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NIGHT VISION

Kayak

Crossover Prog


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Kayak Night Vision album cover
3.12 | 63 ratings | 5 reviews | 11% 5 stars

Good, but non-essential

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Studio Album, released in 2001

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Icarus (8:22)
2. Miracle Man (4:52)
3. Cassandra (4:23)
4. A Million Years (4:34)
5. Water for Guns (4:06)
6. The Way of the World (4:33)
7. Hold Me Forever (3:26)
8. Tradition (7:57)
9. All Over Again (5:05)
10. A Life Without Parole (4:09)
11. How (4:55)
12. Carry One Boy (4:05)
13. Good Riddance (4:11)
14. Rings of Saturn (4:04)

Total Time 68:42

Line-up / Musicians

- Bert Heerink / lead vocals, percussion
- Rob Vunderink / guitar, lead (10) & backing vocals
- Rob Winter / electric & acoustic guitars, mandolin
- Ton Scherpenzeel / keyboards, accordion, programming, string & brass arrangements, producer, backing vocals
- Bert Veldkamp / bass
- Pim Koopman / drums, programming, backing vocals

With:
- Lorre Trytten / viola (1,5), violin (1,5)
- Arlia de Ruiter / violin (1,5)
- Pauline Terlouw / violin (1,5)
- Bastiaan van der Werf / cello (1)
- Jel Jongen / trombone (6,13)
- Alard Buwalda / saxophone (6,13)
- Serge Plume / trumpet (6,13)
- Anne Nobel / backing vocals (12)
- Charlotte Magnée / backing vocals (12)
- Eric Magnée / backing vocals (12)
- Hanneke Last / backing vocals (12)
- Chantal v/d Klugt / backing vocals (12)

Releases information

CD ProActs ‎- pro cd 2057 (2001, Europe)

Thanks to ProgLucky for the addition
and to projeKct for the last updates
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KAYAK Night Vision ratings distribution


3.12
(63 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(11%)
11%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(30%)
30%
Good, but non-essential (38%)
38%
Collectors/fans only (17%)
17%
Poor. Only for completionists (3%)
3%

KAYAK Night Vision reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Gatot
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
2 stars Good to hear the the band is still alive even though this band for me was not a truly proh band especially when I new the first time thru their second album especially with the song "Woe and Allas". This album is good even though it's not as good as their previous studio album "Close To The Fire". The opening track "Icarus" (reminds me to KANSAS's song "Icarus out of Nowhere") is a symphonic rock music with some influence of classical music. The track has an excellent composition and tasty melodies. However, it lacks the vocal line as it does not seem to fit with the music - it's too low, I would say. It might be great if the voice part is done little higher with such a voice of Steve Walsh or oled KAYAK's album. It's merely the vocal line that this track is lacking.

Track 2 "Miracle Man" is played in a little bit faster tempo. Good composition but it lacks melody and not so good voice quality. Again, the voice is not keeping up with the music. The next track "Cassandra" is definitely a pop song with little prog touch - or not at all. It continues with prog-pop song "A Million Years". "Water For Guns" has a nice intro with piano solo accompanied by Hackettian guitar work. It's a nice song played in a relatively moderate tempo. It has some classic KAYAK components. I especially enjoy the guitar sound at the background as well as keyboard works. The tempo shifts to a a faster one when it reaches "Water For Guns .." lyrical part. The orchestration part is also excellent. "The Way Of The World" includes brass section and piano that plays at rhythm section. Brass section appears mostly as an accentuation of end of bars. For me it's a relatively mediocre song; the use of brass section does not appeal me at all. It reminds me to Genesis "Abacab" album. "Hold Me Forever" has a root of classic KAYAK musical style; opened with piano and vocal line accompanied by a violin / cello at background. It's a melodic song. "Tradition" reminds me to previous "Close To The Fire" album; it has rich melodies and components of classic KAYAK. It has an excellent changing tempo in the middle of the track with excellent melody. "All Over Again" is a mellow track in pop vein - excellent guitar works. "Life Without Parole" is an upbeat track with piano as rhythm section.

Overall, this album is not as strong as the previous "Close To The Fire". It has good musical composition, good melody and structure. However, the overall album does not project something that really stands out. I have big problem in accepting vocal quality throughout all 14 tracks of the album - it's way behind the classic KAYAK album like "Phantom of The Night" or "Starlight Dancer" or "Merlin". The music tends to be pop with some addition of prog components. I would recommend this album for collectors only, so the rating is 2/5. Gatot Widayanto, Indonesia.

Review by SouthSideoftheSky
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Symphonic Team
3 stars Good, but not even close to the fire!

Surprisingly, Kayak returned in the new millennium after a long absence from the music industry, with the excellent album Close To The Fire. Night Vision followed this great come- back album. Comparing the two, Close To The Fire wins out by a wide margin. However, this does not mean that Night Vision is a bad album. Not at all! Like on Close To The Fire, we find here a collection of well written and melodic songs with several progressive aspects. These aspects are not omnipresent, however, and are most strongly felt on a few songs. Overall, this is towards the Prog Pop side of things.

The sound of 00's Kayak is quite different from that of 70's Kayak, but on this album there are somewhat stronger musical connections to early Kayak than was the case on Close To the Fire, which I think had a more Neo-Progrogressive sound to it. The similarities with 70's Kayak is most apparent in the Supertramp-like moments on some songs. Other bands that you might compare this music to are Alan Parsons Project, Asia, Camel, 80's Kansas and perhaps Barclay James Harvest. The balance between rockers and ballads tilts somewhat towards the ballady side. Some people would probaly find at least some of the lyrics a bit cheesy and surypy. But there are some good rockier moments as well with good guitar work.

The Celtic influences that were present on Close To The Fire are absent here, but at least one song is quite folky, Carry On Boy. This song has very nice harmony vocals. The opening track, Icarus, is the longest, most progressive and best track of the album. Like the title-track on Close To The Fire, I immediately liked Icarus upon hearing it the first time. But it can hardly compete with the excellent Close To The Fire.

If you like Kayak, Night Vision is a worthy addition to your collection. But it is hardly essential!

Review by ZowieZiggy
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars I've been very fair to "Kayak" so far in their discography because they just deserved it IMO.

And I have to say that I was quite surprised with this work. It shows a much harder edge than before to tell the truth, but of course the band was more on the soft / pop side so far.

When you listen to the opening number, it sounds more as an "Ayreon" track than anything else. You can add some "musical" feel and you get the picture. This could have led to some poor gimmick, but actually it is a pretty good number and probably the highlight of the whole. And a song as "Miracle Man" might appear as a heavy or AOR oriented track, it remains rather pleasant mainly thanks to the vocals (but this has always been a strong characteristics from the band) and the fine melody.

But the whole of this album is quite decent and offers some very good guitar moments ("A Million Years") even if there are some flows like the painful hard-pop oriented "Water For Guns".

The "musical" feel is very much present during the average "The Way Of The World" which is probably one of the weakest track from the whole album. Vaguely Supertrampish (but again on the hard mood), the vocal harmonies are quite elevating the quality of the song. The brass only adds to the Tramp feel of course?

Most of "Kayak" fans (whom aren't that many apparently on PA), should be pleased with this album. The band might not have released masterpieces, but they never released a bad album either (at least as far as I am concerned).

Emotional song as "Hold Me Forever" definitely holds the level to a pretty good standard. Of course, you need to fasten your seat belts while listening to "Tradition". It starts with a disastrous pop oriented mood, but turns out to be a very effective prog song (mainly thanks, as usual, to the extremely crafted vocals). Such an emotion is sweating out of these lines? Still, a mixed feel about the second longest track from this album.

Some mellowish moments were almost inevitable I guess ("All Over Again", "How") as well a absolute bottom low "Life Without Parole" (similar to an aful ELO song from the eighties). Do bear in mind as well that the end o fthis work is quite popish and frankly best avoided.

It is obvious that the first part of the album sounds MUCH better than the latter one. I would say that a mean measure between two and three stars is accurate. And thanks to the excellent "Icarus" I just rate this album with three stars.

Review by friso
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars Kayak's 'Night Vision' album came after their comeback with 'Close to the Fire' with Max Werner on vocals, the lead vocalist of their classic line-up of the seventies. On this album the band introduces Bert Heerink on vocals, former lead singer of eighties stadion metal group Vandenberg (of which I can recommend the third album 'Alibi'). All Kayak albums have a mixture of artsy pop and progressive rock elements, but the dividing line on 'Night Vision' is perhaps a bit fixed between the songs. The opener by Ton Scherpenzeel 'Icarus' is easily one of the best progressive epics the band ever created. The melancholic and lyrical 'Miracle Man' (about guru's) is also an instant succes. After that the band fires two melodic ballads, two artsy rock songs and yet another ballad before arriving by it's third highlight 'Tradition'. Another particularly well written progressive rock track, this time by Pim Koopman. Then follows a succession of songs in a downward slope, whilst the lyrics keep surprising on this album.

Now with a few progressive highlights this album is easily discarded, but I found that I keep returning to it. Songs like 'A Million Years', 'Water For Guns' , 'The Way of the World' and 'A Life without Parole' stay pleasant and enjoyable. The overall sound of the album is great and if you just skip on a few of the last songs it's overall quality is actually quite good. The main problem of this album is its place between the strong comeback album 'Close to the Fire' and their career's best concept albums; 'Merlin' and 'Nostradamus'. Kayak can make a fine progressive poprock album and this album should be seen in the tradition of the fine 'Phantom of the Night' album of 1978. I'm raising my rating to a strong 3,5 stars here.

Latest members reviews

3 stars shortly; Icarus and Tradition are outstanding tracks, while Hold Me Forever and Miracle Man, nice pop prog songs. The rest is forgetable. I would not recomand this album as the first Kayak album in your collection, however for this 4 songs is wotrh buying it. ... (read more)

Report this review (#45906) | Posted by | Wednesday, September 7, 2005 | Review Permanlink

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