Styx - Greatest Hits

The first-ever compilation pulled from this Chicago progressive-bubblegum band's A&M catalog, featuring such album-Rock radio fixtures as Come Sail Away; Lorelei; Babe; Blue Collar Man (Long Nights); The Best of Times; Too Much Time on My Hands; Renegade; Mr. Roboto; Don't Let It End , and more, plus a 1995 re-recording of Lady !

If it's your belief that one of the reasons today's rock is so bereft of personality is that all sense of show business has been drained from the music, then a look back at the career of Styx offers proof positive that it wasn't always thus. Greatest Hits offers a comprehensive overview of the band, from its art-rock days--which produced a top 10 hit in "Lady," a new version of which is included in this package--to its years as a perennial album-rock favorite--with offerings ranging from flights of fancy ("Come Sail Away," "Renegade") to proto-power ballads ("Babe," "Crystal Ball") to songs reflecting the working-class roots of its audience ("Too Much Time on My Hands," "Blue Collar Man"). The band eventually succumbed to a shift in musical tides and just plain silliness ("Mr. Roboto"), but for a time, this disc suggests, a satin-suited pomp-rocker was something to be. --Daniel Durchholz