LEFTOVERTURE

THE classic Kansas album, it comes after a semi-dud, Leftoverture returns with the legendary logo and a Merlin-Ludwig DaVinci fantasy artwork and some dynamite songwriting. Still with the classic line-up, Leftoverture is the album that broke the group nationally and paved their way to international success. Part of the success of this album is the production, which managed to make this album sound unique and huge. This is the album that would be an inevitable reference to many future American bands (see last paragraph of my review), one that proved that US could also scream prog as well.

Opening on the anthemic hit Wayward Son despite its length (5-mins was unusual for radio-friendly hits) and backed with strong material like The Wall and Miracles Out Of Nowhere, but it is clearly the proggier Cheyene Anthem and Magnum Opus, both closing the album, that the group strikes gold with. However, the AOR sound is still very much present throughout the album, but then again, it wouldn't be Kansas without it, uh??

Of course this is their peak but As Mr Bonzo says in his review (now gone), it is hard to get used to this huge American sound., if you weren't bread with it Let's recognize that this is the album that will set the American Standard for decades to come (Starcastle, Cathedral, Spock's Beard, Somnambulist etc..) and is a downright classic. My fave track on this one is Cheyenne Anthem and of course Magnum Opus but I still think they had said most of it all on their debut album. A classic.