Following on from my last entry in this series nearly a year ago, which covered Mastodon’s many critically acclaimed concept albums, I take a look at Paradise Theater, the 1981 concept album from Styx, a band that rode the Album-oriented Rock (AOR) wave of the 70s to become one of the biggest stadium rock acts of its generation. Even non-fans couldn’t have escaped the heavy airplay enjoyed by their catchy soft rock/rock opera tracks like Mr. Roboto and The Best of Times, and power ballads like Lady and Babe. The release of Paradise Theater would take them to the top of the Billboard charts and was their biggest hit.
Artist: Styx, comprised of Dennis DeYoung (vocals, keyboards), James “JY” Young (vocals, electric guitars), Tommy Shaw (vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocoder), Chuck Panozzo (bass guitar, bass pedals) and his twin brother, John Panozzo (drums, percussion). Additional horn section featured on some tracks.
Album: Paradise Theater (1981)
Narrative genre: Ups and downs of an economic cycle
Album theme/concept: Fictional account of Chicago’s Paradise Theater, from its opening in 1928 to its closure thirty years later.
Best songs: A.D. 1928/The Best of Times/A.D. 1958 (three tracks sharing the same melody), Rockin’ the Paradise, Too Much Time on My Hands, She Cares.
What makes it special: To be honest, there is a relatively light connection between the songs and the story of Chicago’s Paradise Theater. This is a great album, with outstanding songwriting, arrangement and production values; period.
Musically, the songs are constructed around the band’s trademark three-part vocal harmonies, contributed by Dennis DeYoung, James Young and Tommy Shaw. The alto vocals and falsettos on the album comes from Dennis DeYoung, who took on the lead singer duties on all the tracks that he wrote. DeYoung also played the keyboards, which are integral to all the songs. The musical arrangement gives enough room for Chuck Panozzo’s bass licks to peek through the tight rhythm section.
The short opening track A.D. 1928 sets the tone right away with DeYoung’s keyboards and vocals, segueing seamlessly into beautiful harmonies of Rockin’ the Paradise. The highlight of the album is the anthemic The Best of Times, which is the quintessential Styx song, combing the vocal harmonies, keyboards and rhythm section into the perfect singalong package. Both the opening and closing tracks, A.D. 1928 and A.D. 1958 are effectively extensions of this song.
Too Much Time on My Hands is one of two songs written and sung by Tommy Shaw on the album. It kicks off with a twangy keyboard riff played by DeYoung, after which John Panazzo’s snare drum jumps in with a punchy beat. Although Shaw does not have DeYoung’s vocal range, his singing on this track and on She Cares (one of the unknown gems on the album) is effortless.
The second half of the album is not as strong, with the only notable tracks being She Cares and Lonely People, the latter’s horn section reminding me of of course, of that other famous (and eponymous) band from Chicago!
Two years later, Styx released another concept album, Kilroy Was Here, which featured the smash hit, Mr. Roboto. Soon after, this incredibly talented line-up had run its course due to creative differences, and the band broke up for several years. They reformed in 1990, but by then, their brand of rock had been replaced with heavy metal, which itself would soon give way to alt-rock and grunge.
Here are the other bands/albums featured in this series of my favourite concept albums:-
- Coheed and Cambria’s Amory Wars albums
- Rush’s concept suites
- Queensrÿche’s Operation: Mindcrime
- Extreme’s III Sides to Every Story
- Iron Maiden’s Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
- Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick
- Sabaton’s The Great War
- Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois
- Steve Hackett’s Voyage of the Acolyte
- Mastodon’s five concept albums
Chronophlogiston 