Any fans here? Just wondering. I'm only asking because sometimes people come across seemingly trivial details that I find interesting. So if you know it, heard it, or suspect it, shout it out because it may be interesting!

I'm a huge fan of the album even though I admit that when I first listened to it I didn't know WTF the story/theme was about. It's definitely an album that grew on me over time.

I just want to add that I've NEVER known a Puerto Rican kid with the name of "Rael". I think that's just some Peter Gabriel weirdness going on there.

Early Genesis is great, very different from the post-Gabriel period (which is also awesome in it's own).

I like Phil in his "Brand X" era..

I'm going to buy this album soon, as well as a recent (2017) concept album, Styx's "The Mission" (about man traveling to Mars).

I haven't purchased "Lamb" yet because of reviews by fans about the MP3 version. Apparently they shortened some of the songs.

I had no clue about this album even being released.

As far as I'm concerned, without Dennis DeYoung it's not Styx so no purchase from me.


edit: Looks like the album went nowhere commercially which isn't surprising.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mission_(Styx_album)

Yep, Selling England by the Pound, and A Trick of the Tail are two of my favorite albums played by different bands with the same name.

I'm interested in the album more than the band. I like the concept. I like some of what I've sampled. I like the Amazon reviews I'm reading (the closest they've come to 70's Styx since the 70's...some feel a successor to Pieces of Eight).

But about the band, after watching a recent Dan Rather interview of Styx (Tommy Shaw, JY, singer dude), I'm now impressed with singer/keyboardist dude. I like his musicianship and his attitude. But again, more about this specific album than band.

Lack of commercial success doesn't surprise me (it's not like Styx is well known these days), but maybe it is telling. Something I'm remembering as I'm rediscovering the 90's...although there are lots of good solid albums, sometimes it's obvious why hits become commercially successful hits vs. the rest of the album.

We'll see...

And of course all bands go through this same phenomena. They have their peak where their albums and singles sell like crazy and the public in general just loves the new stuff they are putting out and then after a few years or even less, that peak is gone and the subsequent music is largely ignored. Bands like Rush, Styx and ELO were all very talented so their "peak" eras all lasted a decade or longer.