THE BEST OF KANSAS (1999)

This is just a reissue of the 1984´s collection plus 3 new songs. Another way to fool potential Kansas fans and cash in with a poor compilation that bears a deceptive title. This is FAR from kansas best although som e stuff here is indeed very well known (some quite overplayed). The track order is a mess, mixing their prog stuff of the 70´s with the pop hits of the early 80´s. Key songs are missing like the beautiful Icarus or Journey To Mariabronn, just to mention two.

Worse: they didin´t use all the available space in the CD format even if in 1999! There was room for more. And even if the inclusion of the great Pinnacle is a plus, Devil´s Game is hardly their best nor a hit song to justify its inclusion. No unissued material is included, nor some different mix or anything like that.

If you´re just looking for the radio hits - plus some uneven stuff, go for it. But if you want to know the real great band Kansas is, then this CD is just too poor. Three stars for the quality of the songs included, zero stars for the package= 2 stars.