Styx

Styx World: Live 2001 (2001)

  1.Rockin' The Paradise
  2.High Enough
  3.Lorelei
  4.A Criminal Mind
  5.Love Is The Ritual
  6.Boat On The River
  7.Half-Penny Two-Penny
  8.Sing For The Day
  9.Snowblind
 10.Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough
 11.Crystal Ball
 12.Miss America
 13.Come Sail Away

There’s a scene in Rob Reiner’s This Is Spinal Tap where the band, having just lost a key member, are standing backstage at a low-rent amusement park gig—figuring out what songs they can even still play. They’re billed under a puppet show. It’s grim. And, sadly, not far off from what we’re given here with Styx’s third live album in as many years—and their second straight that probably didn’t need to exist. This is a band scrambling, not so much to reinvent itself, but just to have something new to offer.

They kick things off strong enough with Rockin’ the Paradise, which proves that, yes, they can still bring it when they want to. But from there, the wheels come off in quiet, awkward succession. No offense to Lawrence Gowan—he’s clearly talented and gives it his all—but he’s not Dennis DeYoung, and every time he steps into one of those signature DeYoung slots, the absence is deafening.

From there, things get...weird. We’re given three songs that aren’t even true Styx tracks. Tommy Shaw brings out High Enough from his Damn Yankees days (a great tune, but it doesn’t belong here). Glen Burtnik trots out Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough, which he wrote but never recorded—Don Henley and Patty Smyth took care of that. And then there’s Gowan’s A Criminal Mind, a peek into his pre-Styx career. And while it’s a fine performance—and Gowan really is a gifted performer—it’s not a Styx song. So what are we even doing here?

What’s left is largely retread. Familiar territory that’s now growing stale. Even a new live cut of Half-Penny, Two-Penny feels flat when stacked against its studio version. The one small revelation? Sing for the Day. Tommy Shaw absolutely nails it, showing he hasn’t lost a step since 1978. And Gowan’s keyboard work here is top-notch—if nothing else, it should at least silence the doubters who say he can’t play.

Just in case anyone’s curious: that’s James “J.Y.” Young handling vocals on Lorelei. Which, in this context, feels more like trivia than triumph. At least they had the good sense to leave Blue Collar Man off this one. A small victory. Very small.

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