Kansas Album: “The Best of Kansas [Remaster]”

This is that rare best of album that actually features the band's best of. Not sacrificing longer tracks for shorter pieces (well, Magnum Opus maybe, but...) this collection truly gives a good overview of Kansas. The radio hits are here: Carry On, The Wall, Hold On, Point of No Return, and of course, Dust In The Wind, but even they feature prog overtones. But it's the longer pieces that show the band's excellent musicianship, like Song For America, No One Together, The Pinnacle, and Closet Chronicles. All in all, a good place to start if you're just getting into Kansas.

Each track on this handy compilation embodies all of the genuine elements that made Kansas one of the all-time greats, consisting of the Topeka-homegrown innocence (without the cliched naivety) combined with weary-eyed looks at the past, present, and an uncertain future. Springing from the virtuous, innocent American heartland, Kansas was a band that remained honest in their hopeful-sad-determined subject matter, and became one of the premier supergroups of its time (and remaining unmatched in their genre to this day). They proved they could pull off their love of British progressive rock without sounding overblown or overproduced, while keeping an authentic Southern jam essence. This slightly made-over version of the original release showcases examples of the things that made Kansas stand out; whether it's the doleful realizations of 'Dust in the Wind,' the power of 'Point Of Know Return' or 'Carry on Wayward Son,' or reflections of Kerry Livgren's search for redemption through Christianity, every song here remains some of the best work released during their respective times. However, it should be noted that "The Best Of Kansas" is not necessarily a place to start for new fans; rather, Kansas is one of those bands whose immense creativity is best experienced with each individual album, and no compilation completely does them a significant amount of justice. Nonetheless, it's still a relatively sturdy overview, and a fascinating musical biography.

If you are not really a big Kansas fan, and just looking for a few Kansas songs "to have", Then this recording is probably ok for you. I can tell right off that true Kansas fans probably find this collection embarassing. So embarassing in fact, that this CD has been out since the CD format was in it's infancy, and no one, until me, has bothered to review it here. True Kansas fans probably ignore the existance of this recording altogether. First off, right at the opening of "Carry On Wayward Son", the first track on the CD, you can tell something is WRONG. The echo is overpowering, something that is not part of the original recordings. It gives the CD that "Electronicaly Rechanneled To Simulate Stereo" feel that you used to only get with cheap bargain bin recordings that were beefed up from the original mono masters. It's downright annoying. Plus, 10 tracks does not do the band's retrospective justice. Even if you are not a huge Kansas fan, you may find that the way this CD was re-produced may get on your nerves. My guess is that when the CD format was new, CBS did a rush job on it's back catalogue to get some of the old LP's to market on CD. Some joker at CBS decided to throw in a little extra echo to make the record sound like they did something special for the CD release. Well, it didn't work out like they planned. And it shows. I am sure that there are other Kansas retrospectives on the market that better represent the fine work of this great band. I would suggest you seek one out, and pass this one up. This collection is better off as a distant, and very insulting, memory of how stupid some major label executives think we really are.

Let's go straight to the buisness. I'm a music passionate and I like discovering new rock bands (and generally new tunes), but since I'm from Europe the are many bands which are simply not known here but very popular in America. Currently I'm on the stage of disocvering some of those American bands, and Kansas made a huge impression on me, I must admit. My Polish version contains "Perfect lover" instead of the last 3 compositions described here and it originally consists of 10 tracks only.

Songs are incredibly good and well-crafted, guitar solos brillianlty combined with keyboards (like on "Song for America") and vocals fit neatly to make the marvellous whole. It's truly great musicanship, whereas "Carry on wayward son" is probably one of the best riffs I've ever heard. So are rest of the songs, I'm truly impressed with this band. I'ts a pity that so many terrific bands go unseen in various parts of the world. I doubt whether here in Poland are people who know this band, but they don't know what they are missing. All in all, let us pay due homage to bands like this one.

This is also my firt attempt to this stuff, but I'm certainly not going to end up with this album alone. Kansas rocks!

Now this is music. Before the hundreds of shallow pop bands that mostly dominate the music industry today, there was Kansas. Kansas created music with beautiful melodies, unique blends of various instruments, and lyrics with real meaning. The band was made up of true musicians, not a bunch of talentless individuals trying to blend in with the rest of the music industry. They created a musical experience unlike no other, and this album demonstrates some of their greatest musical creations.

Carry On Wayward Son - Wonderful vocals, great piano, and several smoothly performed tempo changes.

Point Of Know Return - Another great song, this one has very active violin during the chorus.

Fight Fire With Fire - Unfortunately, I would say that this song doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the album. It has more of a 80's feel to it, with more electric guitar than the other songs, not to mention a different lead singer.

Dust In The Wind - A slower song, but very, very good. A perfect blend of acoustic guitar and violin.

Song For America - Beautiful 3 minute intro in this one, it builds up to the lyrical climax. Very interesting use of synth in this song.

Hold On - The violin adds a heavy emotional atmosphere to this song, and the vocals uphold that atmosphere. Good song with good lyrics.

No One Together - Very talented piano, mixed with just the right amount of violin and synth.

Play The Game Tonight - Another song on the cd with John Elefante as lead singer, but this one blends better with the rest of the cd than Fight Fire With Fire.

The Wall - Good electric guitar intro, powerful but not too powerful. Good use of synth in this song.

The Pinnacle - This song is an epic song with everything: electric guitar, piano, synth, and violin. Great vocals, espeically near the end.

The Devil Game - Rousing song with good violin and synth. Great lyrics and vocals.

Closet Chronicles - This song is performed live. Good music and poem style lyrics. A good closer for the album.

All in all, this cd is a beautiful example of real music Kansas-style.

- Pale Mercury -