Styx - Kilroy Was Here

Styx
Kilroy Was Here

A&M 1983

Dennis DeYoung - keyboards, vocals
Tommy Shaw - guitar, vocals
James Young - guitar, vocals
Chuck Panozzo - bass, vocals
John Panozzo - drums, vocals

1. Mr. Roboto
2. Cold War
3. Don't Let It End
4. High Time
5. Heavy Metal Poisoning
6. Just Get Through This Night
7. Double Life
8. Haven't We Been Here Before?
9. Don't Let It End (Reprise)

When I listened to this one so I could get familiar with it and review it, I made sure to use headphones the entire time. Not because listening to this through headphones produces interesting effects, but because I didn't want anyone to catch me listening to this. If that doesn't suffice, feel free to read on.

The whole album has the feel of a Broadway musical trying to "rock out" and failing miserably. Mr. Roboto starts things off, and sets the bar for cheesiness very high right off the bat. Cold War isn't too bad, but at one of the best songs on the album, it doesn't rise above mediocre. It is immediately followed by Don't Let It End, which is easily the worst song on the album. It rises above the standard for cheesiness set earlier by Mr. Roboto by a mile, and one can't help but feel relief when it is over. It wasn't even necessary, as I can't figure out for the life of me how it fits into the story. The instrumental sections of Heavy Metal Poisoning are actually pretty good, but the silly vocals allow that song to shoot itself in the foot. The album comes to a very fitting and very bad conclusion with a reprise of Don't Let It End.

It's a shame that this album was so bad, considering that the Orwellian storyline had a lot of potential to be interesting. It was actually said story that drove me to try this album. The execution, however, was god-awful. Don't get me wrong, I think Styx did some very good music. It just wasn't here.