Kansas (Kansas album)

The album cover depicts abolitionist John Brown in a scene from Tragic Prelude, a mural by Kansas native John Steuart Curry.[2] The original mural is painted on a wall at the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka. The album cover image is severely discolored and cropped to show only a small part of the original painting.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
ProgressiveWorld.net	[4]

In a contemporary review for New Musical Express, Max Bell wrote that, despite Kansas having all the elements for subtlety, "bristling with hard rock commonplace, speed and beat, they rapidly cancel any hints of originality", showing a lack of personality which transforms the listening of the album in a boring enterprise.[5]

AllMusic's retrospective review gave the nod to the band's mix of progressive rock and boogie rock as being unique, but contended that it also makes them less interesting than other progressive rock bands. They also criticized their ambitiousness as being overdone: "there're a lot of scales and arpeggios, galloping triplets, dramatic organ, and stately ballads that signify nothing and go nowhere."[3]

Tom Karr at ProgressiveWorld.net described the album as "an outstanding debut, a brilliant display of song writing and musicianship, and a great statement of Kansas's musical ethos." He felt that the song "Aperçu" has "Kansas at their best, with frequent use of time and tempo changes, and well developed musical themes, showing a group of outstanding players and arrangers. The level of instrumental virtuosity displayed here is jaw dropping, and on either side of the Atlantic, there were few that could even hope to approach Kansas's mastery of their craft." He defined "Journey From Mariabronn" as "Kansas's first full-on symphonic rock masterpiece, and the song has so many strong elements and themes, it goes beyond any simple analysis. This song provides the paradigm for the great works of the future, and introduces the writing style that would produce the wonderful songs of Kansas's early discography."[4]

Ranking on the Billboard album chart as high as #174, the Kansas album in the months subsequent to its release in the spring of 1974 sold over 135,000 units.[6] The platinum success of Kansas' fourth and fifth album releases: Leftoverture (1976) and Point of Know Return (1977), revived commercial interest in the band's early output, it being reported in January 1978 that both the albums Kansas and Song for America had at that point each sold between 300,000 and 400,000 units, with the third Kansas album: Masque (1976), having been certified Gold for sales of 500,000 units the previous month:[7] both Kansas and Song for America would eventually be certified Gold for selling 500,000 units, Song for America as early as 1980 but Kansas not until 1995.

Kansas

• Steve Walsh – piano, organ, Fender Rhodes, congas, lead and backing vocals
• Kerry Livgren – guitars, piano, organ, Moog synthesizer, backing vocals
• Robby Steinhardt – violin, lead and backing vocals
• Rich Williams – electric and acoustic guitars
• Dave Hope – bass, backing vocals
• Phil Ehart – drums

Additional musicians

• Jay Siegel (from The Tokens) – vocals on "Lonely Wind"

Production

• Wally Gold – producer
• Dan Turbeville – engineer
• Kevin "Whip" Herron & Jimmy "Shoes" Iovine – assistant engineers
• Tom Rabstenek, Greg Calbi – mastering
• Ed Lee – cover design
• John Steuart Curry – cover painting
• Don Hunstein – back cover photo
• Jeff Glixman, Jeff Magid – remastered edition producers