AUDIO-VISIONS

Am I even hearing the same album as everyone else on here? I don't see why so many people think this is a bad album. Actually; it's quite good. Very good, actually, and I may even go so far as to say that it's a better album then MONOLITH in some ways. Every track on this album gets me full of energy, and I certainly don't find any fault in the harder edged experimentation. That's what progressive bands do; they progress! As for the claim that this is eighties pop garbage, that's false as well, as the violins, cellos and grand piano are still very prominent among the guitars, keyboards and bass. The vocals are still Kansas- esque as well, as are also the song construction and presentation. Still rather long track lengths for a supposed 'pop' record.

I just don't see where people are getting it. The end of Kansas' creativity? Maybe, for I have yet to listen to the next album in the cronology, but surely one must admit that if this is indeed the last good record by them, it was one helluva swan song! Perhaps the notion that a Symphonic band could retain its originality even into the eighties is a too difficult a pill to swallow for some, but this is after all only the start of that terrible decade for music, and while I'm sure Kansas DID become deluted and falsified over the next few years, AUDIO-VISIONS was not the instance when it happened.

Don't take my word for it, though; listen for yourself. If you can truely say that the album as a whole sounds like any other eighties pop ballad of the times, then by all means stick by that decision, as most of the members here will undoubtedly share that sentiment. But if you are like me and can actually understand what true progression is, I'm sure you will agree that hard rock tendancies to an otherwise irod clad prog record is not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination. Sure, the artwork looks like it belongs on a Meshuggah record rather than a Kansas work, but who cares? The music found within is still very organic and melodic and beautiful. Don't believe me? Try it out, at least once, before you start judging; for I feel that this album is highly underrated around these parts, and I have no good explanation as to why that is, unfortunately.

Four stars, truly. Hardly anything is wrong with this record, except perhaps that it is heavier than anything before it, but for every hard rocker there is a soft ballad to balance this thing out. I truly feel that it is a worthy addition to any progger's collection. Worthy, indeed.