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It’s not a bona fide idea LP à la 2017’s The Mission, which imagined a recce to Mars in 2033, however Styx’s 18th album Circling From Above continues the long-running US band’s current prog-orientated renaissance, as final heard on 2021’s Crash Of The Crown.
Amid a seven-piece line-up with expertise to burn, old-hand guitarists James ‘JY’ Younger and Tommy Shaw plus founding (and nowadays part-time) bassist Chuck Panozzo sound galvanised and very important.
Youthful co-writers Will Evankovich (guitar, mandolin, vocals) and Lawrence Gowan (piano, synth, Mellotron) show particularly essential to those hyper-melodic, ingeniously succinct songs.
With Evankovich additionally appearing as producer, drummer Todd Sucherman and Panozzo’s job-sharer Terry Gowan flesh out proceedings on a report ostensibly regarding the methods by which our world’s ever-growing slag heap of out of date expertise can have an effect on us.
The idea could also be well timed however its execution is a tad on the woolly aspect – so it’s greatest to concentrate on Circling From Above’s impressed, uniformly glorious music.
If there’s initially a Supertramp-circa-The Logical Track-vibe to The Issues That You Mentioned, it quickly opens out into ELO-ish territory. There’s generally a flamboyant rock musical really feel, serving as a reminder of Styx’s basic 1981 LP Paradise Theatre.
With the standard surfeit of chic vocal harmonies, Styx 2025 are something however a spent pressure
Elsewhere, Blue-Eyed Raven’s Greek people parts and The Satan Went Down To Georgia – fiddle courtesy of visitor musician Aubrey Haynie – suggests the band’s touchstone is Boat On The River, from their 1979 album Cornerstone.
No Styx LP can be full with out Younger hamming it up a tad; and therefore he lends his barely daft Shakespearian baritone to harmonica-imbued rocker King Of Love. As Circling From Above units out a stall which sounds each classic and recent, it’s all a part of the enjoyable.
Gowan employs synth tones evocative of blockbuster mid-70s albums comparable to Crystal Ball and The Grand Phantasm, whereas Shaw and Evankovich commerce great guitar solos. With the standard surfeit of chic vocal harmonies on supply, Styx 2025 are something however a spent pressure.
Witness deft, highly effective stand-out It’s Clear and Everyone Increase A Glass, the latter an acknowledged nod to Nineteen Seventies Queen proper all the way down to its Freddie Mercury-like piano pomp and lyrical, Brian Could-esque solo.
Like current albums by fellow veterans Jethro Tull or Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks, Circling From Above constitutes a late-period flourish. Not fairly the most effective of occasions for Styx – however lots nearer to that than one may anticipate from a band in its sixth decade of existence.
