Other than being their first platinum-selling album, The Grand Illusion led Styx steadfastly into the domain of AOR rock. Built on the strengths of “Come Sail Away”‘s ballad-to-rock metamorphosis, which gained them their second Top Ten hit, and on the high harmonies of newcomer Tommy Shaw throughout “Fooling Yourself,” The Grand Illusion introduced Styx to the gates of commercial stardom. The pulverized growl of “Miss America” reveals the group’s guitar-savvy approach to six-string rock, while De Young pretentiously struts his singing prowess throughout the title track. Shaw’s induction into the band has clearly settled, and his guitar work, along with James Young’s, is full and extremely sharp where it matters most. Even the songwriting is more effluent than Crystal Ball, which was released one year earlier, shedding their mystical song motifs for a more audience-pleasing lyric and chord counterpoise. Reaching number six on the album charts, The Grand Illusion was the first to display the gelled accomplishments of both Tommy Shaw and Dennis De Young as a tandem.
Review by Mike DeGagne, Allmusic.com
Tracklist:
01. The Grand Illusion (04:34)
02. Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man) (05:28)
03. Superstars (03:51)
04. Come Sail Away (06:05)
05. Miss America (04:59)
06. Man in the Wilderness (05:47)
07. Castle Walls (05:58)
08. The Grand Finale (01:57)
EAC extraction logfile from 21. July 2014, 20:11
Styx / The Grand Illusion
Used drive : PLEXTOR DVDR PX-L890SA Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 768 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : G:Program FilesExact Audio CopyFLACFLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T “Date=%year%” -T “Genre=%genre%” %source%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.32 | 4:37.10 | 32 | 20816
2 | 4:37.42 | 5:31.65 | 20817 | 45706
3 | 10:09.32 | 3:55.08 | 45707 | 63339
4 | 14:04.40 | 6:07.00 | 63340 | 90864
5 | 20:11.40 | 5:02.12 | 90865 | 113526
6 | 25:13.52 | 5:50.65 | 113527 | 139841
7 | 31:04.42 | 5:58.65 | 139842 | 166756
8 | 37:03.32 | 1:57.40 | 166757 | 175571
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename H:MUSICStyx1977. Styx – The Grand Illusion (A&M 75021 3223 2, USA)Styx – The Grand Illusion.wav
Peak level 78.8 %
Extraction speed 5.7 X
Range quality 99.9 %
Test CRC BBBE6323
Copy CRC BBBE6323
Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 92) [3D2934BD] (AR v2)
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 90) [D56D0BE2] (AR v2)
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 91) [5F6EEEE8] (AR v2)
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 91) [BD8D755A] (AR v2)
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 91) [2442CB47] (AR v2)
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 91) [081140DC] (AR v2)
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 92) [85AB7161] (AR v2)
Track 8 accurately ripped (confidence 92) [55D89F1D] (AR v2)
All tracks accurately ripped
End of status report
==== Log checksum DEE2B17F1B92119F11FB69EEDFE69E465E6E3288E8A303855AE83D0D60068047 ====
Pregap length 00:00:32.
[CTDB TOCID: bj12HN_WLt3bqra65.Y7nihAAdM-] found.
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (348/624) Accurately ripped
2 | (348/624) Accurately ripped
3 | (352/624) Accurately ripped
4 | (348/624) Accurately ripped
5 | (350/624) Accurately ripped
6 | (351/624) Accurately ripped
7 | (346/624) Accurately ripped
8 | (349/624) Accurately ripped
[AccurateRip ID: 000c754b-005352fc-61092408] found.
Track [ CRC | V2 ] Status
01 [f868ecaa|3d2934bd] (026+189/458) Accurately ripped
02 [dd531cae|d56d0be2] (026+187/455) Accurately ripped
03 [440a7274|5f6eeee8] (026+189/458) Accurately ripped
04 [11c09950|bd8d755a] (026+189/460) Accurately ripped
05 [5231e6db|2442cb47] (026+189/457) Accurately ripped
06 [83067639|081140dc] (026+188/456) Accurately ripped
07 [14015eed|85ab7161] (026+189/459) Accurately ripped
08 [87eb587a|55d89f1d] (025+189/456) Accurately ripped
Track Peak [ CRC32 ] [W/O NULL] [ LOG ]
– 78,8 [BBBE6323] [669E4EEC] CRC32
01 78,8 [7E905B39] [F2BECB7A]
02 71,5 [F95D2A1C] [20DEEF94]
03 55,6 [B9E286FA] [48698F0A]
04 66,1 [3ECF8F8E] [0D6DDA6D]
05 70,3 [E0B794DE] [6046C2C6]
06 66,5 [CABADBB7] [B3F94AFE]
07 55,1 [372414C1] [D5D3169A]
08 66,5 [92F929EA] [EBD67B98]
log date: 2019-07-10 22:06:56
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Styx / The Grand Illusion
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR12 -2.06 dB -16.64 dB 4:37 01-The Grand Illusion
DR11 -2.91 dB -17.95 dB 5:32 02-Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)
DR10 -5.09 dB -18.26 dB 3:55 03-Superstars
DR10 -3.59 dB -19.24 dB 6:07 04-Come Sail Away
DR11 -3.06 dB -19.04 dB 5:02 05-Miss America
DR10 -3.54 dB -18.07 dB 5:51 06-Man In The Wilderness
DR12 -5.17 dB -21.76 dB 5:59 07-Castle Walls
DR10 -3.54 dB -17.11 dB 1:58 08-The Grand Finale
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Number of tracks: 8
Official DR value: DR11
Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 812 kbps
Codec: FLAC
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