Edge of the Century
Average Rating: 
List Price: $11.98 / Lowest Price: $29.95
From the Editors
Japanese-only SHM-CD (Super High Material CD) paper sleeve pressing of this album. SHM-CDs can be played on any audio player and delivers unbelievably high-quality sound. You won't believe it's the same CD! Universal. 2009.
Album Description
Customer Response
The Real Styx
This Album Had all The Original Living Members On It. No Shaw Was Not An Original Member. This Is One Of 6 Albums Without Him. Including Their First 5. It Also Has Their Last Two Top 40 hits.
The first Styx album of the 1990s is also one of their sadly overlooked gems
Styx released their first studio album of new material since 1983's Multi-Platinum selling album Kilroy Was Here entitled Edge of the Century in October of 1990.
I first bought this album in December of 1993 on cassette on a whim and Edge of the Century proved to me that Styx could survive without Tommy Shaw (they did five albums before Shaw joined from 1972-75 including their A&M debut Equinox and Styx II). Part of my point is THEY GOT ALONG during this period! Don't get me wrong, Tommy added a lot to the band, but they made it work before he came along and did well without him. New member guitarist/singer/songwriter Glen Burtnik wrote great songs on this album and his voice was reminiscent to Tommy's thus keeping the Styx "sound" intact.
The opening first single "Love is the Ritual" is Glen's best song on the album but the song flopped as a single on the pop charts although it did hit #9 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart meaning rock radio gave this track a good spin. I think "Homewrecker" was one of James "JY" Young's best rockers. It was co-written by keyboard player/singer/songwriter Dennis DeYoung (whose keyboards and synthesizers rocked on this song (it's a damn shame that bad blood kept Tommy and JY from including his work on much of Brave New World. They screwed up Everything is Cool by almost muting Dennis whilst Dennis was ill and what a shame, it could have so much better)).
Dennis wrote some some of his best tracks since his Desert Moon solo effort from 1984 on Edge of the Century and his voice got better with age. Dennis wrote the massive #3 hit from the spring of 1991 "Show Me The Way" for his son Matthew while Matthew was experiencing the trials and tribulations of being an adolescent transitioning from child to adolescent to teen. At that time, he needed encouragement, love and support from his parents. As all parents know there's no book or rules on parenting. Occasionally we need to ask for guidance from a higher power. Dennis put those feelings to a song, and Show Me The Way was born out of those feelings. Nothing like that on BNW. The Top 30 hit "Love at First Sight" is a great mid-tempo track. I can't believe that anyone who is a true Styx fan from WAY BACK can trash "Carrie Ann". Dennis wrote this song to express his love for his daughter of the same name. I'm guessing that the people who trash this song never had a daughter.
The rocking title track, Glen and Dennis' acoustic masterpiece "All in a Day's Work", "World Tonight" and the closing jazzy-meets-bluesy "Back to Chicago" are stellar tracks as is the re-make of "Not Dead Yet" proving Styx could rock when counted.
Edge of the Century almost went Gold when released but A&M were then owned by PolyGram when the album was released and were more interested in people like Janet Jackson and Extreme on their roster and stopped promoting the album when sales were close to Gold. It would eventually hit the plateau (the last studio album to date to do so folks).
Unfortunately, this was original drummer John Panozzo's swan song with the band as he would pass away in 1996. His brother, bass player Chuck did well on this album as well.
Highly recommended!
A Very Solid STYX Comeback Album
This is an extremely solid and balanced release from STYX. This album is eclectic and well produced. The only negative is the fact that Tommy Shaw is missing. Burtnik does a great job but I think Shaw could have done a better job on the Burtnik songs. But Burtnik more than holds his own and does sound a little like Shaw (at least in style).
1. Love Is the Ritual - Wonderful song! Burtnik is on the money with this.
2. Show Me the Way - One of DeYoung's Best!
3. Edge of the Century - Another great song by Burtnik!
4. Love at First Sight - A bit dated now but very much a stylish song at the time of this release. Very enjoyable pop song.
5. All in a Day's Work - enjoyable, easy going song. Would have been a great Shaw song.
6. Not Dead Yet- DeYoung rocks in this song!
7. World Tonite -- another enjoyable song by Burtnik
8. Carrie Ann - probably DeYoung's weakest on the album but still a solid song
9. Homewrecker - Classic JY
10. Back to Chicago - Another winner from DeYoung. DeYoung pushes the envelope and this one has a slight jazzy sound
This isn't STYX at it's rocking best, but this is STYX on top of their game in terms of putting together a solid commercial album that draws from many different styles. This was the perfect album for 1990 from our favorite band.
1/2 Of A Great Album
This album has one of my favorite Styx tunes on it. The critically ignored "Not Dead Yet." It's like Dennis Deyoung is saying "Damn the torpedoes, (Or maybe "Damn Yankees") we're going on." It's a real uplifter for an end of a bad days work. The problem with this album is, if it had more simplified rockers like this on it, and less overdubs and glitz, it just might have worked better. The album is very uneven and Tommy Shaw's absence is very noticeable. Tommy was busy with Damn Yankees at the time, and you get the impression some other band members phoned in their performances on several tracks. I also notice an annoying pattern of one rocker, one ballad, one rocker, one ballad, in this album. It's like McDonalds directed this. They tried for everything from Glam Metal to MTV Unplugged to Diane Warren style bombast but got one Egg McMuffin short of a value meal.
That's just sad, as there are some other strong tunes here. "Show Me The Way" is an affecting ballad about losing faith in ones heroes and just wanting to retreat to home base and start over. "All In A Days Work" is another almost strong song that tries to hit home about industrial age loneliness, but the message gets somewhat lost as the band tries so hard to do a Tommy Shaw style vocal arrangement without Tommy there. Why they did not just sing it straight acoustic without the "Tommyesque" ghost vocal effects is a wonder to me. Maybe some modern country act will dig this obscurity up and do it right someday? The tune "Homewrecker" has some drive to it, but to me, it sounds like a good 80's bar band demo tape. It's just not finished.
I do think the criticism of guest performer/writer Burtnick is unfair. Looks to me like the guy tried hard to kick some life into this 1/2 album, and with "Not Dead Yet" he succeeded. It's just the early 80's era "Miami Vice" soundtrack style overdubs and production just kills off the listeners interest in the weaker material. I'd recommend a hard Styx fan gives this a preview, and, if possible, just buy the songs you like online. If you need it to complete that collection, OK. It's worth a couple bucks for the three strong tunes mentioned here. Just be prepared for a let down as far as the rest is concerned.
Their worst record by a long shot--very weak
I'm a huge Styx fan, and also a longtime fan. My expectations were very high for 1990's 'Edge of the Century.' Styx had been gone since 1983, their last record being 'Kilroy Was Here.' I had set the standards really high, maybe too high.
But I was disappointed with this. Instead of the hard rock, pop rock and progressive rock that made Styx, well, Styx, this was just pop. It did have several moments; I do like 'Love Is The Ritual,' 'Show Me The Way' and 'Carrie Ann' a little bit.
But overall, this was disappointing. It's bubblegum pop, not at all rock. Tommy Shaw had left the band (I can understand why) and was replaced by top session musician Glen Burtnik.
But this isn't a terrible record, it's just not very good under Styx's standards. It is one of their more inspirational-themed albums.
Recommended for the Styx die-hard or collector.
