Greatest Hits

Styx

1995: A&M 31454 0387 2

1. Lady ’95
2. The Best of Times
3. Lorelei
4. Too Much Time On My Hands
5. Babe
6. Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)
7. Show Me the Way
8. Renegade
9. Come Sail Away
10. Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)
11. The Grand Illusion
12. Crystal Ball
13. Suite Madame Blue
14. Miss America
15. Mr Roboto
16. Don’t Let It End

Oh god, the indulgent shame.... I’ll state one basic thing right off the bat: I bought this CD for specific songs, not to celebrate Styx’s music or career, and while playing the full CD for the first time was an interesting introduction to some of their other stuff (some of which I’d heard in the ’70s without knowing it was them nor remembering the songs much), really I have this CD in my library for the songs I wanted in the first place and I ignore the bulk of the rest. Specifically I was (and am) hooked on “Too Much Time On My Hands,” and most of the rest I could toss aside, but “Renegade,” “Miss America,” and (surprisingly) “Lorelei” still get me to go back for repeat listenings at substantial volume levels.

“Babe,” however, makes me want to turbo-vomit. And “Come Sail Away” was forever destroyed by South Park’s Eric Cartman on the Chef Aid album, much to my eternal gratitude. I still have mixed feelings about “Renegade,” which is for the most part a sparklingly strong rocker but is so tainted with late-’70s excesses that it’s hard to get through without sneering at.

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Comments © 2005 Mark Ellis Walker, except as noted, and no claim is made to the images and quoted lyrics.