THE BEST OF KANSAS

"The Best Of Kansas" is one of the reasons why I dislike compilations, some of the songs are good but mixed without any criteria except for how popular was each one in their original album, so most of the really good songs are left away.

About a year ago I went to the meeting of a Peruvian group of Progheads who join each month to talk about a determined band and watch videos, this time the turn was for KANSAS, Cesar Inca Mendoza a collaborator of this site made an excellent presentation and the reaction of a group of people was of incredulity, some of them had only heard this compilation and thought that the songs presented in this album were the best ones of the group, so they saw KANSAS as a "B" class band.

After listening and watching such great tracks like "Miracles Out of Nowhere", "Icarus" or "Cheyenne Anthem" they simply couldn't believe how good KANSAS really was, but some people who don't have this second chance and only bought this release will probably ignore the rest of the albums and this would be a shame.

For example, "Miracles Out of Nowhere" and "Opus Insert" from Leftoverture are left away, "Closet Chronicles", "Portrait (He Knew)" and "Hopelesly Human" from "Point of Know Return" are ignored to place the title song and "Dust in the Wind" which out of the context of the album are way too simple.

This compilation also mixes the best era of Kansas as "Song For America" with material from the Aorish 80's when the band lost their personality like "Play The Game Tonight" from "Vinyl Confessions" without Steve Walsh and even worst "Fight Fire With Fire" from the infamous "Drastic Measures" without Walsh and Livegren, probably the label wanted fresh money from a band they believed would never resurrect, frightening possible new fans who will never try the early material.

If you are already a KANSAS fan and want to have some good tracks from his great band blended with some poppy stuff and have already all the previous albums, then buy it at your risk, but if you're a KANSAS newbie, avoid it at all cost because you won't have the slightest idea about the real quality of the band, instead get right now "Song for America", Masque" Leftoverture" or "Point of Know Return" to appreciate the real value of the best USA Prog band ever (In my opinion of course).

It's hard for me to give a low rating to any album that has "Song for America" and "The Wall" among a couple more, but it's so misleading that I believe the honest thing is to say this compilation is not worth the price.

Two stars and don't misunderstand me, I really love this band, but "The Best of Kansas" doesn't contain the best material by KANSAS