POWER

A shame to the name of Kansas. Pop rock a la Bon Jovi. Don't let the name of Steve Walsh in the line-up confusse you. Even a tentative (?) to make just one "progressive" track ("Musicatto") failed. Forget the band's 70s excellent albums and avoid it, please.

Give this one another halfstar!!

Even a giant guitarist such as Steve Morse (of Dixie Dregs and future Purple fame) cannot help out Kansas to bring things up again but at least the downwards slide is broken. He brought back in however a little more credibility into the band. However , the music is still a far cry from their mid-70's stuff. Long gone were the days when Kansas were actually putting out records that could surprise the public (positively I mean), but no Kansas album was ever botched up or winged out of their fingertips. But clearly, the feeling on all 80's album is the survival spirit and the almost anything-goes are pervasive.

In regards to Kansas's 80's career, this could be one of their better album, actually.

What have Genesis, Peter Gabriel, GTR, Kansas and Boston in common? They have in common that by 1986 this "old" bands (or "new" bands like GTR, but with "old" musicians really) and solo musicians were releasing albums with a mixture of Pop and Prog music (Boston is not a Prog band, but it is good!). Kansas reformed without Kerry Livgren (main songwriter in the past), Dave Hope and Robby Steinhardt. They recorded this "reunion" album, with new members Steve Morse (a very good guitarist from the band called Dixie Dregs (what a name!) and since the mid 90s he is the guitarist in Deep Purple) and bassist Billy Greer. Yes, this album is very Pop, but there are some good songs. "Silhouettes in Disguise" is one of the best. "Power" was played in FM Radio in my country, and it is also good. "All I Wanted" is Kansas` ballad for the Radio too. "Secret service" is an ordinary Arena Rock song."We`re not alone anymore" has very good drums and guitars, but is not very Progressive. "Musicatto" is an instrumental Prog song. "Taking in the View" is similar to the old Kansas from "Leftoverture"`s "Cheyenne Athem". "Three Pretenders" is more Arena Rock. "Tomb 19" has some of the old Kansas style. Steve Morse`s "Can`t Cry Anymore" is my favourite song from this album, but is not very Kansas in style. This album has very good guitars by Williams and Morse. Morse is like "Kansas`Trevor Rabin", because his style affected a lot the sound of the band. He also co-composed almost all the songs with Steve Walsh.

Quite funny that recently the mailing list of classic rock where I've been joining since four years ago is discussing Kansas "Power" because one of the members really like this album. By the time I read the discussion in the mailing list I was not aware that I have already had the CD of this album. How could I? I really don't know because when I purchased the cassette version of this album, it did not really blow me away. It's probably a kind of weird havinga Kansas album without any violin involved. Oh yes, there is orchestral arrangement but it's not Kansas style.

What can I say about this album really? Is it a marriage between Dixie Dregs and Kansas? You ight say so, probably. The Kansas style is maintained through the nice vocal quality of Steve Walsh, while the Dregs thing is coming out from Steve Morse, obviously. To put it in general terms this album represents a straight forward hard rock music scene especially as it's proved through the work of Steve Morse. Yeah, that's the strong point of this album: I can enjoy how Kansas sound is made heavy through songwriting by Steve Morse with Steve Walsh.

If you like hard rock music, I don't think you have problem enjoying this album. When the album reaches track 3, I don't know there is segment that is similar with Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow "Street of Dreams". Some tracks presented here are bit boring to me, e.g."Secret Service" which has monotonous rhythm section and riffs with repetitive "Secret Service" singing.

It's not Kansas best album and it's not bad at all. But I'd rather recommend this album for fans or collector only. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

For a long time after this album was released, I couldn’t put my finger on what it was that I didn’t like about it. There were quite a few things definitely missing: no multilayered arrangements with overlapping keyboard tracks and tree-hugging or spiritual lyrics; no violin (except in some limited orchestral backing); no extended-play opuses (or is that “opi”?); no dog-whistle-high vocals (for the most part); and of course, no Kerry Livgren, Dave Hope, or Robbie Steinhardt.

So what was really missing from this first album by the reformed Kansas was – well, Kansas.

This is actually a pretty good rock album. In some places it’s even a pretty good almost- metal album. What it’s not is a Kansas album, and doesn’t fall into the category of symphonic or progressive rock at all.

There was certainly no shortage of progressive 70’s icons reconstituting themselves in the mid-80’s as power-pop bands. Steve Hackett and Steve Howe were out marketing themselves as GTR; Carl Palmer, Geoff Downes and John Wetton were enjoying great success as Asia; and Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, and Phil Collins were successfully passing themselves off as – well, “Genesis”, but we all knew better.

The point is, when Steve Walsh decided to abandon his critically-acclaimed but commercially disastrous Streets band and rejoin Phil Ehart and Rich Williams to record an album for MCA Records, they were not reforming Kansas. Had this incarnation been called – I don’t know, “India” maybe (since “Asia” was already taken), or GTX, or whatever – anything but “Kansas”, this probably would have been a much more successful venture. All the ingredients were there – a hugely talented guitarist and composer in Steve Morse; Steve Walsh with his ambidextrous talent on keyboards (and he still had most of his voice left at that point); a premiere drummer in Phil Ehart; and a solid bassist and vocalist in the journeyman Billy Greer. Plus Rich Williams had really come into his own as a multifaceted guitarist in the years since Livgren had left that duty solely to him in the early 80’s. But the name of the band inevitably attracted the fans from the 70’s version of the group, and they could not help but be disappointed and feel betrayed by this new sound, and by the new faces. It’s no wonder MCA abandoned the album (and eventually the band) in the face of this negative vibe.

Which is unfortunate, because the music here is mostly top-drawer stuff. “Silhouettes in Disguise” sounds a bit like a Steve Walsh autobiography (“they pick the time and place then they fall from grace; they’re riding on a rail trying to chase the dragon. Engines never cool – trade their sins for fuel – that’s what they’re running on when they’re blown to kingdom come”), but Ehart’s drumming is wild and riveting, and Walsh had never had a guitarist next to him before with the skill of Steve Morse.

“Power” comes off as a solid Rocky-type power ballad, led by virtuoso guitar work by Morse, Walsh’s best vocal performance in years, and a positive message of self- empowerment and encouragement. This was one of two hit singles on the album. The other was “All I Wanted”, a sappy tortured-love song that gave Steve Perry and Journey’s “Raised on Radio” a run for their money. This was not only the last Top-40 hit single for the band, it was also probably the best composition by Walsh since his first solo album six years prior.

“Secret Service” employs some orchestral backing to mixed effect. On the positive side, this gives the song more of a true Kansas sound than pretty much anything else they did on the MCA label. On the down side, the arrangements sound oddly out-of-place buried behind Walsh and Morse’s dirge-like vocals and guitar. The men’s glee-club backing vocals had kind of become a staple for all things Kansas in the 80’s – Livgren used these extensively on his first solo album Seeds of Change, as well on the first A.D. album, as did Kansas on Vinyl Confessions and Drastic Measures. In all cases they were largely unnecessary.

Considering both of their musical backgrounds (Morse with Dixie Dregs and Walsh with his visions of rock-god grandeur), it’s not surprising that the two of them could manage to put together a few rocking tunes. “We’re Not Alone Anymore” is one of these. Nothing in this song other than Walsh’s voice sounds like Kansas, but Ehart fills in between Walsh and Morse to make this a rocking number that would have been a crowd favorite in any juke-box bar in those days (and probably even today).

The liner notes of “Taking in the View” co-credit Morse and Walsh, but these lyrics are all Steve Walsh. More orchestral accompaniment here, and this time it works well augmenting Morse’s soaring guitar licks. Walsh sounds introspective and nostalgic, a mood that he has always worn quite well, with lyrics that are taking on a whole new meaning for me twenty years later, as I struggle with finding a workable arrangement for my aging parents and grandparent, and my children are growing up themselves and starting to form their own lives:

“The world began to change – the children moved and they had children.

It was all arranged you couldn’t live there anymore. All you had was that old place in the middle of the path of progress.

So they took the space and put the ceiling on the floor.”

If you don’t get it, wait twenty years and you will.

“Three Pretenders” is a Billy Greer composition, and he gets in some decent vocals here as well. This is vaguely similar to so many Walsh-penned lyrics, and the arrangement is nothing special, but it’s an okay tune.

“Tomb 19” is a strange collaboration between Morse and Walsh, probably written just as a way to showcase both of their own particular musical talents. It’s a tale of an ancient Mayan tomb that dispenses curses on those who dare to disturb it. This one seems out of place.

“Can’t Cry Anymore” is yet another power ballad, apparently brought in from outside to show off Walsh’s talent in pulling off these kinds of songs. It’s an okay close to the album, but honestly, the first time I heard this I didn’t even realize it was Walsh singing.

So this is a good album, maybe even a really good one, and a pretty decent rebound for Walsh, Ehart, and Williams after some struggles in the early part of the decade. It’s a Kansas album in name only really, and one has to wonder how successful it might have been if the players had made the bold move of creating a new persona for the group instead of tying this incarnation of the band to the considerable expectations that come with the name “Kansas”. Three stars.

peace

I've been meaning to write a review for very long time but i gave up the idea seeing how so many people are so negative about this Kansas release. But still, I can only stick to my opinion and feelings towards this album - it's one of those albums i've always loved and found enjoyment when listening to. Don't worry, i realize and i'm conscient of the subjectivity of my words; I won't try to convince anybody that Power is a great underappreciated album but i'll try to explain why I enjoy it.

Power is not a bad album, not at all, but it's atypical in the Kansas discography. So was Drastic Measures but Power is a lot better. When I first listened to this album, I didn't know who Kansas was - I thought it was just a hard rock band with great keyboards. That was happening more than fifteen years ago. I was a highschool kid, listening to too much metal. My elder brother was into classic rock and prog-rock, but at that moment his music was not impressing me. One day he gave me a cassette - it said Kansas - Power. My teenage metal days were over. I had never heard music played with so much passion (there's passion even on Power, believe it or not); I found Steve Walsh's vocals amazing and Steve Morse's guitar playing trully great. As I took (obviously) the music of the album for what it was offering, I enjoyed every single sound of it. The good thing is that now that I know all Kansas albums, my thoughts and feelings for Power have never changed. Listening to this album was my first spep towards classic rock at first and then prog-rock (as strange as this statement sounds).

I understand why many people reject Power; no violin - once an essential "ingredient" in Kansas' sound, Kerry Livgreen is gone. Nevertheless, Steve Morse's work on this album (and also the next) is very good; also, in my humble opinion, Steve Walsh provides one of his best vocal performances here. in fact I've got nothing to object to any musicians performance on Power.

The highlights on the album are the album opener Silhouettes in Disguise, the title song, All i wanted (a great emotional ballad), We're not Alone Anymore, Musicatto/Taking In the View (reminding of old Kansas), Tomb 19 and Three Pretenders; also worth mentioning is the second ballad - Can't Cry Anymore (with great vocals from Walsh and great solo from Morse). i just realised the only song i didn't mention is Secret Service; which is by all means not inferior to the other songs.

So excuse me for my subective reviewing; but to me there's nothing wrong with this album. Surely I cannot recommend this album as an excellent addition to any prog-rock collection or to prog purists. Kansas - Power is essential in my music collection. Therefore only from this perspective I give this album 3 stars.

Steve Walsh is back on business but Livgren has left. Steinhardt is still gone, unfortunately. Luckily a big format guitar-player (by his talent) is on board : Steve Morse. The latest two Kansas albums were not masterpieces to say the least. All the prog flavour was gone and there is no reason to believe this will change with this record.

This album is a pure rock one (with the exception of three tracks); FM oriented for part of it (title track and "Three Pretenders" for instance). I admit it's a bit monotonuous although here and there we'll get solid songs like the opener "Silhouettes In Disguise" (at the edge of heaviest side of the band), "We're Not Alone" which is rocking nicely with a strong beat and great guitar breaks.

As usual since a few releases, Kansas will play a mellow rock ballad ("All I Wanted") since they were very successful with the genre earlier on. But willing to re-create "Dust In The Wind" indefinitely is a bit out of purpose. It's like Lynne trying desperately to match "El Dorado". Both of them failed I'm afraid. The bottom is probably reached with "Secret Service", a heavy song with little feeling. Rather poor. In another genre, the short "Taking In The View" is rather useless as well.

Format of the songs is 100 % radio-oriented. In their early days, their producer was begging to get some four minutes pieces of music. That's what we get here : the longest composition clocks at just over 4'30". No way to develop or investigate in complex songs; which was Kansas trademark for a long time.

The instrumental "Musicatto" could have been an intro to an epic Kansas song, but nothing as such here.

Steve Morse's influence is not important enough to have lead to a good record. But it isn't either a catastrophy. A rock album, that's it. Not worse (nor better) than "Invisible Touch" or "Big Generator". I hope you got the idea.

I do not know about the commercial success of this album, but I would recommend you NOT to buy it since it is too far away from the best of Kansas. If you found of Asia, maybe that this album could please you, but it is not really my case.

I guess that Kansas has a deep sense of humour. The title of their last album was "Drastic Measures" and the closing number here is called "Can't Cry Anymore". Well just listen to this album to do so. Actually this number is probably the best of the album. Sorry guys, this is my first one star rating for a Kansas album.

Strange, but i don't find this a weak album, but for sure weaker then any of the albums they released in the '70. Is true that sounds like an AOR album or something al la Dokken, typical for mid '80 music. With all that i find it enjoyble in placese but not a memorable one. 3 stars i think is a fair note. Steve Morse is a good guitarist, no doupt and made some good riffs and solos here but the magic of the '70 is gone. Steve Walsh is back in bussines again and delivers a great voice here specialy on Three pretenders . The proggiest track is Musicatto but far from what they made in the '70, after all among the best tracks here. Anyway i enjoy this album and 3 stars for this one, the next one is much better and with more good ideas.

Kansas best 80's album

Kansas disbanded after the tour in support of Drastic Measures, but they got back together soon enough with a new line-up. Drummer Phil Ehart and guitarist Rich Williams remain from the previous line-up and original singer Steve Walsh returns to the fold. Two new members join the ranks in guitarist extraordinaire Steve Morse from Dixie Dregs and bass player Billy Greer. Notable for his absence is Kerry Livgren as this was the first Kansas album without him. Another notable absence is violinist Robby Steinhardt who had left the band in 1982 and was not replaced. This means that Power is the second Kansas album without that instrument.

Power is in my opinion a much stronger album than the previous three (Drastic Measures, Vinyl Confessions, and Audio-Visions), and it is up to par with Monolith. It's great to have Walsh back and Morse's guitar work is amazing with his distinctive guitar sound fitting Kansas very well. Just listen to the excellent instrumental Musicatto.

A good album and a return to form after three weaker albums

After Steve Walsh's eight year departure from Kansas, he returns as a different creature, at least audibly. This (kind of) reunion album marks the noticeable decline of quality of his voice. It is nowhere near where it would be in just a few years, so there's still some semblance of the vocalist he used to be. Dave Hope and Kerry Livgren had gone the way of Robby Steinhardt (in fact, all of Kansas had disbanded after the tour supporting the last album). To fill in on bass and backup vocals, Walsh brought in a man from the Streets, so to speak- Billy Greer, who has done a more than excellent job on every Kansas album he has performed. The more noticeable addition to the band, however, was guitar guru Steve Morse, who adds many interesting textures and cuts loose by shredding throughout the album.

"Silhouettes in Disguise" The album kicks off with a song that at least lets Kansas fans know that the band can at least still rock with the best of them. Morse employs his rapid-fire but entirely clean picking.

"Power" The title track is an FM radio-ready song. It is reasonably good, but not a song I find myself frequenting.

"All I Wanted" Things slow down even more for this well-done 1980s love ballad, which garnered some success on adult contemporary radio at the time.

"Secret Service" This is a mostly forgettable rock track. It sounds like a nod to Blue Oyster Cult, but one that remains ludicrous throughout.

"We're Not Alone Anymore" The previous track goes right into the most upbeat rocker on the record. It's a place that serves the guitarists really, letting them do their business as fast as they can over a shuffling rhythm. During the guitar soloing, the song sounds an awful lot like "Cliffs of Dover" by Eric Johnson.

"Musicatto" The closest thing to progressive rock on this album is an instrumental. It has some grand guitar playing and excellent drumming. The keyboards mainly serve in the backdrop, however, and escort the listener to the next track.

"Taking in the View" In spite of Kansas's attempt to show themselves as a band who can still rock out, I find this acoustic number to be the best thing on the album. In fact, I think it rivals "Dust in the Wind," particularly for its lyrical relevance and meaningfulness. Walsh's voice is as it once was, and a group of children sing in whimsical bridge. The words in recent times have given me pause about the matter of aging, and aging family.

"Three Pretenders" The band offers another straightforward rocker, but at least the lyrics are more intriguing than some of the other fare here.

"Tomb 19" Having heard this often on a compilation I owned well before this album, I admittedly grew to like this song. It has some strange lyrics about the cursed jade treasures of a Mayan temple. The music is good, even if nothing special.

"Can't Cry Anymore" It's inexplicable why this generally hard rocking album closes with a completely insipid power ballad. This one should have been cut or placed elsewhere. Even if it showcases Walsh's waning ability as a vocalist, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

"Digitally recorded and mastered to insure highest audio fidelity, therefore, play this record loud."

So say the liner notes. As a big fan of the Dixie Dregs and Kansas in the late 70's, if you were to tell me back then that one day Kerry Livgren would leave and get replaced by Steve Morse, I'd think you were crazy, but in 1986, that's just what happened. Steve would only hang around for one more album and, unfortunately, a marriage that could have produced some really great music, just produced some average material, but then this was the '80's, after all. This would also be the first album with Billy Greer on bass. Might have been nice to have Robbie Steinhardt on here as Morse works well with violin, but he had departed after Vinyl Confessions.

With all due respect to Steve Morse, even though Kansas had really peaked with Point Of Know Return, Kerry's songwriting is sorely missed. The vocal track that's the most progressive and reminiscent of the old material is Taking In The View. The instrumental, Musicatto doesn't disappoint either. We're Not Alone Anymore gets the gold for most Dregs like song. Pretty much in the vein of the two commercial attempts Steve made on the last Dregs album.

Still, this album basically lost my interest fairly quickly and I just recently decided to get the CD as it was for sale dirt cheap. Plus being a Dregs and Kansas fan, it's just something I had to have for my collection. The next Morse/Kansas album, In the Spirit of Things, would also be equally average and caused me to pretty much lose interest in Kansas until Somewhere To Elsewhere came out in 2000.

To paraphrase Hank Hill, from TV's King Of The Hill "You're not making Kansas better, you're making Steve Morse worse."

On this album, we get three original member of Kansas, Steve Walsh, Rich Williams and Phil Ehard (Why do I want to call them the Three Pretenders?), along with bassist Billy Greer, and Dixie Dregs guitarist Steve Morse. You would think that the addition of Morse would give a boost to the prog portion of the music. Maybe it does, but the songwriting is so poor that at best what you get are some OK, but short, intros, good guitar solos and a few fills, around lame verses and choruses.

The one slightly bright spot is Musicatto, but it's doesn't make the album worth purchasing.

Power continues the radio friendly rock sound that Kansas had developed since Point of Know Return. There is a big noticeable difference though, which is that the guitar riffs sound very sharp and powerful throughout. There is a simple reason for that: Steve Morse is the new lead guitarist! I'm not sure how the guitarist from Dixie Dregs became to be a member of Kansas, but it certainly doesn't add anything that anyone would hope for. With Morse on the axe, it seems to be expected that the music would be more technical and progressive, but this is not so. The only real sound difference is that Kansas now sounds like the Scorpions with a stronger southern rock feel. Granted, the guitar solos are better, but that was never an issue.

Honestly, I'd only recommend this for collectors of either Kansas or Steve Morse music.

2.5 stars, really. It took me some time to find what I really think of this album. And i guess I´ll have to agree with Clemofnazareth. If Steve Walsh (vocals and Keyboards), Phil Ehart (drums) and Rich Williams (guitars) had got together and decided to name their band after something other than Kansas then it is probable that Power would have been hailed as a fine CD by this "new super" AOR band, something similar to what Asia achieved a few years before. Certainly the presence of a terrific and famous guitarrist like Steve Morse would also help to boost the sales. But no, they decided to use the Kansas name and the comparisons killed most chances they had with this kind of sound. For Kansas is here in name only. And the name was already burnt out by the time they disbanded in 1983.

Not that the songs here were bad. Far from it. Walsh´s voice was not probalby in its prime, ok, but still have enough power (pun intended) pipes to challange any other AOR singer at the time. And some of the stuff here would probably be mistaken by bands like Journey (We´re Not Alone Anymore) or Survivor (Tomb 19). A couple of weak tunes (the pseudo hard/heavy Secret Service and the syrupy ballad Can´t Cry Anymore) doesn´t detract the rest of the material. The only real hint of prog in this CD is represented by the instrumental track Musicatto, which brings some memories of the old Kansas sound, but not much (hardly a surprise since main songwriter Kerry Livgren, and original members Dave Hope and Robbie Steinhardt were not present here).

This was also the first album to feature bassist Billy Greer, who has done a fine job in the band since then. Steve Morse also shines throughout the whole CD.

Conclusion: if you like AOR music with a few prog parts here and there, then you´ll probably like this CD a lot. if you´re looking for the progressive Kansas of the 70´s, forget it. Good stuff, ok, but not in the prog genre.

Really not a bad album at all. This is the first album after Kansas was reunited by vocalist Steve Walsh, less original songwriter Kerry Livgren and original Bassist Dave Hope. Steve Walsh, as the principal songwriter in Kansas for the first time, goes for a far more commercial approach than appeared on earlier Kansas albums, but, to his credit, he does it well. With most of the songs co-written by new guitarist Steve Morse (of the Dixie Dregs), "Power" is a pretty solid AOR album.

"Silhouettes in Disguise" kicks the album off to a good start, with an uptempo guitar riff and a catchy chorus. The title track is very good as well, sounding definitively 80s, but with none of the cheesiness that pervaded a lot of music from that decade. "All I Wanted," a love ballad, was, somewhat predictably, the most popular song on the album and also stands out as the least interesting. Terrible lyrics, and it's far from catchy enough to save itself. "Secret Service" and "We're Not Alone Anymore," are both rockers, and good ones at that. "Musicatto" is obviously an attempt to recreate some of the progressive instrumentalism of Kansas' past, and it works pretty well. Given that Walsh wrote "The Spider," off of "Point of Know Return," I guess it shouldn't be to surprising that a fast and complicated little instrumental like this works. "Taking in the View" is another downtempo song, but it's loads better than "All I Wanted" and lyrically actually pretty interesting. "Three Pretenders" and "Tomb 19" have exceedingly silly lyrics, but they're catchy AOR material and that's good enough for me, and certainly par for the course with this album.

Unfortunately, this album ends with another cheesy love ballad, this one not even written by members of Kansas. It's bland, it's boring, but at least it has good vocals.

"Power" is a far cry from Kansas' earlier progressive masterpieces, but it's a nice, commercial album that's really pretty enjoyable. Just don't start your Kansas experience here.

3/5