VINYL CONFESSIONS

Steve Walsh is finally gone after three years of tension, in 1981. Kansas find a very promising talent in the face of John Elefante, who will fill Walsh's shoes 'till 1984. The new guy sings, plays keyboards and writes; he does everything his predecessor did, and exceptionally well considering his young age (23 y.o. at the time) and no previous experience in a professional band!
Let's do a track-by-track review:

1. Play the Game Tonight - best song of the album - a Kansas classic
We got AOR Single 101 here! Journey or Foreigner would be proud of this, as it does everything right and is probably the most popular Kansas song from the 80s. It's also one of two songs from Vinyl Confessions that Kansas kept or brought back in their live setlist through the years (the other being Chasing Shadows). It was released as a promo Single a month before the full album and it charted very well, reaching #17 on the Billboard Hot 100. The music video is also inspired, you should check it out on YouTube!

2. Right Away - most underrated song of the album
The AOR Single recipe is repeated here, and with impressive results! This one could be another Top 20 Billboard hit, but Kirshner Records dropped the ball. There was no music video produced for this song and the promotion was not nearly as strong as the one they did for "Play the Game Tonight". The result was it only reached #72 and the band soon dropped it from their live setlist, as they felt "Play the Game Tonight" was enough. Pretty good song though!

3. Fair Exchange
Dystopic blues rocker, anti-NWO and technophobic, a typical Livgren religious song. Better than most such songs he wrote, but yet nothing special.

4. Chasing Shadows - a Kansas classic - my favorite song of the album
Wow, what a passionate song! A mellow ballad with beautiful melodies, simple but powerful lyrics and a sublime violin solo that belongs among the best Kansas has to offer. I'll go as far as considering the violin part as good as the "Dust In The Wind" all-time classic! Really great song, easily the best track of the album along with "Play the Game Tonight", they are the one-two combo of the album like "Point of Know Return" and "Dust in the Wind" were for Point of Know Return! I'm glad they brought it back to their live setlists after 2015, it's only fair for its quality!

5. Diamonds and Pearls - a Kansas classic
Kansas goes Broadway?! What an interesting tune that is! Sounds like an Ethel Merman or Liza Minnelli cover, yet it's a Kerry Livgren composition. A unique and quality song, with very good lyrics too, regarding the emptiness of materialism. Its prog vibes are strong too, making it by far the most intriguing song of the album. In my opinion this is a Kansas classic for all those reasons, one of the most notable songs they wrote in the 80s!

6. Face It
Those Elefante brothers could seriously write! Another AOR song close to the style of Toto, with great acoustic intro, powerful riff, changes in dynamics, prog-ish keyboard bridge, frenzy saxophone solo, all boxes checked! The "it" factor is not there for it to breakthrough as a Kansas classic, but the more this album progresses the better it sounds overall.

7. Windows
An older composition by Kerry Livgren, could be an outtake from Point of Know Return. It's a pleasant song, but it pales in comparison with the 70s Kansas classics. The violin and guitar solo section is the best part. It's also the second song from Vinyl Confessions they decided to make a music video for, but it's very bad... The graphics are kinda cringy and they even made Elefante hold an electric guitar while singing, although it's obvious he doesn't play it... ridiculous.

8. Borderline - worst song of the album
More Texas than Kansas, this upbeat rocker sounds like a Kansas-ZZ Top collaboration. Not a bad song, but rather forgettable.

9. Play On
An Elefante-Livgren collaboration that sounds like a Walsh-Livgren one. A really pleasant song that could belong to Monolith or Audio-Visions and had the potential to be a Kansas classic, but it's cut short! As soon as the solo begins, you think it will be the bridge to a majestic section that could progress (pun intended) into a great prog spiral like Kansas did so well in the past, but instead it fades out and the song is finished...! This has to be one of the biggest mishandlings of a song Kansas ever did. If it was done due to runtime shortage on the LP's Side B, then take out "Borderline" and expand this one to 6 minutes guys, it could be epic! So much potential wasted... I almost forgot to mention that this is the best vocal performance by Elefante in the whole album.

10. Crossfire - most Prog song of the album
By far the hardest one to judge. Musically, every box is checked for it to be a Kansas classic. I can imagine it being part of Masque or Monolith and it stands out for it's prog structure and its wonderful melodies. However, the vocal lines are kind of predictable and uninspired, and the blatantly Christian lyrics are borderline cheesy for my taste. Some people suggest this is the best song of the album, some label it as the best of the Elefante era too. Doesn't work that way for me though.

RATING:
A very-very impressive album considering the circumstances! That rookie Elefante had huge shoes to fill and he did a far better job than anyone could expect from him, as a performer as well as a composer. Due to the album being less prog and more AOR than its predecessors, it doesn't get the recognition it deserves and it's remembered by many as a worse record than it actually is. Judging by average quality it could be their worst album thus far along with Monolith but hey, look at their back catalog for crying out loud, 8 albums in 8 years and not a single bad one! We're talking about a great band here! 3 stars from me.