Styx-Pieces Of Eight

Studio Cd
10 tracks
1978





1 Great White Hope
2 I'm O.K.
3 Sing for the Day
4 The Message
5 Lords of the Ring
6 Blue Collar Man
7 Queen of Spades
8 Renegade
9 Pieces of Eight
10 Aku Aku




Pieces of Eight, is the hard rocking follow up to their 1977 heavy metal, prog rock cd, The Grand Illusion. And what a follow up it is. Like their previous cd, their is not a bad song on this outing. Most bands, now a days,would crack under the pressure, of having to record a follow up, to a highly successful cd. Plus the pressure of doing this in just over a year of their last release. Pieces starts off rockin, with The Great White Hope, a song written and sung by JY. This song deals with the success that the band was going thru, and how one minute your on top of the world, and the pressure you are under to stay on top. I'm Okay, is a brilliant song by Dennis, with a great organ solo in the middle, love the way the song starts too. But every one of us at one time or another has felt the way this song is singing about, am I really different, is it okay to be this way? Sing For the Day, a Tommy Shaw song, is very good and is one of four songs of his on this cd. Even though this cd is named after a Dennis song, Tommy is the hero on this outing, this is some of his best work, with Renegade, and Blue Collar Man, being two his greatest songs. Aku-Aku, is the ending song, and the weakest on this set. Queen of Spades, is a rocker, with a good beat. The title track is a haunting number, with a good piano part. The Message a keyboard instrumental, leads into the Lord of the Rings. JY handles vocals on Lords, this is a good song, with good guitar work in it, but JY's vocals are little too nasal in it. A great cd, from a great band, and one their last albums that seemed like a group effort, instead of individual efforts.
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