The Audio-Visions tour was when Dave Hope gave his life to Christ after Kerry Livgren and Jeff Pollard (while Le Roux was again touring with Kansas) continued to discuss the matter with him. That brought the number of Christians in the band to two. The new songs Livgren brought in for the band were still evangelical, so Steve Walsh quit the band and took his songs with him. This means not only did Kansas need a new lead singer, it also needed someone who could write songs at least of a similar quality to Steve Walsh. The band eventually settled on John Elefante, who had auditioned without even telling them that he was a Christian. Without even trying now, the number of Christians in the band was three, and a fourth, Warren Ham, would join the band on tour playing saxophone, flute, and harmonica. Even though not every member was a Christian, the band had essentially become a Christian band, as the songs were now dealing with topics that would be of interest to many Christians. Walsh can't be faulted for leaving the band over a disagreement in the direction of the lyrics, and the remaining non-Christian members of the band should be commended for playing the songs with as much authority as they ever have (even more than their previous two outings) and for still giving the songs their all, even though they couldn't sign off on the content.
By this point in their career, Kansas was becoming less a progressive rock band and more a power-pop/rock band. The overall theme of Vinyl Confessions has to do with there being a real good and a real evil in the world, and we can't just stay in the middle. We have to choose which path to follow.
The album opens with Play the Game Tonight which, even though the band was now essentially a Christian band, still earned them their third highest placing single on the charts, beaten only by Carry On Wayward Son and Dust in the Wind. This song is the only one on the album (and one of the few in their entire catalog) not to have been written by the band, with the exception of the songs co-written by Dino Elefante, John's brother. As Mark Allen Powell recounts in the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music, this song was originally called Stay With Me Tonight and was pretty sexually-suggestive, so it was vetoed by the three Christian members of the band (Livgren, Hope, and Elefante). However, they still opted to play the song after changing the lyrics around a bit to move from a sexual one night stand to a musical one night stand. The song is essentially about a band that comes out on stage each night to the roaring of the crowd and plays their hearts out. But even after such a performance, will the audience still remember them tomorrow when the morning comes? This song is a straight ahead rocker with a memorable minor-key piano part under the verses.
Coming up next we have Right Away, a straight-ahead rocker. It's a love song where the singer pleads to the woman of his affections that he needs her to love him right away and not to leave him, remembering all the good times they've shared. For the first song on the album penned by Elefante, it gets the album off to a strong start, as the album is pretty fast-paced from here on out, picking up speed from Play the Game Tonight into Right Away.
Third comes Fair Exchange, a song about a totalitarian society where people are willing to exchange their freedom for safety. Clocking in at five minutes and one second, it's the second longest song on the album. This song is a bit of a heavy rocker and contains a harmonica solo on top of the guitar solo provided by Rich Williams.
Chasing Shadows is next, a tender ballad which asks questions about whether or not the words the singer sings will be heeded by the listener and whether or not they will run from the light, chasing shadows as their legs get tired. This is the only real slow song on the album, being driven by acoustic guitar and soft piano, with a violin solo slightly reminiscent of Dust in the Wind's violin part.
After that comes Diamonds and Pearls, a song about the wealth that comes with success and how riches are ultimately unfulfilling. Only love will last and will not be in vain. This song starts off with a pretty standard Kansas-style intro before moving into bouncier keyboard parts for the verse, providing us with a violin and saxophone solo. Kansas has always been notable for its inclusion of Robby Steinhardt on violin but this album provides some sonic diversity with the inclusion of other instruments, such as a group of horn players called Heart Attack Horns providing some extra instrumentation on this song.
Sixth on the tracklist is Face It, a song that could be about either the singer appealing to his lover that things between them have gotten bad and they can't continue as they are, or a song with a more evangelistic bent about how people need to change their sinful ways and stop "playin' this fool's game". The song starts off with the piano accompanying a violin solo before breaking into a more rock-oriented keyboard-driven song, making this track very reminiscent of Billy Joel's song The Stranger.
Windows is the next song, and offers one of the album's most progressive moments with a violin solo in 5/4 after the second chorus. It's a straight-ahead rocker that doesn't let up from start to finish. It's not exactly very clear what they mean by the "windows of the world", except to say that they're looking through it and these windows are never open all the way. The singer does say seeing is believing but knowing is to get a better view. So perhaps he's simply talking about how one views the world and if one views the world through the lens of faith in God (and Scripture has a lot to say about the world), you'll be able to understand it better than simply by looking at the world from the lens of the world, itself.
Borderline is another straight-ahead rocker that doesn't let up through the whole of the song. This one continues the themes of Diamonds and Pearls, that wealth can never completely satisfy. But this time, the rich man in the song is straddling the fence in the middle. The singer pleads to the man that he can't stay there, he has to make a decision of which way he will go. Until he does, he'll continue to be going nowhere with his life.
Play On is the second-to-last song on the album. It's penned by both Kerry Livgren and John Elefante and is essentially an autobiographical song about why they play music. As Mark Allan Powell mentioned in Encyclopedia of Christian Music, it's almost a worship song to their "Morning Star" who lifts them up, leads them through life, and sets their hearts on fire. Musically, the song starts off relentless (no pun intended) with a powerful drum intro, followed by descending eighth-note triplets in the synth and chords in the piano. The song lets up a bit in the bridge but then kicks back into high gear again for the chorus and guitar solo.
Finally, Crossfire closes out the album. The song is primarily about there being two worlds, a world of darkness and a world of greater love than man has ever known. You're caught in the crossfire between them and have to decide which world you'll be a part of. It's the only song on the entire album which features lead vocals from Robby Steinhardt, and is the only song to even come close to the length of their other progressive numbers. There is a lengthy guitar solo where the band breaks into bars of 6/4 (or perhaps bars of 4/4 with bars of 2/4 between them) for the violin solo.
Audio-Visions really started Kerry Livgren's evangelistic Christian offerings for the band but Vinyl Confessions is evangelistic all the way through. They would tone down this theme of their lyrics for their next album but the Christian nature of the songs would continue to be a source of conflict for the band, leading to Robby Steinhardt quitting and Kansas continuing without a violin for the first time in their career.
Album: Vinyl Confessions (1982)
Band: Kansas
Phil Ehart -- drums
John Elefante -- keyboards, vocals
Dave Hope -- bass
Kerry Livgren -- keyboards, guitars
Robby Steinhardt -- violins, vocals
Rich Williams -- guitars
Track list:
01. *Play the Game Tonight (3:26) -- Livgren, Ehart, Williams, Danny Flower, Rob Frazier
02. *Right Away (4:06) -- Elefante, Dino Elefante
03. Fair Exchange (5:01) -- Livgren
04. *Chasing Shadows (3:20) -- Elefante, Dino Elefante
05. Diamonds and Pearls (4:50) -- Livgren
06. Face It (4:17) -- Elefante, Dino Elefante
07. Windows (3:32) -- Livgren
08. Borderline (4:00) -- Livgren
09. Play On (3:32) -- Livgren, Elefante
10. Crossfire (6:35) -- Livgren
* denotes a single
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