Styx Kilroy Was Here CD

Personnel: James Young , Tommy Shaw (vocals, guitar); Dennis DeYoung (vocals, keyboards); John Panozzo (vocals, drums); Chuck Panozzo (vocals); Steve Eisen (saxophone); Mark Ohlson, Mike Halpin, Dan Barber, Michael Mossman (horns).
Although Dennis De Young's concept about man being replaced by robots in the near future failed to get off the ground, Kilroy Was Here still harbored two of the band's best singles. "Don't Let It End" almost captures the same endearing qualities as their number one hit, "Babe," did four years earlier, peaking at number six, and the synthesized novelty of "Mr. Roboto" went all the way to number three, accompanied by a lively and rather extravagant Dennis De Young at the helm. It was the song's mechanically spoken chorus and slight disco beat that made it Styx's fifth Top Ten single up to that point, overshadowing the rest of the album's tracks. Pretentious, weakly composed, and rhythmically anemic, songs like "Cold War," "Heavy Metal Poisoning," and "Double Life" couldn't even keep the album's main idea interesting, solidifying the fact that Styx's forte was singles, not conceptual pieces. The saxophone playing from Steve Eison gathers some redemption, cropping up here and there, but even some decent guitar work from Shaw and Young can't save the rest of the album. Brought back to life in the late '90s in an automobile commercial, "Mr. Roboto" gained somewhat of a minor resurgence more than 15 years after its chart life. ~ Mike DeGagne
KILROY WAS HERE marked the end of an era for Styx. Yet another concept album as visualized by Dennis DeYoung, it tackled the dichotomy between technology and humanity, with a subtext about the censorship of which Styx had recently been a victim. In keeping with the futuristic theme, synthesizers and sequencers are deployed in all their early '80s glory, adding a techno-pop sheen to such tunes as "Mr. Roboto," which became a huge hit (almost 20 years later it was still turning up in TV commercials).
However, the bottom had fallen out of the group by this time, as the rift between the members had gotten wider. Tommy Shaw contributed two of his finest songs to KILROY, the poignant "Just Get Through This Night" and the frisky, anti-authoritarian "Cold War," but shortly after the KILROY tour, he would depart the band, effectively bringing to a close the most successful chapter in Styx history.