Styx to Much Time on hy Hands

Styx was one of the titans of the hugely popular AOR movement – along with Boston, Foreigner, Journey, and REO Speedwagon – embraced by the U.S. mainstream in the late '70s and early '80s. The end of the Chicago-based band's peak period coincided with one of the most ambitious and notorious projects of the time, the 1983 concept album Kilroy Was Here…

Styx may have had their musical roots in the UK's burgeoning late-'60s/early-'70s prog-rock bombast, but they were true pioneers in at least one sense: The Chicago-bred quintet virtually defined the hugely successful "corp rock" boom that followed a decade after prog's original fortunes tarnished…

Budget label Spectrum's latest offering is a nineteen-cut collection which mainly covers Styx's live and times from February 1976's 'Equinox' album (represented by 'Lorelei') and ending exactly seven years later with the release of 'Kilroy Was Here' ('Mr Roboto' and 'Heavy Metal Poisoning' being the album's showcases) after which (one live album aside) the band splintered and wasn't heard of again until 1990. The reformation album 'Edge Of The Century' is given a nod in the shape of 'Show Me The Way' ("Wot? No 'Love Is The Ritual'?" as Kilroy might say) and from the very early days comes 'Lady', albeit here in its 1995 form…

Assembled with the cooperation of the band, Styx's entry in Universal's 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection series of discount-priced best-of's, surveys the group's tenure at A&M Records, where they scored most of their popular success. Of course, the early hit "Lady," recorded for RCA-distributed Wooden Nickel Records (and thus in the vaults of rival major label BMG), is not included. Neither are the Top Ten hit "Don't Let It End," or the Top 20 hit "Renegade" (mistakenly called a Top Ten hit in the liner notes). But the rest of Styx's big A&M hits – "Too Much Time on My Hands," "Come Sail Away," "Mr. Roboto," "The Best of Times," "Babe," "Show Me the Way" – are on the disc, along with several Top 40 entries and the popular album track "Boat on the River," from 1979's Cornerstone LP. Now, fans reluctant to put out the money for Styx's two volumes of Greatest Hits can have the bulk of their radio hits on one inexpensive album.

Extended Versions: The Encore Collection is a compilation of live tracks recorded by the band Styx. The album was released in 2000, but each track on the album had been released as part of Styx's 1997 double live album Return to Paradise. Styx is an American rock band from Chicago that formed in 1972 and became famous for its albums released in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They are best known for melding hard rock guitar balanced with acoustic guitar, synthesizers mixed with acoustic piano, upbeat tracks with power ballads, and incorporating elements of international musical theatre. The band established itself with a progressive rock sound in the 1970s, and began to incorporate pop rock and soft rock elements in the 1980s.

Extended Versions: The Encore Collection is a compilation of live tracks recorded by the band Styx. The album was released in 2000, but each track on the album had been released as part of Styx's 1997 double live album Return to Paradise. Styx is an American rock band from Chicago that formed in 1972 and became famous for its albums released in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They are best known for melding hard rock guitar balanced with acoustic guitar, synthesizers mixed with acoustic piano, upbeat tracks with power ballads, and incorporating elements of international musical theatre. The band established itself with a progressive rock sound in the 1970s, and began to incorporate pop rock and soft rock elements in the 1980s.