Girls with Guns/What If

Liner Note Author: Neil Daniels.Recording information: Chicago Recording Company, Chicago, IL.Photographers: Paul Cox ; Larry Williams ; Howard Rosenberg; Neil Zlozower.BGO's 2013 two-fer contains 1984's Girls with Guns and 1985's What If?, the first two solo albums from Tommy Shaw, the guitarist and second vocalist from Styx. In 1984, Styx was just a few years removed from one of their most popular records, the dystopian fantasia Kilroy Was Here, but on Girls with Guns, Shaw doesn't spend much time with the arena rock and balladry that helped make that confused concept album a hit. Instead, he dives headfirst into the propulsive pop of MTV, opting for maximized synthesizers at every chance. Girls with Guns may have been recorded in Chicago but every element reeks of Los Angeles in the '80s. Everything on the record is overblown, whether it's the frenetic title track -- its sliding synth hook nearly overshadowed by Shaw's yelp -- or the power ballad "Lonely School," a song designed for