Customer Reviews

Best of

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is an excellent purchase for those who don't know much about the band Kansas, but would like to get a sampler of some of this excellent band's music.. It has great hard rock staples, as well as longer and elaborate prog-rock epics. To me, that's what makes a best of album spectacular. It has the popular "Carry On Wayward Son," the melodious quirk of "Point Of Know Return," and the inspirational "Hold On," just to name a few. However, my personal favorites are the extended prog numbers, like "Song For America" and "No One Together," which are elaborate and complex in arrangement, with great vocals and melody, and what surprises one is the fact that guitarist Kerry Livgren wrote most of these elaborate pieces by himself. Kerry & company were a talented bunch, and it's nothing to be taken lightly. "The Closet Chronicles" is performed live, yet sounds as crisp as a studio recording. This is another one of those elaborate epics featuring great vocals, with outstanding musicianship. One should know that, for the time being, this live version can only be found on this collection, as it was omitted from the remastering of their live double CD, _Two For The Show_, in order to keep the disc from being double (which was pretty dumb.) It's a real shame, because I believe the live version of this song leaves the studio version in the dust.

Overall, I am very pleased with this recording. If you like complex, elaborate, dramatic and sophisticated bands like Queen, you should love Kansas.

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.

The original issue of this album, released in 1984, was attrocious. It contained the big hits (Wayward Son, Dust, Hold On) and a few key album rock staples (Point of Know Return, Song for America and The Wall). But the rest of the album was devoted to dire tracks from their 1980s output: The generic hard rock of Fight Fire With Fire, Play the Game Tonight and No One Together, and a perfectly dreadful "previously unreleased" track, Perfect Lover. Their first three albums, surely their most artistically accomplished (if not most commercial) were represented by the lone track "Song for America". In essence, this seemed a desperate effort to paint the group as still vital by placing undue focus on their then-recent output.

In a word: Worthless.

This reissue, in addition to modest improvement in fidelity, gooses the track list to make it much more palatable. The terrible Perfect Lover has been jettisoned completely, and in its place we get three new additions: The Pinnacle (from Masque), The Devil Game (from Song For America) and Closet Chronicles (from Point of Know Return). The album is now a far better balanced view of Kansas' career. There are still many more excellent tracks from their first five albums that could have been used in place of the 1980s filler (and surely one track from the not-completely-horrible Monolith could have been included), but this isn't bad.

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.

This remastered version of their Greatest Hits is the perfect introduction to the prog/rock group Kansas. The most recognizable songs on the disc are the rocker "Carry on my Wayward Son", the progressive influenced "Point of No Return", and the thoughtful ballad "Dust in the Wind". Other less known, but still wonderful songs are "Fight Fire with Fire", the ballad "Hold On", and "The Wall".

Unfortunately, in the remastering of this disc there were songs removed as well as added. Although you get "Pinnacle", "Devil Game" and "Closet Cronicles", all worthy additions as bonus songs, the track "Perfect Lover" was inexplicably removed. Other than that, the album benefitted GREATLY from the remastering, as the song quality and clarity is now excellent.

Overall this is a great introduction to Kansas, and a solid glimpse into the early prog/rock sounds that paved the way for more modern groups like Dream Theater and Spock's Beard. Absolutely Classic.

Made in USA in 1999, Serial# ZK-65690, Playing Time 65:31

This is an affordable collection of various tracks that covers 8 of the band's first 10 albums; and shows their diversity and their quite original writing style. It has some classics, but also less-known material that's well worth a listen. If you like many of the metal-progressive bands of the 90's (e.g. Dream Theater, Symphony X) you'll see where some of them got some of their writing ideas.

For those like me who wanted a REMASTERED version of this 1984 offering, all I can say is DON'T RETIRE YOUR OLD CD!

On this latest version, 6 changes were made: 1) "Carry On Wayward Son" is the original version, not the remix that was done by Livgren himself and his cohorts specifically for the original release; 2) the track "Perfect Lover" has been discarded; it is now only available on the limited edition 2-disc version of "Definitive Collection", not on the regular 1-disc version; 3) "The Wall" has received the same treatment as described in note 1; 4) "The Pinnacle" has been added; 5) "The Devil Game" has been added; 6) "Closet Chronicles" from "Two For The Show" has been added.

I'm surprised that, considering the extra room left on the disc, the version of "Song For America" is still edited.

All in all, if you're fairly new to the first half of their career, this gives you a good overview; if you're a collector, you can pass up on this and keep the original version.

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 -

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!

Six shaggy haired men wearing overalls and leather jackets belting out perfectly synchronized harmonies, and strumming powerful guitar and violin chords. Not exactly what you'd expect from the 70's Americana rock group, but for Kansas fans everywhere, it's whom they've come to known and love. The album, "The Best of Kansas" is a compellation of Kansas' greatest hits remastered like never before. For new fans and old, this album will have you singing along to hits like "Dust in the Wind" and " Carry on Wayward son" sooner than you can think.
Kansas' lead vocal Steve Walsh resembles a quieter, softer side of Queen's Freddy Prince. It gives more attitude and more punch to the songs.
My favorite song is actually the poetic and influential "Dust in the Wind". The acoustics and Walsh's melodic yet subtle voice goes together perfectly.
As for the nine-minute ballads, "Song For America" and "The Pinnacle" showcases a wide range of piano in the introduction. However I did think it was a bit long to wait about three minutes before the words start to come on.
The rock guitar riffs come off strongly in songs including, "Fight Fire With Fire" and "The Pinnacle".
To my surprise, this album gives something to everyone. Old fans get newly remastered songs by Jeff Glixman and Vic Anesini. And new fans get a taste of the legend that is known as Kansas.
The album features 12-chart topping songs span throughout Kansas' career. It is without a doubt that the sensational mixture of classical violins and rock vocals that make Kansas, a staple in Americana Rock history.

Ok i`m writing this review from the perspective of it original release . Yes its the working mans best of KANSAS, It features some outstanding tracks Like Carry on wayward son , Dust in the Wind, Hold on, A song for America and of course one of the best KANSAS songs ever, The wall. I`m not a big fan of play the game tonight and fight fire with fire, but over all I think this is a great CD and for the new KANSAS fan and for the casual KANSAS fan its a must. Its the kind of KANSAS CD you can just peg back and let it flow, its not a true representation of the great band KANSAS is, as we all know it would have included Magnum opus, and also Cheyenne anthem plus lots of other great songs, but i think if it gets down to just one disc this was a pleasing result. One thing, what gives with that rather ordinary Perfect lover ? I definatly don`t think it should be on a Best of KANSAS CD, its an average song that would be better placed on an 80`s Judas priest record. The original release of this CD had dodgy remixes of Carry on wayward son and The wall (they were muddy and they echoed) and it didn`t contain The pinnacle or the live version of Closet chronicles. This was my review of the old original release of this cd. with the changes that have been made to the new remarsterd version I`m going to have to say its fantastic value and perfect for new KANSAS fans.