CoronaVinyl Day 275 (S): Cornerstone by Styx

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Yesterday's CoronaVinyl category was "S," and my selection was Styx's ninth studio album, 1979's Cornerstone.

The album cover folds out in the back to reveal a shiny inner sleeve.  Quite exquisite.  By 1979, Styx was on a pretty good hot streak.  Their last two albums had gone to #6 on the Billboard album chart, and they had charted seven songs in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, including two Top 10s, in the previous four years.

With Cornerstone, they kept the streak going.  It was their highest-charting album to that point, hitting #2 on the Billboard album chart, and it produced the band's first #1 hit, "Babe," Dennis DeYoung's ode to his wife Suzanne.  "Why Me" was another Top 40 hit, reaching #26, and "Borrowed Time" was a minor hit, going to #64.

But despite the band's success, there were some cracks forming in the veneer, with internal tensions bubbling regarding the musical direction of the band.  Cornerstone was a step in a decidedly more pop direction, and DeYoung wanted to continue in that direction, while Tommy Shaw and others wanted to have a harder sound.  DeYoung and Shaw must not have hated each other too much at this point, as they co-wrote two songs on the album, and all but one song on the album was written by one or both of them.

They kept things together for another couple albums -- 1981's Paradise Theater, which was the band's only #1 album, and 1983's robot-forward concept album Kilroy Was Here, which went to #3 -- but then broke up.  They reformed in 1990 without Shaw and scored another Top 5 hit with "Show Me The Way," before breaking up again.  They reformed again in the late '90s and have released albums every several years since they with various lineups.

Favorite song on Side 1:  "Never Say Never"
This song just sounds like classic Styx to me.  A poppy rock song with harmonies that you can imagine teenagers in 1979 singing to their high school sweethearts.  Those people are almost 60 now.

Favorite song on Side 2:  "Eddie"
This is guitarist James Young's sole songwriting and lead vocal contribution to the album, and it's the hardest-rocking song on the album.  It was also an unsuccessful plea to get Edward "Ted" Kennedy to not run against incumbent Jimmy Carter for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1980.  I enjoy the chorus:  "Eddie, now don't you run / You know you're a bootlegger's son / And you saw just what they've done to your brothers."