AUDIO-VISIONS

If you can picture a marriage on the rocks, or a ship without a captain, you will get a general feel of the album Audiovisions. The tracklist just doesn´t seem to flow when you have Kerry Livgren going in one direction (At this time he had really discovered Christianity and wanted to tell everyone about it!) and Steve Walsh (Feeling uncomfortable with singing overly Chritianized lyrics and wanting a more rockish approach)

The album opens with "Relentless" which would be a good track for a rock band (but this is Kansas) The song is basically how Livgren has changed since becoming a Christian. It is a good "rock" track. This is followed by "Anything for you" which is quite a nice rocker. "Hold On" is a great ballad by Livgren, and one of the strongest songs on the album. "Loner" is proof that Walsh still has his great voice and the song is another rock song, a bit mediocre in fact. "Curtain of Iron" is actually a very good song, (almost bordering on progresive)

Then comes the horrible "Got to rock on" followed by the even worse "Don´t close your eyes" I really don´t know how these two tracks were allowed to be on this album!

After that double nightmare comes the gem of the album, the classic "No One Together" Complex writing by Livgren at his best! The lyrics are about society as we are and how we could be if there was a bit more love in the world. Very frightening song with an optimistic ending. "No room for a stranger" is a great bluesy rock type song and is one of the better songs on this album. "Back Door" sounds like some rehashed idea from Monolith, and just doesn´t really seem to work that well.

"Hold On " and "No One Together" are on The Ultimate Kansas compilation, so why buy this for about three good songs? I am a big fan of the band but I can´t give this more than two stars.