Styx

Come Sail Away: The Styx Anthology (2004)

Disc One 
  1.Best Thing
  2.You Need Love
  3.Lady
  4.Winner Takes All
  5.Rock and Roll Feeling
  6.Light Up
  7.Lorelei
  8.Prelude 12
  9.Suite Madame Blue
 10.Shooz
 11.Mademoiselle
 12.Crystal Ball
 13.The Grand Illusion
 14.Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)
 15.Come Sail Away
 16.Miss America
 17.Man in the Wilderness

Disc Two
  1.Blue Collar Man
  2.Sing For the Day
  3.Renegade
  4.Pieces of Eight
  5.Lights
  6.Babe
  7.Borrowed Time
  8.Boat on the River
  9.A.D. 1928
 10.Rockin' the Paradise
 11.Too Much Time On My Hands
 12.The Best of Times
 13.Snowblind
 14.Mr. Roboto
 15.Love is the Ritual
 16.Show Me the Way
 17.Dear John
 18.One With Everything

Styx manages to blow this one badly. First, they really didn't need an "anthology" release - the two greatest hits albums that had already been released served that purpose just fine. O.K. - you could argue that they had released three legitimate albums since the pair of Greatest Hits releases (although one was mostly live), and you could argue that it might be beneficial to include two discs on one compilation instead of two. So in retrospect, maybe this could have been a great idea. But, again, they blow it.

It was no longer a mystery to anyone that followed the band, that the bad blood between the axed Dennis DeYoung and the only two remaining "classic" members James Young and Tommy Shaw was indeed deep. Every interview that James Young would give about anything - he would manage to stab DeYoung in the back somehow. Sadly JY sounded less like an educated experienced musician and more like a pouty 16 year old whose dad won't let him use the family car. What becomes unforgivable is when these guys tamper with the band's past - or legacy, and try to rewrite their history to accommodate what they think it should have been. They don't obliterate DeYoungs contributions - that would literally be impossible since he wrote most of their hits, but they do careful exorcise many of his contributions that their fan base adored. Yes, we know now that they hated First Time, but many of their fans did not. So they simply don't include it here. Likewise, Don't Let It End, which was one of their biggest selling singles ever, is also excluded. It's not like they "needed" room or anything. The band manages to throw in more obscure cuts like Shooz (huh?) and Man in the Wildnerness (although it did have a new guitar solo! Oooh! Aaaah!) and manage to include five of the obscure early "Wooden Nickel" tracks (Lady would have been enough).

So, what you have here is in fact a pretty good collection of songs from the band's history. Just don't be fooled into thinking this is a good representation of their best material. For that, stick with the two "greatest hits" albums.

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