Pieces of Eight

Pieces of Eight is the eighth studio album by American progressive rock band Styx, released in September 1978.

Like the band's previous album, The Grand Illusion (1977), it managed to achieve triple platinum certification, thanks to the hit singles "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)" and "Renegade".

The band members produced and recorded the album (like their previous three efforts) at Paragon Studios in Chicago with recording engineer Barry Mraz and mixing engineer Rob Kingsland. "I'm O.K." was recorded at Paragon and St. James Cathedral. This would be the last Styx album to be produced at Paragon Studios.

The album's cover was done by Hipgnosis. Dennis DeYoung stated in the 1991 interview with Redbeard on the In the Studio with Redbeard episode that he initially hated the cover but grew to like it as he got older.

Background
The record is considered by some to be Styx's most obvious concept album, as well as the last Styx album with significant progressive rock leanings. The theme of the album, as Dennis DeYoung explained on In the Studio with Redbeard which devoted an entire episode to Pieces of Eight, was about "not giving up your dreams just for the pursuit of money and material possessions".

Reception
Rolling Stone reviewer Lester Bangs was critical of the album, writing that "what's really interesting is not that such narcissistic slop should get recorded, but what must be going on in the minds of the people who support it in such amazing numbers. Gall, nerve and ego have never been far from great rock & roll. Yet there's a thin but crucial line between those qualities and what it takes to fill arenas today: sheer self-aggrandizement on the most puerile level. If these are the champions, gimme the cripples." The Globe and Mail noted that "when Styx strays too far from its rock and roll foundations ... as on the Gothic-pretentious numbers by Dennis De Young like 'Lords of the Ring', it starts getting less credible."

Mike DeGagne of AllMusic has retrospectively praised the album, saying that the songs on the album "rekindle some of Styx's early progressive rock sound, only cleaner."

The album peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard album chart, and like its predecessor would go triple platinum.

Styx

 * Dennis DeYoung – vocals, keyboards
 * James "JY" Young – vocals, electric guitars
 * Tommy Shaw – vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, autoharp
 * Chuck Panozzo – bass guitar
 * John Panozzo – drums, percussion

Production

 * Producer: Styx
 * Engineers: Rob Kingsland, Barry Mraz
 * Assistant engineer: Harry Andronis
 * Mastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound, NYC
 * Cover by Hipgnosis