MONOLITH

It had to happen sometime?? Every band that has talent hits a spot where they have "Done it." They hit their artistic peak and what follows is usually lacking. Being a die hard Kansas fan starting with their debut, these guys were their own genre to a degree. Walsh, who has his progressive leanings is more a straight ahead rocker; Livgren was born into classical music with his grandmas old 78RPMs.

Each album from the first up through "Point Of No Return" encompassed the best of the progressive they could write. By the time this album hit there was a great deal happening in the band. Walsh and Livgren were putting together their first solo albums so one may wonder if they held back the better tracks for those and went with tracks that were not as impactful.

This is the first album that is produced by Kansas. That becomes evident to a degree to me. This album lacks the sophistication and originality that their previous albums did. They were risk takers and here they seem to be focused on more of an established formula. Upon hearing it when it first came out I was disappointed. It is hard to follow up the previous 2 albums. In retrospect years later I have grown more appreciative to the album. I normally prefer Livgren's entries more than Walsh's but in this case I think Steve had some better songs on here.

"How My Soul Cries Out" is a favorite with the hard driving beat and the ruckus in the middle followed by the 100MPH ending is good. On vinyl, side 2 starts out with the quick and faint reprise of the ending which I liked. "Away From You" and "Stay Out Of Trouble" are fair. They goofed by choosing "Southwind" as a single to start with and when it bombed they released "Reason To Be" as the next single which is the closest thing to "Dust" on the album.

Overall, the album is a signal that the band was declining. Drug use and the like had caught up to some of the members. Livgren was about to run into his conversion to Christianity which would cause a creative rift between Steve and himself. Kansas was about to hit a wall where they would never recover from. Honestly, "The Absence Of Presence", the 2021 entry that only has 2 original members is better than this album and fresher.