VINYL CONFESSIONS

This is probably the one album from Kansas that is just flat-out frustrating, maybe even annoying. The music would be okay I guess, especially if it were coming from Hall & Oates or Toto. But for a band like Kansas it seems to be nothing more than the fulfillment of a recording obligation to the record label, which surely planned to leverage whatever reputation the band still had at that point to gain new fans. Kirshner even brought in big-gun producer Ken Scott, the man who did so much to make David Bowie, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Harry Nilsson, Supertramp, and Missing Persons so commercially appealing.

And in that respect the album was mildly successful. "Play the Game Tonight" became the band's third-highest charting single ever (after "Dust in the Wind" and "Carry on Wayward Son"), peaking on U.S. charts at #17 in the summer of 1982. "Right Away", the second single from the album, also barely broke into the Top 40, and disappeared very quickly.

But that's the problem with this album. The band was moving in a completely new and not all that original direction, to the point where they were often mistaken on the radio for Styx, Toto, and even some of the more commercial Steely Dan stuff (eg., Aja). Robbie Steinhardt's signature violin and alternate lead vocals were much reduced on Confessions, and the songs are much shorter and the arrangements more like radio- friendly pop tunes, not fully developed progressive works.

Livgren has some moments on guitar, particularly on "Play On" and "Crossfire", but otherwise his work is largely boilerplate. Phil Ehart seems to kick it up on drums on the back side of the album somewhat (which interestingly consists of almost all Livgren songs). And Steinhardt when he does play is more polished than ever. But for all three of them the examples of their considerable talents seem to be getting doled out in barely bite-sized pieces.

And on the other tracks, John Elephante seems determined to write love songs (or love- and-angst songs, which is pretty much the same thing), then change a few selective phrases so they could just as easily be interpreted to be about God as they could about some chick. None of the Elephante songs seem to be a good fit for the band, although "Chasing Shadows" has some well-done harmonizing vocals, and "Right Away" and "Play On" have some nice enough piano tracks.

Kansas was on the brink of a total breakdown at the time this album was released. Steve Walsh was gone, Steinhardt would be also just a few months later, and Livgren and bassist Dave Hope would leave after the next album. Livgren already seemed to be only modestly interested in recording by this time. It's possible their label understood this, and figured they better try to squeeze one more out before the gravy run ended. Who knows.

This is not a particularly good album by a band that was (and is) capable of much more. I suppose this would be a decent album if you were looking to collect well-produced examples of early 80's music. But I suspect for many hard-core Kansas fans, this is just a filler piece for our collections. I'll err on the side of caution then, and give it three stars, which admittedly may be a bit inflated.

peace