THE BEST OF KANSAS (1999)

Kansas is one of those bands I started to like by the help of a good compilation (and it's possible that very first time I heard Steve Walsh's distinctive voice in Hackett's 'Narnia' where it suits well), but was more or less disappointed at the closer investigation of the discography. Perhaps it's too heavy-rocking for my taste. In other words, to me Kansas means a handful of great songs that have a 'classic' status, but sadly it could't become one of my favourite bands. This compilation therefore satisfies my appetite very well. From the discography I would probably pick "Leftoverture" to be the best, but I don't even mind remembering which song is from which album. 'Dust in the Wind' is a wonderful prog ballad, 'Song for America' and 'Pinnacle' (that wasn't in the '84 edition I referred to in the first sentence) show Kansas doing well in a longer proggy form, and 'The Wall' never fails to give me goosebumps of pleasure. The rest of the compilation is not bad either and I can't remember many Kansas songs that I miss here. Someone may think it's idiotic to rate a compilation above the level of my liking of the band in general, but this is worth 4-.