IN THE SPIRIT OF THINGS (1988)
“We all gotta come to the light together”1. Ghosts (Bob Ezrin, Steve Morse, Steve Walsh) 4:18
2. One Big Sky (Phil Ehart, M. Ehmig, Ezrin, H. Kleinfeld, Walsh) 5:17
3. Inside of Me (Morse, Walsh) 4:42
4. One Man, One Heart (Dann Huff, Mark Spiro) 4:20
5. House on Fire (Ehart, Ezrin, Morse, Walsh) 4:42
6. Once in a Lifetime (Antonina Armato, Albert Hammond, Dennis Morgan) 4:14
7. Stand Beside Me (Bruce Gaitsch, Marc Jordan) 3:28
8. I Counted on Love (Morse, Walsh) 3:33
9. The Preacher (Morse, Walsh) 4:18
10. Rainmaker (Ezrin, Morse, Walsh) 6:44
11. T.O. Witcher (Morse) 1:39
12. Bells of Saint James (Morse, Walsh) 5:39
After the meager success of Power showed that there was still gas left in the tank, the band wanted to harness that for the next release and really tried for more commercial success. To that end, they hired megaproducer Bob Ezrin and even brought in some outside songwriters to help them craft some hits. The result was
In The Spirit of Things, which is a kind-of-but-not-really loosely organized concept album about a flood occurring in Neosho Falls, Kansas in 1951. Let’s just say that the results of the endeavor were uneven.
We start with “Ghosts,” on which Ezrin gets a writing credit. It’s the scene setter in many ways. A ballad, mellow, pleasant, but not much really to talk about.
Things crank up a little with “One Big Sky.” This is a typical mid-to-late 80s AOR rocker. It is pleasant, and I really like the vocal melodies on the chorus, and there is some good guitar work by Morse. However, the song suffers a little with the production. There is a background track of percussion (again, typical 80s) that makes it hard to distinguish what is actually Phil Ehart playing at points of the song (maybe it's just me). But still, not bad.
Next is “Inside of Me.” Not much to recommend here. I wish I could blame this one on the outside writers, but this is a product of Walsh and Morse, so no escape there.
“One Man, One Heart” is an attempt at a hit, written by 80s hitmakers Dann Huff and Mark Spiro. It is catchy, I suppose, but is fairly generic-sounding, especially for that period. It doesn’t sound like Kansas.
Next is “House on Fire” which opens with some tasty Morse guitar flash, engendering hopes for a good song. What we get is a standard 80s rocker, with disappointing lyrics. In fact, the bridge contains perhaps the worst, most frightening lyric in the Kansas corpus: “Fisted love fueling fantasy/Is love worth the fire he's asking for” *shudders*
“Once In A Lifetime” is a ballad that sounds pretty much nothing like anything that Kansas would ever write. Well, that’s because it was written by a trio of pop songwriting talents, Antonina Armato, Albert Hammond, and Dennis Morgan. To their credit, it’s an OK song, I guess, but it is definitely an attempt at a hit, and probably could have been one for Michael Bolton or Richard Marx, for whom it would have been better suited. For Kansas, not a highlight.
Next is “Stand Beside Me.” See my comments for “Once In A Lifetime.”
“I Counted On Love” demonstrates that Walsh and Morse were paying attention to the lessons taught by the outside songwriters with whom they were working.
With “The Preacher” we finally get a really cool Kansas song on this album. This is a really fun song with a good energy about it. It’s not a full-on prog song, a la older Kansas, but it has several proggish flairs throughout. Absolutely a standout for this album.
“Rainmaker” is a song that is frontloaded with story, lyrics that fit within the context of the concept album but are otherwise not all that great. The story is that a guy is posing as a rainmaker, and then does a little too good of a job. Interesting concept. Then, a cool instrumental section is featured, followed by a reprise of the chorus by a choir singing along with the band.
“T.O. Witcher” is a nice little acoustic guitar instrumental by Morse. Tasty, but not overlong. A good palette cleanser.
The album’s closer is “Bells of Saint James”, which also turns out to be one of the highlights of the album for me. Lyrically it is about a soldier on the front lines in the Korean conflict talking about letters he receives from his wife back in Kansas, and how the tone of the letters eventually changed for the worse (presumably reflecting the flood back home). Very touching, and different for Kansas, in a good way. The chorus is fantastic, featuring a great vocal melody for Walsh. A wonderful end to an uneven album.
All in all, the album was not a commercial success for the band. It only reached # 114 on the Billboard album chart, and only one single, “Stand Beside Me,” was released. It only made it to # 13 on the Mainstream Rock Chart, in spite of a video that received airplay on MTV.
In The Spirit of Things was the first Kansas album to feature no hit single since
Masque in 1975. While there are certainly a few highlights (The Preacher, Bells of Saint James), most of the album sounds like generic 80s movie soundtrack fodder (you older members may get that reference). The album did not receive much promotion from MCA, as they decided to focus more on up and coming acts rather than older acts like Kansas. This would be the band’s final album for a major label, and its final album to be released on vinyl.
The subsequent tour featured a live broadcast on the King Biscuit Flower Hour from their stop in Philadelphia on February 14, 1989. This would eventually be released as a live album, but I will cover it in its order of release.
Steve Morse left the band at the end of the tour.
Overall, I actually like this album, but it is a step down from Power. It’s a shame that this lineup of the band would have its final product be something this uneven.
Topic: The Kansas Discography Thread - THAT'S ALL, FOLKS (For Now) (Read 45224 times)