IN THE SPIRIT OF THINGS

Kansas, the band that combined prodigious symphonic structures with raspy hard rock elements in the seventies with great originality and success, had changed course thousands of kilometres ago and was persistently heading down the paths of eighties AOR, Its melodic variants and the occasional undisguised nod to commercial pop temptations, which found on the road the anodyne "Drastic Measures" and, to a lesser extent, the dreary "Power", a pair of albums that were harshly criticised by the general public and surely with good reasons.

"In the Spirit of Things" (1986), the Americans' eleventh album, tries to add a little more content and instrumental substance to their proposal, managing at times to structure interesting passages such as the melancholic and plaintive "Ghost" with Steve Morse's hurtful guitar solo, the power ballad "Inside on Me", and the hard rocking and festive "The Preacher". But on the other hand, the melodic and soft tracks sound overproduced and saturated with arrangements, like "Once in a Lifetime", "Stand Beside Me"', or "I Counted on Love".

And though long gone are Kerry Livgren's intricate, brainy compositions and Steinhardt's unmistakable violin (definitely no longer the Kansas of the seventies), there is a plausible search in the dusty progressive archives that timidly manifest themselves in the orchestral and emotive "Rainmaker" and its ecclesiastical choruses, in the brief and beautiful acoustic interlude "T. O. Witcher", and in the portentous "Bells of Saint James", shaping the best moments of the album.

"In the Spirit of Things" is probably the best work of the eighties by Kansas, which, given the material released in those years, does not represent a major merit.

2.5/3 stars