{"id":41165,"date":"2008-10-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/vinyl-confessions\/"},"modified":"2008-10-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-14T00:00:00","slug":"vinyl-confessions","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/vinyl-confessions\/","title":{"rendered":"Vinyl Confessions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today on Daily Vault One-Word Reviews: Kansas<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019 1982 release Vinyl Confessions<\/i>.\u00a0 Ahem. Our one word:<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Enh.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Okay, so that\u2019s technically an ejaculation, not a word. But it summarizes the first post-Steve Walsh CD for Kansas<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> neatly. While there are occasional moments worth taking notice of on VC<\/i>, the fact remains that this is mostly an olive-drab pile of mediocrity with some serious handicaps from the get-go.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Handicap #1: no Steve Walsh. There are a number of theories as to why the split developed between vocalist Steve Walsh and composer\/songwriter\/arranger Kerry Livgren, and I suspect no one really knows why, save them. The fact remains, however, that Walsh had left in October of 1981 to form a short-lived rock band Streets, and Livgren had replaced him as lead singer with fellow born-again Christian John Elefante. Matters of faith aside, Elefante just wasn\u2019t the singer or the songwriter Walsh was. (He has, interestingly enough, become an extremely successful CCM producer.) The songs are weaker, the delivery weaker, and because of that, Vinyl Confessions<\/i> suffers.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Handicap #2: The production. Ken Scott manned the board on VC<\/i>, and frankly, if this is representative of his work he shouldn\u2019t be allowed to produce a random biological function, much less a CD. The sound on the album is as flat and fuzzy as a roadkilled Tribble. Vinyl Confessions<\/i> was remastered in a 1996 release, but I don\u2019t have that copy (and indeed, it seems to be extremely hard to find). As it stands, though — awful. Dull as ditchwater. This hammers the stake into tracks like \u201cDiamonds And Pearls\u201d and \u201cFace It,\u201d which might under different circumstances been decent.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Handicap #3 (and this is where I stick my neck out): Religion. It\u2019s no mistake that CCM Magazine<\/i> chose VC<\/i> as its #1 CCM album of 1982. Take the Kansas<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> name off and this might not be a problem — but like many CCM artists, the heaviness of the message undermines its very content and possible appeal. There is a difference between being witnessed to<\/b> and being preached at<\/b> — and this is definitely an \u2018at\u2019 album. This left little space for long-time Kansas<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> fans — and it\u2019s no mistake that this is Kansas<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019 worst-selling CD of their widespread popularity phase.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

There are good songs on Vinyl Confessions<\/i>. For once, the best song was the biggest hit: \u201cPlay The Game Tonight\u201d remains a powerful, string-driven tribute to getting what you want and then finding out it may not be worth it. \u201cChasing Shadows\u201d is delicate and haunting, and for all its \u201cLeft Behind\u201d overtones, \u201cFair Exchange\u201d boogies along quite nicely.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But in the end, the game really isn\u2019t worth the candle. Vinyl Confessions<\/i> was a huge step backwards for Kansas<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, an interruption of forward motion that wouldn\u2019t really change until much later in the decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":29571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5839],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-41165","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-kansas","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41165"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41165"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}