Styx: The Grand Illusion, Paradise Theater and Pieces of Eight on compact disc

This blog has been going for a bit, mainly centring on photography but I do have other interests so over a few issues I'll look at them here.

In 2010 Mr Kevin Grey remastered The Grand Illusion with its hits Little Miss America and Come Sail away for the specialty cd label Audio Fidelity, keeping more of its warm sounding mix in than most on this gold plated regular cd.

As I have commented on one music site 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 but 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.

Comic tastes

Comics have been an interest of mine from early childhood onward although as with many you find your parents cancel any orders when they think you're too old for them even though a good number read them over the age of sixteen well into adulthood.

The world of comics has changed in the last fifteen or so years with a good number I grew up with having ceased publication and indeed in late 2012 we even lost The Dandy.

The one that still survives comes from the same publisher, D C Thomson and that is the Beano which has changed a bit over the years as indeed it had to to stay relevant to today's children.

The copy pictured here is last weeks edition, dated 13 September with a mixture of old favourites but set in 2014 and some newer cartoon strips.

I still go to our local shop and buy a copy.