THE BEST OF KAYAK

A compilation album, many times (and I would say almost all times), doesn't show the greatest stuffs of a band, maybe 'cause the editors try to give to the listener the most accesible music or the well-known hits of the band. This KAYAK album isn't the exception. The 14 chosen tracks (excluding "Merlin") are short pop-prog songs, all them reflecting one of the band's trend, which isn't the best. Songs are nice, because KAYAK -even when they left the symphonic sound and went into more poppy rythms- conserved the inspiration to make very good melodies, a sort of "elaborated pop", but never reaching the brightness of their symphonic pieces. "Merlin" and "Anne" are the highlights here, but if some listener doesn't know the group, it isn't the best start to penetrate in the KAYAK discography. I would recommend the 2003 production "Merlin - Bard Of The Unseen", one of the best albums in the last year, including songs of the original "Merlin" album from 1981 plus new compositions, a truly symphonic effort.