what's so special about...

Took me only 10 years to fully appreciate it.

richardh wrote: Its their Tales From Topographic Oceans

Which to some people is not necessarily a good thing.

TTFO was sent on its way a while back but thanks to this thread I have since acquired another three Yes albums I enjoy. I'm only up to the second GG album as yet so am leaving this one for now. It's been a very useful discussion so far though and I now have just over half the albums, the only one I don't want to keep being Hemispheres which sounds to me more like the beginning of a second wave of prog and doesn't fit in with the rest of my collection.

"What's so special about "Leftoverture"?"

Horizons wrote: Bleh never was too found of it. Point of Know Return is 10000x better.

10,000 times better...? Did you arrive at that via a  'math rock' computation?  

I like their debut and Somewhere To Elsewhere most. Leftoverture depressingly is almost completely lacking any sort of dynamics and so for me never gets off the ground although I like Carry On Wayward Son. Great band though and they cleverly navigated the territory between prog and AOR.

Leftoverture's nothing special really. "Carry On My Wayward Son" is a great track for the radio to have in the background, but doesn't offer anything the more times you listen to it. The rest of the album is pretty similar, except less catchy riffs and hooks 

I remember "Carry On My Wayward Son" - "similar, but less catchy" hasn't persuaded me to buy this one.

Kansas may not have offered something that may appeal to the tastes of many prog rockers on this forum (and I don't like Leftoverture either) but they basically filled a niche where there wasn't much similar stuff on offer.  They combined Deep Purple-like guitar with very, very clean (almost wailing), melodic vocals.  Um, that combination usually doesn't work for me but it appeals to people who want the rock in their prog at all times.  Although Rush influenced prog metal a lot more, I would say in a sense Kansas too were forerunners to 90s prog metal. Especially some songs of Symphony X, like Accolade, evoke Kansas for me.  

I personally never understood the attraction to Hogarth-era Marillion. I'm so often left wondering "What's so special about Hogarth?" Of course, I like Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, and Mosley, but I always felt that the band would have sounded better with a female vocalist and just have gone in a different direction. The female vocalist would have to have a strong voice, but with enough sweetness to let you know this is Marillion. I know, I know wishful thinking. :)