KILROY WAS HERE

I quite enjoyed Kilroy Was Here (title originally used in a song by The Move). "Mr. Roboto" was THE essential song to listen to after "Down Under" by Men At Work had dried up its airplay. There is a haunting keyboard backdrop underlying the music that most people don't recognize right away, that adds the spookiness that most people simply don't want in music, but which is a real gas to me. After that, they played "Don't Let It End" which was a bit sappy by my tastes, but I grew to like the song even with its elongated ending. "High Time" should probably not have been released as a single, given it sounds clunky today, but at the time I was thrilled to hear it on the radio for all three or four weeks it was there, possibly because of the strange vocal effects during the bridge.

When I finally purchased the album years later, I was surprised to hear the quality of the other tracks, especially as they had NOT been pegged for singles. However, the HUGE letdown was the last track in which Kilroy wins and sings some rather bland, primordial Elvis/Roy Orbison/Jerry Lee Lewis style rock and roll. THIS? This is what all that fighting was about?

As a concept album it is tremendously flawed, in that Styx seems to be good for writing hits rather than stories; there are huge story gaps and the ending seems rather tacked-on.

But, as a MUSIC album, it has lots of nice music on it.