LEFTOVERTURE

Kansas

Symphonic Prog

4.23 | 1319 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Leftoverture is simply an excellent recording from Kansas. It's one of those albums that gets everything right and THEN SOME.

Leftoverture reads like a colourful marriage between prog, country, hard-rock and pop. They were always trying to marry these elements in their first few albums, but the difference is the delivery. On Leftoverture all these elements integrate and blend impeccably.

On top of that, the songwriting is simply first-classed. Songs such as "Opus Insert" and "Questions of my Chjildhood" are full of colourful proggy keyboard, violins, and typical progressive touches, yet these songs are as every bit as irresistible as the best pop music, for example "The Four Tops". Yes, that's right, these songs are as every bit as irresistible and exuberant as Motown or Brit-pop, AT THEIR BEST. I mean, what an achievement for progressive rock.

That Kansas created some hybrid was daring, but marrying the many conflicting elements so well and packaging is so appealingly is one of the great feats in music. And Steve Walsh performed soul and passion to bring the songs to life. Match that with Livgrens soul-searching lyrics, that are similar to Cat Stevens' lyrics, and you have one very worthy listen.

Other than the aforementioned songs, "Miracles out of nowhere" is also infectious as anything; "Carry on my wayward son" is a great rocker, "The Wall" is a very heartfelt song and the closing "Magnum Opus" is an all-out Prog track, that's actually a lot of fun. The "Cheyenne Anthem" is a slower song that isn't quite as good as the rest, but still fairly good, and "What's on my mind" is fun rocker, not much more. Given this, the album is worth about 4.5 stars.

This is kind of the best Kansas album, because prior albums didn't integrate their elements well, while later albums lost their progressive identity slowly. Also, it's hard to find an album as rewarding as this everyday, so I'd highly recommend it.

Brendan | 5/5 | 2011-6-24

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