The Grand Illusion
by Styx
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Styx bestography
The Grand Illusion is ranked as the best album by Styx.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
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The Grand Illusion track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 80 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
#
Track
Rating/Comments
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
The Grand Illusion rankings
The Grand Illusion rankings summary
Overall rank: 1,968th | 1970s rank: 355th | 1977 rank: 36th Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 2 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | matterhornrider | Top 60 Music Albums of 1977 | 52/60 | 1 |
| 2026 | fabm0 | Platinum year 1977 | 37/73 | - |
| 2026 | juanr1096 | Top 53 Music Albums of 1977 | 48/53 | 1 |
| 2026 |  paladisiac | top albums, #1701-1800* | 7/84 | - |
| 2026 | Skerns | Top 100 Music Albums of 1977 | 29/100 | 4 |
| 2026 |  RockyRaccoon | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1970s | 60/100 | 8 |
| 2026 | machiaj | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 70/100 | 29 |
| 2026 |  Romanelli | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1970s | 84/100 | 3 |
| 2026 | beatlematt | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 75/100 | 26 |
| 2026 | Jakor | Top 100 Music Albums of 1977 | 51/100 | 3 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 158 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 862 | |||
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The Grand Illusion collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 110 members
The Grand Illusion ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 198 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 09/24/2026 10:03 | juanr1096 | 6,311 | 78/100 |
| ! | 09/04/2026 16:20 | Sentido | 352 | 84/100 |
| ! | 06/25/2026 18:01 | abbolton | 77 | 83/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 3% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 77.0/100, a mean average of 76.1/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 77.3/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.0.
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The Grand Illusion favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 28 members
The Grand Illusion forum mentions
This album has been referenced 38 times on the forums, Explore the wider forum discussion to see what members have said about it.
From 
Repo 07/25/2026 22:03 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
Repo 07/25/2026 22:03 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)“What album are you listening to? (cont.)”
View forum topic (8 mentions) →From Johnnyo 05/22/2024 20:07 in What album are you listening to right now?
“One of my guilty pleasure albums. Saw them on tour in support of this album and they were fab. Unfortunately, IMO, they went seriously down hill after pieces of eight, but for a while there, I really quite liked them”
View forum topic (25 mentions) →From Romanelli 11/11/2021 22:36 in The Romanelli Music Diary: The Milk Of Human Kindness
Romanelli 11/11/2021 22:36 in The Romanelli Music Diary: The Milk Of Human Kindness“1237 STYX THE GRAND ILLUSION 1977 – A&M Produced By STYX 1. The Grand Illusion 2. Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man) 3. Superstars 4. Come Sail Away 5. Miss America 6. Man In The Wilderness 7. Castle Walls 8. The Grand Finale Wanna have some fun? Take out that old, dusty copy of The Grand…”
View forum post →The Grand Illusion comments
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From
Applerill TOP 100 COMMENTER 07/01/2010 03:33 | #13258 | TOP COMMENT
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Applerill TOP 100 COMMENTER 07/01/2010 03:33 | #13258 | TOP COMMENT
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Styx was the "gateway drug" that got me into classic rock. Sure, they were poppy and heck, and, in retrospect, not that good; But that's what got me to latch onto the genre.
I've always considered this to be their best album, and after all these years, "Miss America" is still a masterpiece.
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From
Kingturtle 05/17/2016 13:17 | #166275 | TOP COMMENT
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Kingturtle 05/17/2016 13:17 | #166275 | TOP COMMENT
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I was 10 when this came out. I was listening to a lot of top 40. I loved Wings, KC and the Sunshine Band, Queen, one-hit wonders, etc. This album was the first one I'd heard in my life that I felt the singer was singing directly to me, trying to tell me advice on how to live a better life and how to see through all the crap the world has to offer.
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brian211 02/02/2018 14:10 | #207002 | TOP COMMENT
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The single most underrated album ever by the most underrated band ever. I'm not sure why Styx gets overlooked on this site, but this album is an absolute masterpiece. The title track, Fooling Yourself, and Come Sail Away are three of the band's best songs, and the other tracks are no slouches either. As long as you have an above average tolerance for synthesizers, I'd definitely recommend this album. (Edited)
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From
Simon_bramhall 03/06/2016 16:43 | #161441 | TOP COMMENT
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Easily Styx's best album. Not a bad track on the album. Come Sail Away was what made me buy the album in it's day, heard it too many times, so I enjoy the rest of the record better.
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From
CosmykTheDolfyn 12/02/2015 11:29 | #153782 | TOP COMMENT
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CosmykTheDolfyn 12/02/2015 11:29 | #153782 | TOP COMMENT
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This is, for me personally, a great album. Again, nostalgia does add a bit of a glare, but I love this album. Everything loosely tying to, the engineering, etc.
For those who complain about it's "simple" pop tunes, try learning to play "Fooling Yourself" on guitar. The chord progression is quite unique, and the song shifts from 6/8 time to 4/4 then 7/4 then back to 4/4, shifting next to 5/4 and finally ending back where we started at 6/8. That is just how complex the album's second single, a "pop" tune, is.
Then you get the songs that weren't singles. Look to the album's B side. First, Miss America is just a fantastic hard rock piece, followed by a somber and beautiful ballad in Man In The Wilderness which then leads into the genuinely haunting Castle Walls. I still think that the theme from Halloween ripped off Castle Walls synthesizer interlude.
Plainly put, this is an album that everyone should give a chance.
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