DRASTIC MEASURES

Thirty years after the original release date of this album I finally listened to it this week. And I think that this album is another "good" example of how several Progressive Rock bands had to follow the "advices" given to them by record label executives, producers and managers about "updating" their sound and image for the new market created by them for the "music of the new decade". Many Prog Rock fans blamed Phil Collins and Genesis for the "selling out" of their music in the eghties , but several other Progressive Rock bands in more or less similar ways (PFM, Banco, Jethro Tull, King Crimson with Adrian Belew, Yes, GTR, Emerson Lake & Powell, Asia, 3, Pink Floyd, Camel, Rush, etc.) and soloists (Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, Jon Anderson, etc.), did the same, maybe doing it against their wishes and following those "advices" to commercialize their sound and image, or to be without jobs and record labels contracts.So, in my opinion, the music of the eighties was mostly distinguished by commercial sounds and images, many of them which now sound and look very outdated. Anyway, some of the eighties music of some of these artists was much better in quality than most of the music released by other Pop Rock bands and soloists in that decade, mostly distinguished by "plastic". So, this Kansas album is very characteristic of that sound and image, with the heavy use of echoes in the recording and mixing, very eighties keyboards in sound, very typical eighties sound in the drums (which maybe were programmed or even played on an electronic drum kit) and some heavy metal guitars. But the main instruments in this album are the keyboards. And in this album John Elefante is the main composer of the songs, with them being mostly very eighties in sound, very commercial. But Kerry Livgren´ s songs , even if he only composed three of the nine songs in this album, sound very uncharacteristic of him, being heavily treated by the "new eighties sound". The album as a whole sounds very professionally done, at least in the standards established by the music industry of those years. I don´t have anything against John Elefante, who is a very good singer, and his songs are not bad. But, this album as a whole sounds very "Corporate Rock" in style. It seems that Livgren was very much disappointed by the new musical direction of the band, and he and Dave Hope left the band after their 1983 tour and the band was over until 1986, when it was reformed without them and with Steve Walsh again in the line-up.