If Leftoverture was the album that really broke Kansas, this was the one that thrust them into superstardom. The thing is, again they did it without sacrificing their progressive rock roots. This is really quite a great album and prog purists should be able to appreciate this. Sure it’s got the mega hit of all time “Dust in the Wind” on it, but it also has “Closet Chronicles.” I wouldn’t say that this is quite as consistent as Leftoverture, but it’s still very strong. I’d probably put this as the second “must have” disc in the Kansas catalog.

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The extended instrumental introduction on this is quite cool. It fires off in a standard Kansas prog rock jam, but then shifts into a playful, slightly odd bit that reminds me a bit of Pentwater. They launch into the song proper and it’s a fast paced jam with a very catchy (and yet dramatic and powerful) vocal hook. This is a great piece of music with a number of interesting changes and alterations and one of my favorites from the band in general, let alone on this disc. There are some great violin dominated segments on this and a killer guitar solo.

Coming up with a keyboard dominated grind that leads out of “The Spider,” this track was always a big hit, but also always one of my favorite Kansas tracks. Say what you like about this band, but they had a way of taking progressive rock music and building it around catchy vocal lines and making hits out of them. There’s plenty of great instrumental work throughout, but the main song section is a hard rocking, straightforward grind. The power house jam that closes this track is great – if a bit short.

In many ways I’d say that this track, more than any other is the biggest influence Kansas had on the neo-prog movement – and for my money Kansas is one of the biggies in that trick bag. This is quite metallic and yet very neo-classical. I can hear a lot of Deep Purple on this (especially on a few of the instrumental segments), but still done as trademark Kansas. I could see someone having a reluctance to call this something other than progressive rock. Indeed it’s probably the closest to heavy metal the band ever got. It’s also a screaming track that’s very cool.

A triumphant sounding prog rock introduction that’s quite symphonic leads this off and then it drops down to quite a mellow and balladic piece of music. This is a very evocative number and before it’s over they take us through a series of wonderful prog rock excursions. The closing fanfare is wondrous, but too short-lived.