Styx Paradise Theater and Pieces of Eight on SACD with The Grand Illusion

Styx is a progressive rock group that I have always liked.

Not the edition where I do a vanishing trick but the title of Styx 1977 album release featuring Come Sail Away and Little Miss America remastered by Mr Kevin Grey for Audio Fidelity.

I bought it in May 2010.

Processing a warm tonal complexion I really like it even if it's not anything really special just the job done right.

As I have commented in a few places before the Styx catalogue has been left as is from the early days of the compact disc and can be divided between the decent but nothing special and the clearly inferior to lp versions.

On January 19th 1981 the band issued the concept album Paradise Theater based on the real story of a theatre in their native Chicago which came out on laser etched lp and tape versions (8 track and cassette) which topped the US album chart and featured four forty-fives, Rockin' The Paradise, Too Much Time On My Hands, The Best Of Times that charted at #3 and Nothing Ever Goes As Planned.

It was an album I bought near date of release and always loved for the musicianship and story telling in a song.

This new Super Audio cd also playable on regular cd edition sounds quite a bit clear with more definition than the original disc.

Another album of theirs whose cd version left a fair bit to be desired was Pieces Of Eight  based around the story of a boxing bout which on cd sounded thin and splashy

ln September 2017 this disc that featured the 45 Blue Collar Man, Renegade and The Great White Hope was issued on Super audio cd also playable in regular cd having been mastered by Kevin Gray from the A&M master tapes.

This edition is a lot better than the 1987 original cd.

Rolled Gold and Styx Equinox with Crystal Ball

This week we're looking at two cds I recently bought.

 

This came out a year back and I recently picked up a copy used.

It's the 1975 and 1976 Styx albums - the first two for A&M Records - after changing from Wooden Nickel. Featuring Lorelie, Suite Madam Blue and Crystal Ball this twofer remastered by Andrew Thompson at Sound Performance sounds great and can be recommended.
Catalogue number: BGOCD 724

What comes around goes around, eh?

That was my first thought when I heard of the release of yet another Rolling Stones CD recently.

The original CD's were issued in Europe around 1984/7 and because of licensing issues were replaced by the US mastered (and somewhat inferior sounding) issues in 1995.

Then in 2002 it was announced that the were to re-mastered using new DSD techniques for the Super Audio CD (SACD).

In total 22 discs which included the US versions of the Big Hits and Thru' The Past, Darlkly compilations, Hot Rocks and Hot Rocks 2 Double compilations and the London Years ( All the singles and B sides on three discs).

And that's how everybody thought their Decca era output on CD was going to stay, so why issue this?

This album on LP and Tape was issued in 1975 and proved to be exceptionally popular because in one package it had the main singles and important album tracks, providing a good way into the bands 60's recordings.

In the CD age however this compilation is a surprisingly good choice.

First off, one problem with the US inspired Hot Rocks and Hot Rocks 2 sets is the material is scatted in no particular order across four CD's and in the case of Hot Rocks 2 not even in chronological order.

Some of the tracks on Hot Rocks 2 are only really there because the original US LP's such as After-Math missed off tracks from the UK issues that never found their way onto other US 'albums'. That's why 'What To Do' ends up on disc two.

Equally if one was to consider the individual Big Hits and Thru' The Past Darkly discs these use US versions that miss off UK hit singles.

The re-introduction of Rolled Gold solves this problem at a stroke as it features all the UK singles issued from 1963 thru 1969 plus the US singles. It has notable tracks like 'Carol', 'Lady Jane', 'Yesterday's Papers' and 'Gimme Shelter'.

The tracks run in near chronological order so you can sense the musical development of the group from those early R&B sessions to what is the template for much of todays Indie rock.

It is little appreciated outside of Stones fanatics circles but there was a major problem in the last otherwise good re-mastered series.

On 'Ruby Tuesday' somehow they pulled the 'wrong' tapes and got a copy which misses off the multi-tracked vocals and some instrumentation and that is on all the compilations re-issued plus the Flowers album.

This issue puts it right not without some controversy as seemingly they 'cloned' the right version from the older CD! Never mind the sound is quite acceptable although had they used an actual tape it could have made to sound better.

'Time Is On My Side' is the UK version in stereo whilst 'Mothers Little Helper' uses the mono version issued on single in the US.

In a strange move they've added two recordings from 1971, 'Brown Sugar' and 'Wild Horses' to the compilation.

So at long last we have a decent Decca era CD compilation and a low price too. There also is a inexpensive 4 Lp version available from HMV and eil.com in the UK.

Strongly recommended