SONG FOR AMERICA

After the identity-seeking debut album, Kansas gather for their second outing having truly found their sound. Gone are the faintly trite pop/rock songs, the almost folksy structures of some of the material on their first record and in its place is an almost fully developed signature sound. But before that happens, there's a small hangover in opening track Down the Road which is something of a throwaway but even as it faded, Livgren is drawing the big guns and with the bass and drums-led intro to 'Song for America' Kansas open fire in majestic style. A fluid, organic, epic of a song, the huge two minutes intro gives way via an intrirate little synth riff to a gorgeous melody. The band set up the song's mid-section with a craft synth solo before the arpeggiated solo piano kicks off a wonderful sequence of synth and violing solos before resolving back to the body of the song. A stone-cold classic that set the template for things to come. Tow other signature epics - Lamplight Symphony and Incomudro (an early Livgren song reworked in Kansas style) almost hit similar peaks and with the guitars-to-the-fore hard rock histrionics of Devil Game, Kansas serve up their first true classic. Clever, enldessly melodic, instrumentally adept, and with sterling production values it's an unmissable landmark in American prog rock.