Kansas-Leftoverture

RycheMan wrote: It was extremely difficult to choose one here, but in the end I went with The Wall. Maybe the great lyrics just gave it the edge.

Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - June 03 2006 at 22:51

Cheyenne Anthem

Miracles Out of Nowere really wakes my feelings up,  and it has really fine melodies. I like the entire album, but this is my favourite song.

A tough choice between "The Wall", "Cheyenne Anthem", and "Carry On Wayward Son". I went with "The Wall" because of it's overwhelming beauty and Walsh's passionate vocals. I love the ending, too. Great song! Great album! Definitely should rank higher than some of the mutts I've seen on the Top 100.

E

BTW if Kansas  can evoke so many "feelings" and do all these "wonderful" things to your senses through their songwriting skills and  musicality then why are they not mentioned at all in the top 100 albums on this site ? 


Edited by Masque - June 04 2006 at 01:57

Cheynne Anthem.

<<BTW: I agree with E-Dub, Leftoverture should rank much higher, but some progheads don't forgive that they are not Bristish and a few are ashamed to admit the like the band.>>

And not only that, but they're from midwest America and not from New York or Los Angeles. As a matter of fact Kerry Livgren still lives in Topeka, KS, which is only an hour west from where I live. He's even given his testimony at a church about a mile from my house. I think Walsh is from St. Joseph, MO (where Jesse James was killed), which is about an hour north of me.

E

E-Dub wrote: <BTW: I agree with E-Dub, Leftoverture should rank much higher, but some progheads don't forgive that they are not British and a few are ashamed to admit the like the band.> And not only that, but they're from midwest America and not from New York or Los Angeles. As a matter of fact Kerry Livgren still lives in Topeka, KS, which is only an hour west from where I live. He's even given his testimony at a church about a mile from my house. I think Walsh is from St. Joseph, MO (where Jesse James was killed), which is about an hour north of me. E

As for Kansas not rating higher because they're not British, I can say fairly confidently that is not the reason.

That said, I do know for a fact that there are many European, and particularly British prog fans who have listened to very little Kansas, and who do seem to be predisposed to dismiss the band as gauche, crass, sophmoric, etc. (not my words, I've seen them all used in reviews here and elsewhere). Since people's musical listening habits are not government or church regulated, at least not in most countries, there's not much to be done to change this.

A bigger issue, as is belabored in these forums on a fairly regular basis, is the slanted curve used to rate the top-XXX albums. Since a logrithm formula is used to determine position, emphasis is on quantity slightly more than on quality. For example -

The top-rated American album is Dream Theater's 'Scenes From a Memory...' at #16. That album has an overall rating of 4.26, or one one-hundredth higher than Leftoverture (4.25), which is currently listed in 123rd place (Point of Know Return is actually rated higher than either of these at 4.27 but is listed in 195th place).

So -

#16 Dream Theater (Scenes From a Memory) - 4.26
#123 Kansas (Leftoverture)                         - 4.25
#195 Kansas (Point of Know Return)             - 4.27

Dream Theater's album actually has more review ratings of 1 or 2 stars than Leftoverture has total ratings. ANother interesting note is that all three albums have 83% of their reviews rating them as 4 or 5 stars.

The big difference? 'Scenes' has 385 total reviews, while Leftoverture has only 80 and 'Point' has only 52.

There's also a lot of abuse going on with people giving ratings but no review to justify why. For example, the percentage of ratings of these three albums that have an accompanying review of 200 words or more:

#16 Dream Theater (Scenes From a Memory) - 27%
#123 Kansas (Leftoverture)                         - 48%
#195 Kansas (Point of Know Return)             - 54%

So pretty much everyone who's been on the forums for a while (or understands logrithmic math) knows that simply entering a bunch of ratings without bothering to write a review will inflate an album's position. I think you'll find that's how a lot of the Top-100 albums got there (not all - many of them are just damn good albums).

I actually take comfort in knowing that Kansas fans take the high road and don't adopt this practice just to get their albums high on the list. Frankly, I've said many times that we should get rid of that damn list and focus on rating reviews instead.   But, whatever.....

(edit - darn, I keep forgetting these - , , and ).

Edited by ClemofNazareth - June 04 2006 at 13:13

ClemofNazareth I agree with your post completely

The album is a classic.  All the songs are excellent to me.  I cannot pick a fave.