Leftoverture

Kansas was unlike any other American band of their era. They could be every bit as grandiose as their UK-based prog peers Yes, Genesis and Jethro Tull, spinning out lengthy, multi-part suites carried by synth, acoustic guitar, high vocal harmonies and electric violin solos, but they had a crunching hard rock side, too. Leftoverture, their fourth album, opens with their best-known song, the classic rock staple “Carry On Wayward Son,” and closes with the nearly nine-minute, six-movement “Magnum Opus,” which includes a section called “Release the Beavers.” For every complex “heartland prog” epic, though, there’s a hard-charging rocker like “What’s On My Mind,” which is simultaneously boneheaded enough and heavy enough to be a Grand Funk Railroad track. And like GFR, they always had earnestness on their side.