Audio CD review:
Kansas - Kansas

Kansas - Kansas

Band: Kansas Title: Kansas Rating: Release Date: 29 June, 2004 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Can I Tell You 2: Bringing It Back 3: Lonely Wind 4: Belexes 5: Journey From Mariabronn 6: The Pilgrimage 7: Apercu 8: Death Of Mother Nature Suite 9: Bringing It Back (Live)

Customer Reviews Another spectacular debut album from the 70s This sub-genre of Mid-Am prog-rock really got started around 1971 with Bloodrock--a band from Ft. Kansas was but one of an interesting slew of 70s-era Mid-American progressive rock bands--who like their British counterparts Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, combined their jazz and classical music leanings with extended, improvisational rock jams. Worth, Texas who was in the process of changing their sound, going from a darker, guitar-driven, metallic image, to a more up-beat and fusion-oriented sound, incorporating the use of more synthesizers, which would become the model for the Kansas sound, as both Kansas and Bloodrock also happened to tour together regionally in the years leading up to the recording of Kansas' debut album. Of course, the other group from this same sub-genre was Styx--who seemed to share similarities with both groups, but adding more of a Chicago-style, big-city swagger to their music. The "hip police" working for the rock magazines on both the east and west coast, as well as Detroit, trying really hard to figure out and interpret these bands for their readers, which included a large portion of the "baby boom" generation, didn't understand this peculiar bunch. Wanting so badly to pigeonhole and stereotype bands geographically, they scratched their collective heads and said to themselves: "How are these hayseeds from Topeka able to work out all the intracacies of classical compositions like King Crimson?" But Kansas did it, and did it well. Which leads us to this debut album from 1974, with Jimmy Page-inspired riffs, intelligent and philosophical lyrics, and enough synthesized noise to make Keith Emerson or Jon Lord envious. Interesting song titles like "Apercu" or "Belexes" (which are both great songs, but like Todd Rundgren, one can only wonder if chief songwriter Kerry Livgren picked these words up from his search of strange religions, or he simply made them up to blow the public's mind!) Of course, the most striking thing about Kansas that sets them apart musically from all other prog-rock is the use of a REAL violin, not a keyboard made to sound like one, and not a whole string section like the Electric Light Orchestra. The other thing that is really striking--on this album, at least--is the most beautiful-sounding, angelic host of female background singers ever assembled! Why future Kansas albums didn't include these background singers, I don't know, but they do provide a nice atmosphere to the music on this album. I'm not sure if "studio tricks" were implemented to make them sound "angelic", but if angels could sing, they would sound just like the background singers on "Lonely Wind" and "Journey from Mariabronn". "Lonely Wind", in particular, is one of the most beautiful songs in Kansas' repetoire, both musically and lyrically, and probably one of the most beautiful songs of all time. It is certainly one of the few that almost bring tears to my eyes every time I hear it, and it is a shame it is never included on any of their "best-of" collections. "Death of Mother Nature Suite" is probably the heaviest Kansas rocker of all. They must have really known they had a "killer" on their hands with this one, as they saved this number for last on this album, and probably saved it as the encore in their early "live" perfomances, too. It just has that "vibe"--much like REO Speedwagon's "Golden Country" at the end of their second album, or Styx's "Suite Madame Blue" at the end of "Equinox". Just a prophetic number that serves as a warning to people about the destruction mankind is reeking on the planet--the tempo increases toward the end of the track, and spinning into a guitar "tour de force", before descending into a pit of synthesizer fury. Probably one of my favorite Kansas songs, along with "Song For America", which would appear as the title track to the band's next album. Sadly, it would be two years and three albums before Kansas would finally reach the big time nationally, with a song that almost didn't make it on an album. But that seemed to be a pattern with a lot of these upstart 70s-era Midwestern bands, like Styx and REO Speedwagon. The lack of support from the "Hip Police" at the nationally-syndicated rock magazines caused a lot of these bands to try and build a "grass roots" audience by word-of-mouth, in a part of the country that was demographically more conservative and much older than, say, people in San Francisco, and playing whatever hole-in-the-wall bar they could for people who would rather hear Lawrence Welk or George Jones. But the great thing is that many of these bands didn't sell out, didn't compromise, and stayed true to their sound, remaining decidedly non-commercial even when their record labels threatened to drop them. And for Kansas, their persistence eventually paid off, and the world finally began to see and understand what the people of their hometown of Topeka knew all along. And this major-label debut, as obscure and un-popular as it might have been at this time, is part of that great legacy and that great Kansas sound. . Kansas - Outstanding Progressive Rock Debut The mix of progressive rock, pop, and blues was the perfect combination. Kansas debut album was a slice of Americanized progressive rock that would set the stage for a career that would span over 30 years, and is still going strong. Kerry Livgren wrote most of the prog and Steve Walsh wrote the more straightforward rockers. Together they were a potent combination that gave Kansas a sound that was uniquely theirs. To this day there is no other band that sounds like Kansas. They concocted a style that has never really been duplicated. The debut album is divided into two halves. The first half contains more straight ahead rockers, like the single "Can I Tell You", a rousing cover of J. J. Cale's "Bringing Back From Mexico", the beautiful Steve Walsh ballad "Lonely Wind" the Livgren penned "Belexes". The second half of the album is all pure progressive rock; "Journey From Mariabronn", "The Pilgrimage", "Apercu" and the classic finale "Death Of Mother Nature Suite" which was used to close out the band's live shows for years. Any of the critics out there who don't think Kansas could stand up to their British progressive rock counterparts need to take a good listen to these last 4 tracks. They are simply stunning. The debut album is not the band's best, but it is a great one. The first one.... You can feel from now on how important this guys would be. The first one . What else can i say about Kansas? Is great . There is nothing in the American Rock in the 70's with a sound like that. . . "Journey from Maria Bronn" and "Death of mother nature suite" are my favourites in this REALLY GOOD album. . . . You can see a complete list of all Kansas discography, or go back to the Kansas tabs