04. Styx - Pieces of Eight (1978)
Over their last three albums
Styx had clearly adopted the principal of combining intellectual keyboard-orientated pomp rock with a real hard rock backbone and into this they had then thrown their own brand of pseudo-intellectual lyrics for good measure as well. The band knew that focused shorter songs were the way to go and with a strong eye on commercialism the band were very much forerunners of the AOR genre and with
Equinox and
Crystal Ball the band had laid down their newer foundations, before then stepping it up a level with the glorious The
Grand Illusion.
Along with
The Grand Illusion,
Pieces of Eight must rank as the pinnacle of Styx and while both albums have their differences (
Pieces of Eight a concept album) and shared low-points, both albums though follow the same pattern of keeping their best material towards the back-end of the album. The previous
The Grand Illusion after a couple of average tracks exploded into life with the epic “Come Sail Away” and continued to unleash a series of unforgettable tracks that really were band efforts. “Pieces of Eight” works in a similar vein with three opening tracks that do take time to grow on you, but overall the openers on
Pieces of Eight “Great White Hope” “I’m Ok” the song was recorded in a cathedral and “Sing for a Day” one of the singles from the album, are more focused than those on
The Grand Illusion with “I’m Ok” the interesting pick of the three here. Unlike the more drastic musical change on
The Grand Illusion that took place after its opening tracks,
Pieces of Eight does it in a more subtle matter largely through the use of synths with the oddball instrumental “The Message” and then even more impressively on the ambitious Queenesque progressive rocker “Lords of the Ring” given real backbone by
James Young and a track that finishes the first side of the album.
Side two of the album romps off with the glorious
Tommy Shaw anthem “Blue Collar Man” without doubt one of the greatest tracks ever put out by the band with some of the band's most memorable lyrics and one of my all-time personal favourite Styx tracks. Not to be outdone
Dennis De Young then steps in with the equally glorious "Queen of Spades" which after a slow build up, steps it up a gear by introducing that crunchy rock guitar previously heard on "Miss America". "Renegade" is up next and it's one of the most famous tracks put out by the band with its obvious nod to Queen. But instead of following a possible Queen route, the song immediately jumps into Styx or better said Tommy Shaw rock-stomping territory and it's one of those songs that you just shouldn't leave home without. The album continues its stunning offerings with the Dennis DeYoung piano ballad "Pieces of Eight" and as possibly expected it enters into an unusual proggy section that keeps in tone with the rest of the album, before the album outros with the gentle "Aku-Aku".
Both
The Grand Illusion and
Pieces of Eight very much mirror the two albums from
Kansas Left Overture and
Point of Know Return in their compository nature. Kansas had gone into the studio under pressure to record a commercial breakthrough album with
Left Overture and came out with a classic, they then had their creative freedom handed back to them for
Point of Know Return. Styx despite having made a breakthrough on
Equinox a few years back had commercially stalled with
Crystal Ball and
The Grand Illusion was like their
Left Overture with their creative freedom being handed back to them for
Pieces of Eight, which goes to show the pressure some American bands faced at this time.
Like
The Grand Illusion,
Pieces of Eight went triple-platinum and again it captures the unique identity of the band’s three primary songwriters and vocalists Dennis DeYoung, Tommy Shaw and James Young on its tracks and again they have sole writing/vocal credits for most of their own songs. Critically opinions were split on the album, with Rolling Stone calling the album ‘narcissistic slop’ and as usual most British reviews pretty much slated the album, but then again a lot of music listeners just don’t get the brilliance of Styx, but then again that’s half the beauty of rock music anyway and if I'd had my way this album would've been in the top two positions on this year's list.
I love everything about
Pieces of Eight right down to its unforgettable album cover which to me is one of the most enigmatic of the 1970s with its alluring yet classical image of a mature woman’s head, even though I once read that Dennis DeYoung initially hated it. As I said on my previous
The Grand Illusion review, that album had the ability to take me off to a far-away place,
Pieces of Eight doesn’t offer me that option but what it does offer me is a special feeling of 1970s rock at its best and real feelings of nostalgia, as I first heard it back in the 1980s. So which album do I prefer? Well for me it’s like tossing a coin, as the answer I give today might be different from the one I’d give tomorrow.
I know four songs were agreed on, but I can't leave the title track off
