#57/1224
February 24 1986
Dennis DeYoung
Back to the World
Genre: Schmaltz Rock
2 out of 5
I thought I recognized “This is the Time” and then I looked it up and, sho nuff, crap rock from crap movie Karate Kid 2. Ugh, the 80s.
This kind of stuff reinforces the theory that it was Shaw and Young, et al, who tempered DeYoung’s Vegas inclinations. Much like Brian and Roger provided the rock to Freddie’s Chanteuse. Except that in the case of the latter, Freddie understood theater and the glory of spectacle. Dennis seems to have grown up with a different theater. Freddie was about “theatrics”. Dennis wants to be on Broadway.
And Broadway has no edges. It softens all of those and dulls them to the point of being absolutely inoffensive.
The stuff that made Styx a top 40 band was a hybrid of the edge and Broadway. DeYoung runs screaming from the edge and this is the pap we get.
I listened to this whole thing. So, now you are obligated to listen to the SIX MINUTE AND THIRTY TWO SECOND “Unanswered Prayers” as penance.
6
minutes
and
32
seconds.
And then…we get…anti war…anti-Vietnam song? (“Black Wall”) He gets close to listenable right near the end with “I’m So Lucky” but, it’s unmemorable. And right at the end he harkens back to his Styx days with “Person to Person” which should have been up top and then he should go back to Styx.
How many words have I spent on this terrible record? I need a shower.
Crazy that this album is no longer available for purchase anywhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfpjYAILZf4&list=PLBJ7ztNazTVCxL_rmMB0e-ugA7fr7FrCu
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