At the coal face for more than half a century, without ever quite becoming giants, Kansas deserve reconsideration, and this double live album shows why.
Still with original drummer Phil Ehart and Rich Williams, lead guitarist since 1973, their COVID-19-halted 2019-20 tour was a showcase for Point Of Know Return, their best and best-selling album, plus assorted catalogue picks from 1974’s Lonely Wind to the 2016 pair Refugee and the elegiac Summer.
The band are musically impeccable, of course, and they’re on inspired and spirited form. Vocalist Ronnie Platt is Steve Walsh-esque without being a clone, David Ragsdale’s violin adds depth, and Williams still sizzles.
- “I came into the studio on the last day and said, ‘I think you better hear this one.’ It was kind of a curse.” When Kansas cracked the charts with a song they didn’t want to record
- “Has his voice withstood the test of time? The answer is an emphatic yes”: Jon Anderson effortlessly recreates the best of Yes on new album Live – Perpetual Change
Carry On Wayward Son retains its magnificence, but Closet Chronicles and the epic Miracles Out Of Nowhere run it close, while Hopelessly Human climaxes with tubular bells, and Dust In The Wind, their only US Top 10 hit really ought to be a standard by now. Excellent.
