Styx - Paradise Theater
#23
By Tom Bowers
January 16 1981
STYX
Paradise Theater
Genre: A Band Without A Country
Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5
Thom’s Rating: 4.25 out of 5
Highlights:
AD 1928/Rockin The Paradise
Too Much Time On My Hands
The Best Of Times
Snowblind
Half Penny Two Penny
First, a disclaimer: I'll be reviewing this thing as a die hard, unironic, unapologetic fan of the band, and everyone's just going to have to be okay with that.
I came into said fandom well after Styx's original commercial heyday and initial breakup, so I have no sense memory of them being part of the zeitgeist. That they often seem to be lumped in with bands dismissed as "faceless corporate rock" rather than those of their 70s peers held in higher esteem (you can fill in the names on both sides of that aisle yourself, I assume) seems to me to be an accident of history more than anything else, but whatever...I just dig the music. Used to escape into their records and listen with my whole life attached. I've seen them in concert dozens of times since they got back together in the mid 90s, and have never come away unhappy.
So, I was both excited and intimidated about this review. Could I boil it all down while still saying everything I wanted to say, and not bore everyone to tears? We'll find out, I guess.
But one thing I discovered when sitting down to listen to Paradise Theatre tip to tail, for the first time in a very long time, was my surprise at how strongly it resonates with me in 2020, perhaps more than ever before. Whether it's because the themes are evergreen or we're all trapped in a time loop, I can't say. But it was quite the revelation.
from "Rockin' The Paradise"
Don't need no fast buck lame duck profits for fun
Quick trick plans, take the money and run
We need long term, slow burn, getting it done
And some straight talking, hard working son of a gun
Come on take pride, be wise, spottin' the fools
Big shots, crackpots bending the rules
A fair shot here for me and for you
Knowing that we can't lose
And we'll be rockin' in paradise
Maybe you find that sort of earnestly centrist optimism unbearably naive, but you can't deny it's timely. Could have been plucked right out of a Biden stump speech. And c'mon...don't you at least want to believe it right now?
Paradise Theatre was certainly a high commercial watermark for Styx, and I think it's a spiffy artistic achievement as well: a concept album about the perceived decline of late 70s America, using the mid-century rise and fall of a beloved Chicago theater as metaphor. Your mileage may vary on the value (or results) of that approach, but for a band whose mainstream popularity was cresting and could have rested on their laurels instead of raising their game, I find such ambition admirable.
Considering the notorious creative differences of the players involved, it's a surprisingly cohesive affair. Dennis DeYoung's theatrical reach had yet to exceed his grasp, and the tension between his particular preoccupations and the rest of the band's desire to just...well, be a rock band...achieves a satisfying sweet spot that, much like the idealized past that the album celebrates/mourns, would never come again.
Uncharacteristically for this band, the album also a bit of a downer. It's important to remember that the 80s had yet to become *THE 80s* in an aesthetic or cultural sense at this point, and Paradise Theatre is most definitely a 70s holdover on that score. Other than a few notable exceptions, the lyrics frame a parade of loneliness, alienation, disillusionment, and anger. The Styx ethos tends to lean optimistic and hopeful, even when the subject matter is serious...but as this record progresses, the light at the end of the tunnel grows dimmer. There's no hope for the future, only bittersweet memories to cling to in the aftermath of history's crushing tide.
It's an urban-sounding record, almost pointedly so. Gone are the pastoral acoustics, the exotic synth sounds, the classical flourishes of Styx records past, replaced by stabs at disco and reggae rhythms, liberal use of a horn section, and the closest thing to a bona fide R&B flavor as this band allowed itself to dish out*, interspersed with voices and sound effects that invoke a cityscape atmosphere. It shares the same stripped down sound as its predecessor, 1979's Cornerstone -- which sanded off the band's rougher edges and trimmed away much of their proggy weirdness -- but aims that streamlined approach with greater focus. The album's more strident theatrics are thus simultaneously highlighted and made more palatable as a result, which is a pretty cool trick if you can pull it off.
That said, the rough edges remain a little too smoothed out for my taste. The rock guitars could have been rockier, the faux strings less omnipresent, the backing vocals less homogeneously slick. Most of these tunes come across much more robust and soulful in a concert hall than they do on this recording. The Styx of the mid-70s would not have been able to write this record, but I kinda wish they had recorded and engineered it.
I've almost certainly blathered on enough already, but I did mention that I dig the music, right? So, what the heck, let's do a track rundown.
https://open.spotify.com/album/6PhLTeuN0G894bdSBTCwUF?si=NlmHN7YRSqqYCnzcDa_hLg
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AD 1928/Rockin' The Paradise
Whatcha doin' tonight?
Have you heard that the world's gone crazy?
The plaintive melody of AD 1928 sets the stage (so to speak) wonderfully, and as a recurring musical motif, it provides the record's emotional centerpiece. Even when it is expanded into a major key march later on in "The Best Of Times," that kernel of melancholy remains, and reminds the listener that any good times present on this record are being viewed through a lense of nostalgia. That said, the segue from it to the high energy pep rally of "Rockin The Paradise" still makes my heart soar. Go, sparky go!
Too Much Time On My Hands
It's ticking away with my sanity
It's hard to believe such a calamity
Yeah, not hard at all to map this onto a COVID lockdown, is it? A spiritual successor to Tommy Shaw's "Blue Collar Man" from 1978's Pieces Of Eight, this time focusing on the tedium of unemployment rather than the desperation. If this is the same guy, he's passed through the anger and bargaining stages, and arrived at depression...but with a jaunty beat! Between concert recordings and actual gigs, I've now easily heard this song played live over 100 times, which is the sort of thing that tends to numb one's perception of the original track. But I think it works really well as a catchy dance/rock hybrid of the time, and deserves its hit status.
Nothing Ever Goes As Planned
You've done your duty, you've paid a fortune in dues
Still got them mother nature's blues
This was a pleasant re-discovery. Man, that arrangement! An average group of less-is-more dullards would have been satisfied to jump straight to the main groove (which doesn't appear here until nearly a full minute in) and ride it straight through. But these guys just keep on renovating the house as they go, from the hopscotching intro to the bouncing outro, with stops in between for three individual verse vibes and three instrumental solos, yet the song stays hooky, never feels too cluttered, and wraps up in just over 4 minutes. Chuck Panozzo's bass, in particular, shines on this one.
The Best Of Times
When people lock their doors and hide inside
Rumor has it it's the end of paradise
DeYoung had been honing this particular ballad formula long before the blockbuster success of "Babe" made it an obligatory feature of each subsequent album, leading to diminishing returns and deepening interband strife. But for my money, "The Best Of Times" is, well, the best of them. It contains all of the forumla's strengths, and few, if any of its weaknesses. Special shout out to the guitar solo on this one: tastefully melodic with just enough rock showboating to give it some verve, sticks around long enough to grow and develop but not so much as to wear out its welcome. Shaw may not have been at his most engaged as a songwriter on this album, but his guitar work is unimpeachable throughout.
Lonely People
Up above these ghetto streets, in penthouse suites, the sit and stare
Beneath these neon streets, in subway seats, they crowd for air
So close and yet so far, they share the secrets of despair
I'm fond of the little scene that opens what would have been Side 2, before the band kicks in, but this one brings the overall rating down a bit for me. Too much of a DeYoung solo tune, the band gets a bit lost in the shuffle, the middle seems kinda meandery. I find the whole doesn't quite eclipse the sum of its parts. Some pretty nifty parts, though. And that dude sure can belt.
She Cares
I guess that's the way it goes
The way that it goes
Until he unexpectedly found himself bitten by the concept bug a few years back, Shaw was always reluctant to write to a theme. Other than the first verse of "She Cares" possibly being a straight reading of a drafted veteran's experience rather than a muddled metaphor for relationship woes (the second verse then does away with metaphor altogether...it's a weird lyric, I wonder if anyone has ever asked him about it) the song doesn't fit at all into the larger conversation of the album. But it's breezy and catchy and the sax solo from guest player Steve Eisen is pretty keen and the vocal harmonies in the bridge are stellar, and it feels much more synergistic than the preceding track.
Snowblind
Life's not pretty, even though
I try so hard to make it so
Not an original premise -- heck, not even the first song about the concept to feature this title -- but James Young's bleak ode to cocaine addiction is damned effective at taking the album in a darker direction as we head into the final stretch. Musically it's dynamite, a great showcase for the band's dynamics. The spooky, brooding verses (sung by Young) give way to a funhouse mirror vision of doo-wop in the choruses (sung by Shaw) and a blistering guitar lead, one of JY's personal best, provides temporary catharsis before the inevitable comedown, leaving our protagonist as trapped as we found him.
Half Penny Two Penny
Justice for money, what can you say?
We all know it's the American way
Well, now that we've invited the devil in, he's gonna collect his due. JY sticks around to stomp and snarl through the album's climax, a tune that swings wildly between anthemic release and anxious dread. Seriously, all these years later, I can't hear that bridge without feeling like I'm being stalked along an abandoned railroad track, or something. One of the most underrated tunes in the band's catalog and a definitive example of how they worked best when working together, it's a showcase for all involved, especially Shaw's tour de force solo. Plus, an Edridge Cleaver reference thrown in at no extra charge.
AD 1958/State Street Sadie
And then we end as we began, with a coda that is as much a peek behind the curtain as a conclusion to the text. The reprise finishes on a major chord, but I won't hold that against them. Fish gotta swim, dogs gotta fly.
* Okay, so THIS is actually the closest thing to a bona fide R&B flavor as Styx allowed itself to dish out. Boy howdy, did Mr Shaw have to hide his light under a bushel for this band, or what?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFYKkQc3vcw
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