When I started to listen Prog at the age of 12 (Around 1976 or 1977), already the golden era of Classic Symphonic Prog had ended, Genesis was trying to survive without Gabriel and Hackett, Going for the One was not what some of us expected and ELP was not the same band than in 1974.

The only remaining founder of the genre still to reach their peak was KANSAS and what better way to start a long term musical relation than with "Leftoverture", the album with which the Topeka kids reached the perfect balance between artistic quality and economic success, something hard in Progressive Rock because only a few bands of the genre managed to be popular without selling out and KANSAS is one of this strange cases.

Still some people try to dismiss the achievements of KANSAS, I read reviews in which they are called Pomp Rock, rednecks or mediocre AOR band, mostly from people who don't have the knowledge of what KANSAS did in their early years and probably only heard Dust in the Wind.

One of one of the main problems with this guys is that they were born in USA and not in big city but in the heart of the tornado corridor and committed the crime to use a slight touch of their native music (Country) in their albums, but except for some snobs this is not a sin, by the contrary the perfect mixture of Symphonic structure with Hard Rock and even Country Music made of this album one of the richest expressions of Progressive Rock.

Another problem is that they managed to be successful, well this was forgiven in Pink Floyd, Yes and even ELP but of course not in KANSAS, but at the end who cares for negative opinions if we can let their music prove the contrary.

"Leftoverture" is simply a great album, not a single filler or weak track, of course each one of us has our favorite tune, but all the songs are solid. The particular and nostalgic sound of the band relies in their beautiful melodies and in the rare fact that they left keyboards in the background giving Robby Steinhardt's violin the main role of the performance, they can rock hard and bring tears to our eyes without any problem, as I said before, the perfect balance.

It's hard to chose a favorite track because all are extremely good, but I always had a soft spot for "Miracles Out of Nowhere", the vocal duet between Robby and Steve Walsh in the peak of his vocal abilities is amazing, we're talking about a wonderful song, incredibly complex combined with a beautiful melody as few tracks in the genre.

Other great songs are the classic "Opus Insert" where Steve Walsh's voice is really amazing, after listening a few months ago I can't believe he was able to reach such a variety of different ranges without any problem and his work with the keyboards is also impeccable. Wouldn't be fair if I didn't mentioned Phil Ehart's perfect timing and precision with the drums, an underrated percussionist.

"Cheyenne Anthem" is another example of great and complex Symphonic structure that starts a bit soft, making us expect it's a nostalgic ballad about the native Americans but then the piano and Steve's vocals leads to a breathtaking instrumental section where KANSAS hit the listener with all they have and to close it Robby Steinhardt and his magic classical violin with a slight taste of country music add the required drama, another brilliant track.

Of course I can't forget about "Magnum Opus", a song that proves KANSAS released extremely elaborate music, dramatic time changes, synchronized team work between Robby plus the keyboards by Steve Walsh and Kerry Livegren. It's simply unbelievable that after listening this masterpiece, still some people want to lump them with all the AOR USA bands from late 70's/Early 80's,

I don't need to talk about the rest of the songs because there are enough reviews here and only must add that if you're not afraid of nostalgic and sensible music, with extreme Hard Rock sections, this is your album but if you believe that popularity and melodic Prog suck, better don't buy "Leftoverture" because you will be disappointed.

I'm in the first group of Progheads and honestly believe this album is a forgotten gem that should be in the top 10 or 20 albums of any Progressive Rock catalogue.

Five solid stars for a solid album.

Despite wondering how wonderful this could have sounded with Hackett still around to soften its edges and further advance the searing guitars that leak in and out of the tracks, '...And Then There Were Three...' still stands as a superb album. The three piece most certainly moved onward to new ground here - while still retaining the sense that they were offering a complete package, for the first time in their 70s material Genesis were out to empower their shorter pieces more than anything else, so this is very much an album of separates, with little thematic continuity from track to track. But this is by no means a hindrance to the record, and there are some intriguing moments captured here that can't be found anywhere else in the band's history.

The music almost feels like a natural progression from the heavy synth and drum-led prog of 'Wind And Wuthering', now refined into smaller bursts of energy. The opener 'Down And Out' firmly states this, moving from its tense, fragile synth (very much an introduction for the album and not just the track) into a veritable overdrive of marching drums and guitar, rolling in and out of step, laden with Banks' favourite key sounds of the time. If you're playing the record at the proper volume, you'd have to seriously be looking the other way to miss the power here, as Phil launches into a rendering of some ruthless executive imparting his 'wisdom' to players in danger of being ousted by the times - applicable of course to the music business as much as anything else.

This is followed up by the beautiful 'Undertow', a Tony Banks piece featuring both his thoughtful lyrics as well as the trademark washes of piano and synth. It's worth mentioning the credit that must go to the band and David Hentschel for managing to mix so many dense sounds together equally without completely burying the drums and the vocals, particularly in the chorus strains of this piece about surviving through 'dark nights of the soul', where Phil's aching vocal fights a wall of sound from Banks. This effect is mirrored in the Rutherford piece 'Snowbound', a fairytale-like piece in which hides a glimpse of something sinister and quite sad, where in the ending the distant calls for the snowman ring out against a backdrop of soaring, thick, undulating synth waves that Tangerine Dream would have been proud of (let it be a commentary on the quality of this album that even though my favourite Genesis era is the earlier era, and my favourite albums are Trick and The Lamb, 'Snowbound' is still among my favourite tracks).

The priceless offerings continue with tracks like the towering 'Burning Rope', 'Deep In The Motherlode', 'Many Too Many', and 'Say It's Alright Joe', all offering more excitement, dynamics, and moving lyricism in their short minutes than entire albums by the band would achieve in later times. Rutherford handles all the guitar duties rather well, and even though Hackett's absence is obvious, the usual range of sounds can still be found, from delicate 12-string passages to pronounced soloing (check out the awesome break in 'Burning Rope').

If there are blemishes on the album, they would be the somewhat pointless story of 'Ballad Of Big' (a shame, since the piece is musically very strong), and the pop song 'Follow You Follow Me', where the band create a simplistic summary of their own style and run with one hook melody while Phil sings in a mode nobody ever really wanted to hear Genesis enter... it's not 'More Fool Me', and it's not even 'Your Own Special Way', this is a one dimensional love song. For shame, lads. Four and a half stars - a half star off for closing this majestic album with a turkey.