Once upon a time. Kansas were a viable American alternative to the near-terminal pretensions and upper-crust elitism of English art-rock. Like a cornfed Genesis, they balanced the cosmic incredulity of their lyrics with a sound as big as the wide open spaces of their native state: cathedrallike keyboards and high-blown vocal arrangements anchored by the garage-band raunch of guitarists Kerry Liver and Rich Williams, plus Robby Stein's barnyard-dance-cum-classical-violin scrapings.

Kansas ambitions have long since turned portentous, however From the apocalyptic bombast and pseudo-Homeric poetry of "Curtain of Iron" and "Back Door" to the half-realized rock & roll of "Relentless" and "Got to Rock On." Audio-Visions is the musically overwrought and lyrically fatuous product of a collective hubris gone haywire. Only Liver's romantic waltz. "Hold On." escapes the avalanche of tortuous tempo changes, melodramatic arrangements, mixed metaphors and hilarious non sequiturs that buries the rest of the record. If Audio-Visions represents Kansas' current state of mind, it's time to consider relocation. (RS 332)

DAVID FRICKE