Works In Progress – Bruce Rusk

Works In Progress is a collection of live tracks that was intended to fill some of the chronological gaps in Kansas’ live recordings. There was little record of the band’s live work after their 1977 Point Of Know Return tour.  Two For The Show only covered up to their fifth album, and the only two major live releases that followed were either unmistakable, like Live At The Whiskey, or minimally representative of their work, as on the 1988 King Biscuit show from the Tower Theater in Philadelphia that’s been released about 20 times under different names.

Some of the tracks seem to have been pulled from the aforementioned King Biscuit show in Philadelphia that has been released by Sony BMG. Some of them seem to be pulled from the excellent Device, Voice, Drum live show recorded in 2002.  I can’t verify this as there are no liner notes to indicate when or where the songs were recorded, which I found annoying

The choice of tracks makes little sense. Many of the songs are from their ‘70s albums and have already been covered on other live albums. Power and In The Spirit of Things are not represented at all, but Freaks Of Nature gets five tracks, and Somewhere to Elsewhere only gets one song, which is unconscionable given the importance of that album in the band’s career.

At first I thought it was cool that they released some of the ‘80s and ‘90s work that’s been overlooked. It is nice to hear some of the songs from Freaks presented live for the first time. However, the album seems thrown together without any care or cohesion.  This compilation isn’t really an essential unless you’re a Kansas completist, and even then it might not be essential.

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