FREAKS OF NATURE

Kansas had basically retired for the second time after Steve Morse left the band at the end of the 80’s. The band was reunited in the early 90’s by a German promoter to play a European tour (except for Steinhardt), and all of them except bassist Dave Hope stayed around to tour for a while in the States. After that it was pretty much the county fair circuit, with all kinds of journeyman players working stints on the road show. The lineup stabilized shortly before this album, which was apparently an attempt to resurrect some new interest in the band, as well as add some new material for the road show. The results were disappointing. The album itself was a real downer, and very few of these songs made their way into heavy rotation on the band’s live playlists.

The opening track “I Can Fly” is co-credited to violinist/guitarist David Ragsdale and Steve Walsh, but I’m guessing the lyrics were all Walsh. This is a depressing and sad biography (or more likely an autobiography) about a guy going through some really heavy sh!t, sounds like the story of a guy getting high to the point of landing in a hospital bed and being brought back from death. Maybe this was part of Walsh’s 12-step program or something, but it’s really a nasty song. There is one instrumental part in the middle that vacillates between middle-eastern sounding keyboards and almost baroque violin sections that’s kind of interesting. Very different for the band, I suppose representing some kind of foggy dream-like sequence, but that’s about it. Ragsdale’s violin actually sounds too good for this song, and Walsh’s voice is really awful. Some of that I think is intentional, but its clear there has been a lot of digital tweaking done to his voice in the studio. The ending makes it clear this is not going to be a happy album –

“You see it all started when I was younger. They said I was good, but I thought they said great;

I crown myself the king of liars – I am what I have learned to hate”. So much for another “Power”!

“Desperate Times” is a multi-vocal track with Walsh sticking pretty much to the middle vocal ranges and actually sounding pretty good. For one of the only times I can remember there is a female backing vocal wafting in and out that gives a nice lilt to the music. I have to mention that Phil Ehart’s drumming is as always extremely tight and precise. Rich Williams offers up some of the best lead guitar work he’d ever done to that point, although those who’ve seen the band in the past ten years or so know that he’s really taken on that role in spades with Livgren and Steve Morse both long gone. Ragsdale is a very accomplished violinist, but I have to say that he doesn’t have it in him to lay out some dirty, nasty, hard-rocking blues ripping riffs like Steinhardt could. He sounds like he’s auditioning for a spot on the New York Philharmonic, and really only clicks on a couple of tunes (“Cold Grey Morning”, “Peaceful and Warm”). This is another morbid song about despair, I guess.

“Hope Once Again” sounds as much like a Desperate Measures song as anything else on that album did, except for Walsh’s voice which is raw once again, and Ragsdale’s violin since that instrument was missing in the mid-80’s version of the band.

With “Black Fathom 4” I think we see the sound that Ragsdale has been brought back into the band to recreate. This is a heavy, mostly rocking sound with a more straightforward beat and guitar work bordering on shredding. That said, this has kind of a catchy chorus, and the minor chords give it a bit of an edge. Not a bad song, and would probably quite good live. This one actually has some progressive tendencies, with a couple of major tempo changes, a two or three minute instrumental part with each instrument offering up a short solo stint, and a kind of futuristic theme (although the scene seems closer to Mad Max than say, Star Trek).

I don’t know what the hell “Under the Knife” is about. The vocals almost sound theatrical in spots. The lyrics are murky, something about falling in love with a surgeon’s knife, or killing his girlfriend…. I don’t know for sure. Another self-indulgent ‘woe is me’ song from Walsh. I don’t know what this guy was going through in 1995, but he sure as heck wasn’t a very happy guy. Walsh’s keyboards even sound like something from the theater – maybe ‘Phantom of the Opera’. This is a goofy song. Its not bad, just not Kansas.

“Need” is another depressing Walsh tune. This one is about breaking up, or maybe getting tossed out by his woman. Ehart lays down some erratic drums here that are pretty interesting, and Ragsdale does this choppy violin thing in the background that is a really nice touch to an otherwise nondescript song. Once again Walsh errs on the side of safe and doesn’t try to stretch his voice. If the lyrics had been more interesting this would have been a pretty good song; as it is, this is just average for these guys.

Kerry Livgren makes an appearance of sorts by handing the band “Cold Grey Morning”, a thick guitar and fast-paced drum piece that’s heavy on riffs and rather light on vocals. The “na-na-na-na” chants are unnecessary, and overall the arrangement doesn’t sound anything like a Livgren work. About the only reason I see for this being on the album is that it matches the depressing mood of the rest of the tracks. There’s some really strange fade/echo thing done to Walsh’s voice that serves no purpose and only makes the listener wonder if this is another production trick to hide his fading pipes. The instrumental bridge in the middle is just awkward. Williams has some very nice blues guitar work here though, and Greer’s bass sets a very funky pace. Ragsdale has finally loosened up on violin and is working with the music instead of standing off to the side of it.

The closing track “Peaceful and Warm” is by far the best thing on the album. This is a classical Walsh rock ballad, and apparently the best they could manage as an upbeat ending (at least nobody ends up on a hospital gurney in this one). This is yet another nostalgic look by Walsh back at his youth, in this case some reminiscing about growing up on the Missouri River in St Joseph, Missouri, along Interstate 29. I live much further north on Interstate 29, and have been through the stretch he’s referring to. It is actually a somewhat desolate and depressing place. No wonder the guy is a gloomy Gus. This is just a pretty comfortable Kansas melody with just the right amount of violin fills, acoustic guitar, and a kind of John Mellencamp sound to Walsh’s voice. There are almost no keyboards or drums on this one except at the very end, where there’s a bit of a reprise of “Hope Once Again”, which I guess is a not-too-subtle way of trying to make sure all their fans don’t run out and slit their wrists after being totally bummed out by the gloomy mood of these tracks.

This is not a bad album, not even for Kansas. The guys have done a few things right: resurrect an active violin sound; bring back some of the progressive texture that was all but abandoned in the 80’s; and (for the most part) not try to push Walsh’s voice where it won’t go any more. However, Steve Walsh was clearly in charge, and was clearly going through some really rough personal issues at the time. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to separate that from the music, and what fans are left with is by far the most morbid and hopeless work ever from a band that isn’t known for that kind of music. Too bad. It was good to see the band back in business, but I have to say that this album is only for serious fans like me. Novice listeners and those curious to become familiar with Kansas should start with anything released before 1980, and definitely save this one for when they have become a full-fledged Wheathead. I really hate to do this, but - two stars.

peace