VINYL CONFESSIONS

2.5 stars, really. Although I had always liked very much Play The Game, I didn´t hear the other songs from Vinyl Confessions until a few weeks ago. The reason was very simple: it was 1082 and I didn´t want to risk another major disappointment with one of my favorite bands of the 70´s. I was afraid Kansas would have torned into another pop/AOR band like so many former progressive groups (which, in a way, they did). So I was a little surprised of how good this album really is. Ok, there is not loads of prog in here, but they also managed to add enough heavy guitars, intricated keyboards and some violin to make this album stand out in a sea of arena rock acts.

First of all the new singer: with the irreplaceable Steve Walsh gone, the band wisely picked up the next best thing. John Elefante has a very good voice that reminds me of Walsh a lot, specially at the high notes. Second: some may guess the band chose the easy way to commercialism. Not so much so. Most of the lyrics here deals with an artist in deep personal conflict between the earthly delights of success and his spiritual search. Both Livgren´s and Elefante´s stuff seem to have the same theme all the way through the CD. I heard the latter shared the same christian believes as the band´s leader, which make sense. third: Kansas members lost none of their musical prowness and Ken Scott´s production is simply superb. I guess they were never so well produced thus far. so the music here is not as slick and polished as some may have guessed.

The main problem here lies on the compositions: they are simpler, more straighforward and the musical frame, yes, leans toward AOR style. That meaning Robby Steinhardt´s violin had little place in here (hewould soon leave the band). Not that the tunes were bad. Actually some of the songs are pretty strong like the beautiful dark ballad Chasing Shadows and the powerful Windows (both could be on the previous Audio-Visions or Monolith). But the only track in the whole album that reminds us of the great band Kansas used to be in the 70´s is the last one, Crossfire. This fine prog piece is not only the most progressive of the album, but also one of Kansas best ever.

The remaining stuff is sometimes very good but mostly they are marred by mediocre and/or misplaced arrangements. Take Face It for instance: a good rocking number with some prog overtones that has a horrible sax solo (!) at the end. The same goes for Borderline: another fine rocker spoiled by the nonsense claping in the end. And so it goes.. Actually the only songs that I don´t really like in this album are the rather weak Right Away (too close to Foreigner for comfort) and the downright bad Diamonds And Pearls (even closer to Toto, totally out of place here).

Conclusion: if PA was an AOR site, then Vinyl Confessions would get 4 or even a 5 star rating. They knew how to temper their new arena rock style with heavy guitars and prog keyboards and violin. However, for the proghead, there is not much to find here. Only about 3 tunes can be said of being truly progressive. So, personally, I would give it 3.5, but to proggers, it is really only 2. So 2.5 is a more fitting rating. This is a fine record as a whole, but not in the prog world. If you like Kansas, be sure to hear their previous works first before you tackle this one. On the other hand, if you enjoy melodic rock in general, you´ll be more than satisfied with Vinyl Confessions.