lördag 4 Jun 2011, 5:05

Okay, time for another review of the album of the week. According to my charts on Last.fm, the real album of the week should be Saxon's Very Best of -album, but collections and best of's don't count as proper albums, since they have songs from many albums. Also live albums are out of the question for the same reason. So, as we have set these few groundrules, the album which I've been listening to the most during the timeline of May 23. to 29. is:

Kansas - Leftoverture
Like I suspected last week, Kansas pretty much ruled my charts last week. As I'm heading to Sweden Rock festival next week and they are the main reason why I'm going there, I've been listening to their albums and songs a lot lately. I've also checked their latest setlists from Setlist.fm and noticed that major part of their sets are from this album. And I don't wonder why, it has classics after classics.
I bet that everyone knows the album opener Carry On Wayward Son. Everybody knows this song, but not that many actually know the band who performs it.
Album continues with another live classic The Wall, which has great melodies and mellow feeling. This is followed by good rock tune What's On My Mind.
Then comes the albums first epic song,
Miracles Out of Nowhere with great melodies and vocal harmonies by Robby Steinhardt and Steve Walsh.
Next track, Opus Insert, has some interesting parts, showing the more progressive side of the band.
After the uptempo Questions of my Childhood, album closes with two epics and live classics, Cheyenne Anthem and Magnum Opus, which show more of the progressive side of their songwriting, much in the style of their previous albums. For me they are the highlights of the album. Together with the opener, of course.

With this album Kansas took a direction from progressive and experimental songwriting to more commercial and straightforward sound and songstructure. It paid off, as this is their biggest selling record to date. The songs manage to have some elements of prog-rock, but still be catchy and easy to approach.
Bloody good album, I highly recommend this. And while you're at it, try Point of Know Return, the follow up for Leftoverture.