time On My Hands
3. Babe
4. Boat On The River (Album Version)
5. Come Sail Away (Single Version)
6. Mr. Roboto
7. Fooling Yourself (Album Version)
8. Lady '95
9. Crystal Ball (Album Version)
10. Renegade (Album Version)
11. Lorelei (Album Version)
12. Mademoiselle (Album Version)
13. Blue Collar Man (Long Nights) (Album Version)
14. Heavy Metal Poisoning (Album Version)
15. Shooz (Album Version)
16. Snowblind (Album Version)
17. Show Me The Way
18. A.D. 1928
19. Rockin' The Paradise (Album Version)
Look out for our competition to win one of 3 copies that we are giving away...
NR
