Review Summary: Houston, we are Go for launch
Concept albums are a difficult and sometimes extravagant task. Many, especially from the progressive ranks, attempted this, but, more often than not, the results were checkered. For whatever reason the chosen narrative is usually ambitious, not to say epic in scale, talking about complex, at times fantastical topics, taking places in other worlds even. But too seldom all these ambitions and ideas are fully realized. Such albums would start with vigor, but eventually they begin to deflate towards the end, finishing with scattered and confused songs, which are difficult to put together into a cohesive and clear story. Given all this it is surprising to see that 12 (or 14, depending on how you count) years after their last album,
Styx decided to make the new one concept. And, which is even more surprising, it turned out to be excellent.
Despite the fact that Styx is more famous for its singles and some of the cuts, releasing concept albums is not something new for them. Over a span of their long career they produced several LPs (
The Serpent Is Rising,
Paradise Theatre,
Kilroy Was Here) tied with a common theme, but at the end this approach resulted in a solid album, whose concept was not very noticeable to the eye (or ear). Nevertheless, what’s surprising is simplicity and effectiveness of the concept chosen for the sixteenth record.
The theme is in plain sight. Just take a look at the LP cover, which depicts planet Mars, visible in a space vehicle window – and everything will become clear. It is obvious that the album tells about the first human flight to Mars (that it takes place in 2033 is not so important). During
The Mission the flight to and landing on the red planet can be followed quite easily, and doesn’t require reading additional materials, just listen to the lyrics and all the feelings and adventures will be clear. There is no overburdening with unnecessary details, absent are detours onto phantasmagoria and surrealism, everything is so lean and simple it is surprising nobody has thought of it earlier.
The Mission is without a doubt a rare example of a successful concept album, one that encourages complete listen through of the record and not individual tracks.
The songs themselves are effective in delivering and creating the required atmosphere, be it exhilaration from the launch (
Gone Gone Gone), loneliness in the immense outer space (
Radio Silence) or dangers of the red planet (
Red Storm). They flow together so convincingly that in terms of cinematic feel and vibrant images the album evokes, it can be favorably compared to the progressive metal classic of
Queensryche Operation Mindcrime. At the same time Styx remained true to themselves without any drastic changes to the sound, like complex time signatures, unorthodox chord progressions or other progressive sophistications to realize their ideas (although, it should be noted it is more guitar-oriented and rock). The songs are still radio friendly, but it is fair to say all of them are of the highest grade. They can be appreciated both individually and within the album context, the latter being more effective way.
In the end, we can only congratulate ourselves with an unexpectedly pleasant surprise from the band, which has not delighted us with something worthy for a long time. The same goes for Styx with an undeniable artistic success this late in the career. Since the space agencies in various countries gaze more and more often towards the Moon and Mars in terms of exploration,
The Mission can become a suitable soundtrack for such a large-scale enterprise.
