AUDIO-VISIONS

Kansas arguably reached their zenith with 1977's 'Point of Know Return' and while the follow up 'Monolith' was still a strong offering, especially for the time, the cracks started to show. 'Monolith' felt disjointed in spots and while it still contained longer more progressive songs, their were slightly trimmed in lengh and streamlined in structure. By the time 'Audio-Visions' came out it was clear that the primary songwriters Steve Walsh and Kerry Livgren veered in opposite directions. Livgren let his new found faith slip into his lyrics, something Walsh was very uncomfortable with. 'Audio-Visions' had its moments, but its best songs were surrounded by mediocre and plain out bad and simple tracks. In 1981 Walsh eventually left the group and was replaced by the relatively young John Elefante. While never receiving criticism for his singing ability, his tenure in the band is criticized for steering much to much towards mainstream rock radio and the Christian community. 1982's 'Vinyl Confessions' was the first of two studio albums he appeared on, the less we talk about 1983's dreadful 'Drastic Measures' the better.

While 'Audio-Visions' was an aimless musical mess, 'Vinyl Confessions', while offering nothering as progressive as say 'No One Together' from the aforementioned album, feels much more confident in being a standard well played rock record, with progressive tendencies in certain parts that do not feel as forced and artificial as on the previous album.

First off, 'Vinyl Confessions' sounds superb, especially concering the sound of the bass guitar (listen to Dave Hope's playing during the sax solo on 'Face It' as an example) and drums which is no wonder seeing as Ken Scott handled the production. Scott was also responsible for phenominal sounding records like Supertramp's 'Crime of the Century', Happy The Man's 'Crafty Hands' and The Tubes' 'Young And Rich'. The album has great dry sound to it opposed to the very 'American'-sounding (for lack of a better word) albums of the Glixman-era. Elefante sounds very similar to Walsh, providing a great soulful and energetic performance and having great harmonic chemistry with Robby Steinhardt, whos relative absence on much of the record is a weak point though. Seeing as Walsh's fierce Hammond organ playing is absent, there is much more room for the standard piano, giving this album a very distinctive sound in the Kansas discography. Ehart's playing is still as colourful as ever as is the guitar playing of Livgren and Rich Williams. Maybe jarring for some, the Saxophone makes an appearance on three of the albums ten tracks with it even taking center stage on the very jazzy 'Diamons And Pearls' and making a roaring solo appearance on 'Face It'.

Songwise the albums opens with one of Kansas' biggest single hits, the inoffensive 'Play The Game Tonight'. Not a bad song, but I catch myself skipping it often in favour of the great 'Right Away', I love the fills that Ehart plays on this song. The album also features on of the band's best ballads in 'Chasing Shadows'. When concerning the albums proggier moments one must point to the playful and often odd timed 'Windows' and the album's lenghly closer 'Crossfire' where Steinhardt makes his only lead vocal appearance, in parts at least. 'Borderline' and 'Play On' are great more rocking numbers, there is no really bad song on the album and while the album is the bands least progressive output up until that point, its songs still are given enough room for instrumental excursions.

In summary a great 42-minute run of great sophisticated rock numbers with strong melodies, strong harmonies and great band performances. If you don't mind the albums more mainstream orientation, you will find plenty of things to like on 'Vinyl Confessions'. Kansas' 1980s output varies greatly both in sound and quality as a whole. 'Audio-Visions' was a messy directionless albeit still solid record. 'Drastic Measures' a plain out bad concession to the growing AOR market better left to the likes of Journey and Foreigner even back then. 'Power' an energetic return to at least some form and 'In The Spirit of Things' an often overlooked, again underrated but too long concept record. Kansas sure had their difficulties back then.

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