Dennis DeYoung's 26 East: Volume 1 - breathtaking in scope and sound

26 East: Volume 1 is a lavish, theatrical, inspired album from former Styx man Dennis DeYoung

By Malcolm Dome
( Classic Rock )
published
Dennis DeYoung: 26 East: Volume 1
(Image: © Frontiers)

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This is the former Styx man’s first solo album in more than a decade, and it’s breathtaking in both scope and sound. 

East Of Midnight sets the tone for the diversity and unity of purpose throughout, as DeYoung’s unmistakable voice swirls through a track punctuated with sublime orchestral detail. 

The pop-rock glide of With All Due Respect underlines a lyrical pricking of TV personality pomposity. Damn That Dream pumps out a cautionary tale of getting lost in your own ambition. Best of all, To The Good Old Days has DeYoung duetting with Julian Lennon on a carousel of nostalgic whimsy. 

If you want to equate this to any Styx album, then Paradise Theatre comes to mind. Like that 1981 classic, it has drama, momentous melodies and the sense of an era closing. Final track A.D. 2020 even ends with the words ‘Welcome to paradise’. 

DeYoung remains a master of his art.

Malcolm Dome
Malcolm Dome

Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term "thrash metal" while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021.