THE GRAND ILLUSION

Last week I visited several websites dedicated to STYX, and I found that this album was released the same day (7-July-1977) as the YES` "Going for the One" album. I still prefer "Going for the One". I`m not a fan of STYX, really. They sound like KANSAS sometimes, but I still prefer KANSAS, because KANSAS wrote in the seventies more "deep" lyrics than STYX. So, I give to this "Grand Illusion" album 2 stars: for their fans only. I can`t stand the lyrics from the song "Superstars", for example. It could really have been an "Hymn" for American Football matchs (like QUEEN`s "We are the Champions").But I still think that there are some good things to comment about this album. Some of the musical arrangements are very good. The musicians are very good, particularly keyboard player Dennis DeYoung. His keyboard arrangements are very good, and he is also a very good lead singer.I don`t know how STYX sounds today without him.Guitarists Tommy Shaw and James Young are the musicians who are the "heavy" part of this band, with guitars sounding like KANSAS and QUEEN sometimes. The late drummer John Panozzo was also very good. Bassist Chuck Panozzo also does a good job in this album.As previous reviewers wrote, I agree that the vocals arrangements are similar to QUEEN`s. I bought this album in early 1981, after reading some reviews about STYX and how this album was considered their best. One of my brothers really liked this album, so he played it almost endlessly. He is a guitarist and at that time he had a band, and after their drummer left them the same day they had to play in a party, and as I have been in their rehearsals seeing them play and sometimes playing with them in rehearsals when their drummer didn`t arrive, I really knew how to play the songs and my brother asked me to play in that night`s party (using the drum kit of the departing drummer with his permission). I became their drummer, we bought a drum kit (which I later paid to them) and my brother and me also had several amateur/semi professional bands in the following years (also playing original songs in Universities). My brother liked so much the "Miss America" song that he insisted to include it in our repertoire (played without the keyboards introduction, as we were a guitar/bass/drums trio!).I don`t know if some people can imagine a band playing "Miss America", The Who`s "Baba O`Riley", Humble Pie`s "Sweet Peace and Time", Led Zeppelin`s "Rock and Roll" and other "heavy" songs in wedding parties! My brother years later bought the CD of "Grand Illusion". The best songs from this album, in my opinion, are "Come Sail Away" (I prefer the live version included in their "Caught in the Act" album), "Man in the Wilderness" and "Castle Walls".In these 3 songs I can hear a lot of similarities with KANSAS.