{"id":41184,"date":"2008-10-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/always-never-the-same\/"},"modified":"2008-10-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-22T00:00:00","slug":"always-never-the-same","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/always-never-the-same\/","title":{"rendered":"Always Never The Same"},"content":{"rendered":"

Always Never The Same<\/i> finds the original Kansas lineup almost intact. With Robby Stienhardt back in the fold, Kansas made its way to Abbey Road studios and brought along The London Symphony orchestra. They chose a studio setting for this recording, as opposed to a live venue as a lot of the band + symphony projects have done. They would tour extensively with a symphony in support of this album, but I like the clean production of the studio recordings.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Fitting for these historical surroundings, the disc opens with a strong cover of The Beatles’ \u201cEleanor Rigby.\u201d They make a nice job of it, adding some power to the song with the orchestra behind them. The excellent vocal harmonies add a nice Beatlesque touch. Kansas<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> has always been a band that wrote music like an orchestra and rocked out with it, so this is a very natural-feeling album. The symphony is a perfect accompaniment to the classic Kansas<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> songs, some very familiar and some you may not have heard. FYI: There’s no \u201cCarry On Wayward Son\u201d here, but they do brush off the classic \u201cDust In The Wind,\u201d the orchestra being a perfect vehicle for expanding the spare original arrangement for a more dynamic approach, and of course, the full string section is a no-brainer for this song. \u201cSong For America,\u201d “Nobody’s Home,\u201d and \u201cMiracle Out Of Nowhere\u201d benefit especially from the symphony, allowing them to recreate their dense, layered sound in a new way.<\/p>\n

Steve Walsh pens three news songs for the disc. \u201cIn Your Eyes\u201d and \u201cNeed To Know\u201d are fine songs, but the poppier \u201cThe Sky Is Falling\u201d seems out of place.\u00a0 The orchestra is conducted by Larry Baird, and he co-arranged most of the tracks. His symphonic flourishes fit in perfectly with Kerry Livgren’s compositions. Baird also arranged two instrumental tracks with the full orchestra that encompass snippets of many Kansas<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> songs. These add an especially nice touch to the overall flow of the album. Longtime producer Jeff Glixman adds his legendary skills on the mixing boards, which guarantees a pristine, vibrant production.<\/p>\n

This album would open a new phase in the band\u2019s life that would get them back on the road with newfound purpose, and eventually back into the studio a few years later.\u00a0 I really enjoyed revisiting these songs in a new form, and the album is a nice announcement of the band\u2019s return to a productive and vital stage of their long career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":29589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5839],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-41184","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-kansas","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41184","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\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41184"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}