Equinox
	Produced by Styx
	Released on December 1975
	US CHART POSITION #58 . . . GOLD RECORD
	Find it at GEMM
SP-4559 cover [high resolution photo]

N ormally, I’d get my nose out of joint about the magpie makeup of a “Suite Madame Blue,” which fuses parts of “And You and I” and “Stairway to Heaven” together into an unholy whole, but this is early Styx we’re talking about. They were derivative, yes, but they were fans, and to point the finger at them fingers all of us a little. They got what people were doing: lighting up and tuning in for an album. If you tuned in for Equinox, you got a pretty good prog album with some cool moments like “Suite Madame Blue,” “Mother Dear” (which shows The Who’s influence this time), “Light Up” and “Lonely Child.” The choruses and savvy use of synthesizers mark this as prime-period Styx, perhaps as close as John Curulweski came to making classic Styx music. I’d give Styx II the nod as the better album, but Equinox is just a shade below it among the band’s pre-Shaw albums. (In fact, I’d recommend both over Crystal Ball.) Equinox has a consistency you don’t get with their other, earlier records, perhaps because DeYoung was cowriting the material with Young and Curulewski. Only “Midnight Ride,” written solely by Young, slips away from Dennis, sounding for the life of me like a Kiss song. The rest of the record rewards study, which is my measure of a good prog album. That said, nothing on here is required listening. Equinox is ultimately best left to prog aficianados and Styx fans, and for them a not inconsiderable amount of magic awaits. So light up, let go and enjoy Equinox.

SP-4559 back cover	SP-4559 lyric sleeve

TRACK LISTING

1. LIGHT UP    (Dennis DeYoung)    4:12
2. LORELEI    (Dennis DeYoung/James Young)    3:20
3. MOTHER DEAR    (John Curulewski/Dennis DeYoung)    5:23
4. LONELY CHILD    (Dennis DeYoung)    3:49
5. MIDNIGHT RIDE    (James Young)    4:18
6. BORN FOR ADVENTURE    (Dennis DeYoung/John Curulewski/James Young)    5:10
7. PRELUDE 12    (John Curulewski)    1:17
8. SUITE MADAME BLUE    (Dennis DeYoung)    6:32

CREDITS

JOHN CURULEWSKI -- guitars, vocals and synthesizers
DENNIS DE YOUNG -- keyboards, vocals and synthesizers
CHUCK PANOZZO -- bass guitar and vocals
JOHN PANOZZO -- drums, percussion and vocals
JAMES YOUNG -- guitars and vocals
Barry Mraz -- engineer, re-mixing, production assistance Roland Young -- art direction
Junie Osaki and Chuck Beeson -- design
Chris Micione -- cover photograph
Marc Hauser -- inner sleeve photography
Mike Scwab -- illustration

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