VINYL CONFESSIONS

This first Kansas´s album without Steve Walsh is much better than their second album without him called "Drastic Measures" (1983). They found a very good singer in John Elefante, but there are some changes in the music style and in the lyrics content in this album even if most songs retain some of the old Kansas´s Progressive Rock style, even in the songs composed by John Elefante and Dino Elefante.I have read some reviews which say that the content of most of the lyrics is more inspired by Keryy Livgren´s and John Elefante ´s Christian faith, but even if this is the case, and even if it is true (and I am very respectful of other persons´s religious beliefs), I don´t think that the lyrical content is very changed because at least in a lot of Kerry Livgren´s songs from the past the spiritual and "existential" content of the lyrics was there since a long time ago, but in this album maybe most of the lyrics were focused in the spiritual themes more than before. Maybe John Elefante´s main contributions in this album are the more "light" songs in sound and lyrics, maybe a bit more commercially oriented, but still with good quality. There are a lot of very good Progresive Rock arrangements in most songs, and this album is good.The album as a whole sounds very good without the eighties over-production which "Drastic Measures" has in comparison. My favourtie songs from this album are " Play the game tonight", "Right away", " Diamonds and pearls" and " Borderline". There are some influences from bands like Styx (even if this band is not one of my favourites), but most of the old Kansas´s musical style still remains despite Steve Walsh´s absence.