Track Listing

1. A.D. 1928
2. Rockin' the Paradise
3. Too Much Time on My Hands
4. Nothing Ever Goes as Planned
5. Best of Times
6. Lonely People
7. She Cares
8. Snowblind
9. Half-Penny, Two-Penny
10. A.D. 1958
11. State Street Sadie

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2548 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
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.

Amazon.com essential recording
One album before Styx cut loose with an honest-to-goodness concept album, Kilroy Was Here, they flirted with the idea on Paradise Theater. The concept here has something to do with the decline of America in the '70s, based on the condemnation and destruction of the Paradise Theater, a famous showplace in the band's hometown of Chicago. Truth be told, the concept hasn't held together that well, though the individual songs have, led by the optimistic ballad "The Best of Times," and the rockers "Too Much Time on My Hands" and "Snowblind." Dennis DeYoung gives some of his most theatrical performances throughout, presaging his overly ambitious Kilroy concept, but also his successful run performing in the legitimate theater, as Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar. Paradise, meanwhile, was about as good as it got for Styx. --Daniel Durchholz

Customer Reviews

A DENNIS DEYOUNG MASTERPIECE
Paradise Theater is a work of art, a labor of love, from vocalist, keyboardist, Dennis Deyoung. From the opening piano note, of A.D. 1928, to the closing note of A.D. 1958, Pardise will hold you in awe. Not since the Grand Illusion, has STYX made an album this good.
It all starts with A.D. 1928, witch goes into Rockin the Paradise, and that is what this cd does, ROCKS. It's not the heavy metal, of Grand Illusion, or the hard rock of Peices of Eight, but it comes over strong, even on the slow songs. With the fist pumping anthems of Rockin the Paradise, a song about America needing to stand up and be counted, to Half Penny; Two Penny, which deals with the decay of the American dream. The Best of Times, which starts out like A.D. 1928, and the disco-rock flavored Too Much Time on my Hands, have sing-a-long chourses, that has you humming along them all day. Snowblind, a rock radio classic, written by Dennis and JY, and sung by JY and Tommy, is a good song about drug abuse, and JY's singing on the beginning of it, is very haunting. The lesser known songs on this disk, Nothing Ever Goes as Planned, and She Cares, are both very good, and deserve repeated listenings, as does this whole cd.
This is the last "true" Styx classic, with the line up of Dennis, Tommy, JY, John, and Chuck. There would be other STYX cds with this line-up, and different line-ups, but no other cd this great, has come out since. GRADE A

Good Mix, Styx!
If you are looking for a little bit of everything from Styx, this is it. From Snowblind to Best of Times, there's a good mix. Unfortunately, it IS just a taste of the different styles so if you are into a mood album, this might not be the right one. Still, it's classic Styx with a good concept. Someting that I would definitely take to a desert island.

My favourite Styx album
This is a brilliant album, in my view. It is so diverse and yet flows well, and the band seem to blend a few styles together in each song. For example, Snowbling is a scorching song that fuses hard-rock, doo wop, big singing ballads like something Frank Sinatra would do, electronica and choir music. There's also s [keyboard] string in there to give a hint of classical music. It's interesting to note that most of the singing is done by James Young and, dare I say it, he's probably even better than Dennis. Well, I thought his voice was 'crisper' but perhaps not as bellowing. I love that song. The other songs have a pop-catchiness, but seem to fuse vaudeville and hard rock, with some electronica thrown in for good measure. I also love the lyrics, they're down to Earth and interesting. Actually, they produced some real gems here. The title track has a similar melody them to the Beatles' 'You can't do that' while 'She cares' whcih is my favourite of the Tommy Shaw songs, sounds like a Billy Joel song, but has excellent chord changes. But then James Young throws a pounding piece of rock called Half-penny Two-penny at you and you know these guys rock like the best of them. I think this album is a masterpiece.