LEFTOVERTURE

You could make a strong case for 1976 being the year when North America finally caught up with the whole prog thing, with two albums from the US and Canada released which which at last exhibited the same combination of artistic accomplishment and commercial success that the titans of British prog had been enjoying for some time at this point. One of those albums is Rush's 2112 and the other one is Leftoverture by Kansas.

On the album preceding this, Masque, Kansas seemed to be in an awkward spot where they seemed to struggle between indulging their prog instincts to the same extent they had on Song For America on the one hand, and on the other hand producing more commercial, radio-friendly material to keep their record company happy. Though the album included a number of strong moments, the sense that they were second-guessing themselves hampered the album.

Here, however, Kansas managed to square that particular circle through the simple means of sticking the most unabashedly commercial song on the album first and then spending the rest of the album indulging their prog side, with Magnum Opus being exactly that. Carry On Wayward Son is, of course, an absolute banger of a song - like Boston spun in a bit more of an art rock direction - but the rest of the album goes in a more classically-influenced vein (take early Genesis, take out the British whimsy, and add in some all-American swagger and you might end up in similar territory). Particularly pleasing is the prominence of Robby Steinhardt's violin at points, providing a crucial additional nuance.