After 2017’s phenomenal return to form with their concept album The Mission, Styx actually had some serious living up to do. The bar had been placed very high.
That’s even assuming they planned to release another album. When they released The Mission, 12 long years had passed since the previous album with original material (Cyclorama, 2005).
Fortunately it seems there’s still some gold to be found in their songwriting mine, as well as the desire to dig for it. It is always a good sign that a band with the pedigree of Styx wants to be creative and is able to put out new material with a regular frequency.
Styx has primarily become known as a touring band for the past few decades, enjoying a lot of success on the road. It is tempting to assume that we have the Covid pandemic to thank for the new album, forcing the band to stay at home, finally giving them the time to create new music. This assumption would however not be entirely accurate, as work on Crash of the Crown first started at Tommy Shaw’s home studio in Nashville during autumn 2019. They were able to continue working through the pandemic when that hit, having a few more post-pandemic gatherings at Shaw’s house (after stringent testing and quarantining to make things as safe as possible) while also taking advantage of virtual working.
Crash of the Crown was released on 18 June 2021. It is the band’s 17th studio album. While the album doesn’t boast a full-fledged conceptual story from start to finish like The Mission, there is still a concept at play as the songs flow through an amalgamation of historical events that occurred during notable times in history. Songs take place in the years 1066, 1455, 1775, 1861, 1941, and even 2001, without citing any of these events by name. Some of them may be more obvious than others, with Winston Churchill’s classic wartime speech permeating Save Us From Ourselves, while others may require a bit more thinking.
In essence, Crash of the Crown is a modern-day sonic chronograph of the endless regenerative cycle of the rise and fall – and rise again – of our shared human experience.
“It’s almost like a diary,” Shaw explained to Classic Rock Magazine. “It’s like using the album to look at life. You look at it all gloom and doom, and boom and you come through on the other side. This isn’t forever. Let’s get through this and don’t do anything stupid or regretful while you’re doing it. Try to take care of your end of things.”
In other words, the album has an underlying theme of encouragement and positivity. This becomes clear as soon as you hit play on the album, and opening track The Fight of Our Lives begins with the rallying cry of “We will not give in”.
The album very much stays within established borders for Styx music. One catchy melody replaces another almost from start to finish. The arrangements are always very interesting – sometimes a bit proggy, other times with a poppy flair, usually confidently mixing the two. Some songs are more straightforward, but never pedestrian. There is always something interesting happening around the corner.
The tracks Crash of the Crown and Reveries were released as digital singles and lyric videos on 2 and 25 June 2021 respectively. These are both among the more upbeat material on the album, and both got a very favourable reception. People might be ready for – and possibly need – some encouraging music after the trying times we’ve all lived through.
As catchy as these songs are, they are anything but straightforward songs. On Crash of the Crown in particular the musical styles seem to come and go continually. There song goes through at least seven different sections with different musical styles, with the song continually changing its colours. This makes it feel like a longer track than it is (it clocks in at just 3:46). Even though some passages take the form of straightforward melodic earworms, the thinking that goes into arranging these moments have their roots in a more progressive mindset. This has always been one of Styx’ strengths.
The songwriting roles within the band always seemed well distributed, never really stepping on each other’s toes. Tommy Shaw (guitar/vocals) represents the infectious melodies, the catchy riffs, the earworms. James ‘J.Y.’ Young (guitar/vocals) represents the guitar riffs and heavier material. Lawrence Gowan (keyboards/vocals) represents the progressive side. These are obviously gross simplifications of a more complex picture where they all contribute in a lot of different genres and ways, and collaborate a lot on everything. But the overall impression largely still holds true.
For this reason, it is a red flag to see zero writing credits attributed to J.Y. on this album, for the very first time in the ever-present guitarists tenure in the band. He is still very much present, singing songs and contributing his distinctive guitar parts, which again underlines that involvement and collaboration on arrangements may mean as much as the writing. Everybody seem very invested in these tracks.
The star of the album is without question the vocals. The band harmonize in just about every song, sometimes from the get-go. The band have always had several skilled vocalists in the band, and at this stage they blend wonderfully.
Common Ground is a great example. After a nice semi-progressive keyboard opening, the song launches with a full set of harmony vocals. They sound as good as the band’s harmonies ever did.
It was just a fleeting moment, on a long lost night
We both were so determined that our way was right
Now the days of our confusion have no end in sight
Can we ever find our way back
From that long lost night?
Some songs bear different types of musical influences on their sleeve. To Those in particular is an interesting rocker, which immediately reminded me very much of The Who in style and approach – especially in the verses, with drummer Todd Sucherman does his best Mooney impersonation and Gowan does a good effort channelling Roger Daltrey. The track clocks in at just under the three-minute mark, making it a delightfully explosive track.
The album contains 15 well-crafted tracks. They are all very focused and to the point, the longest track being four minutes sharp. Amazingly, the album feels like it is full of the usual longer tracks as all the normal ingredients are here – solos, extended passages, progressive moments, etc – and it speaks to how effectively these songs have been trimmed and arranged. The songs are just unashamedly effective.
The fat has been removed, leaving the songs with their key components. This helps the band hone in on the classic Styx sound which is very much intact, but the higher than average amount of songs also means they can afford a few moments where they stretch a little beyond the expected.
One such moment is the moody Lost At Sea. Interestingly, this is the lone track on the album carrying an undercurrent of unease, being played with an inner sense of urgency. The result is striking especially as a contrast to other songs, with the lyrics painting a similarly eerie feeling as they depict dreams of being lost at sea with a voice calling out from the deep. This is one of two tracks featuring original bass player Chuck Panozzo, which also helps making this an endearing track emotionally to long-time fans.
The album contains nods to nearly all eras of the band’s history, although there is a natural stylistic focus on their glory years of the latter half of the 1970s. If you ever had a soft spot in your heart for this band, they have gone out of their way to make sure you will find some of what you liked about them in the first place on Crash of the Crown.
Svein Børge Hjorthaug
Norway, August 2021
RELATED ARTICLE: STYX – «The Mission» (2017)
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