Masque

Yes, I plead guilty to "Masque" still being my favorite Kansas album. This was their third album, released in October of 1975, which came right before the group broke into the big time with "Leftoverture" and "Point of No Return." While "Masque" certainly foreshadows the musical direction that would make Kansas the best American progressive-rock bad (almost by default given the predominance of British groups in the genre), it is lyrically a much darker effort because the songs by Kerry Livgren stand out more than the lighter attempts by Steve Wash. Besides, Livgren's darker mood was better served by Robby Steinhardt's violin work. The showpiece of the album is "Icarus--Borne on the Wings of Steel," which is clearly the group's attempt to make their mark. It also contains ironic overtones because their future with their label was in doubt and the metaphorical appropriateness of the classic myth of Icraus must have seemed palatable to them at the time. I suppose in the final analysis it is not the best song Kansas ever did, but it was certainly the most ambitious, with the heavily layered guitars and keyboard work.

"Masque" was a concept album, complete a definition of the title: "A disguise of reality created through a theatrical or musical performance." Ironically, the opening track, Walsh's "It Take's a Woman's Love (To Make a Man)" is the one song that does not fit the rest of the efforts. Walsh and Steinhardt's "All the World" is another ambitious effort, speaking of themes of loneliness and death, while "Child of Innocence" is more in the basic hard rock vein. The mythological references in "Icarus" are counterbalanced by the Biblical allusions in "Mysteries and Mayhem," and the album concludes with another mini-epic in "The Pinnacle."

The album also features some truly memorable cover art. The painting, entitled "Water," is by a sixteenth-century Italian artist, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, and consists of a face created out of a grand menagerie of sea creatures pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle. From a distance it always looked to me like a Native American medicine man. The effect of the painting is decidedly disturbing, which ends up matching the mood of the lyrics. The updated released of "Masque" contains previously unreleased demo versions of "Child of Innocence" and "It's You," both of which are slightly longer than the original and neither of which warrants upgrading the rating of the album.

Already having been 'exposed' to the music of this superb American band (huge in their own country) with an initial-release edition of their terrific 4th album ('Leftoverture') way back in the mid-70s, then reaching a high-point after acquiring their 5th album, 'Point of Know Return' I hankered for more.

Delving into their catalogue, I then got hold of this album - 'Masque', and was left no less satisfied as it is excellent; despite it not being all that well received, it is my 2nd favourite Kansas album.

Alongside Saga, Kansas still sits atop my list of favourite Rock groups - it is notable perhaps that both these bands are still going, where others have fallen or disintegrated, but admittedly with slightly different personnel as this group suffered from a lot of 'relationship hiatus' over the years. I was privileged to see the band perform live back in the early '90s (in a double-concert with my equal favourite group, along with Kansas, 'Saga') and they are even better live than when in the studio.

Although yet to reach the height of their popularity, 'Masque' for me contains all that is good about Kansas - but whenever I listen to it I am left a little confused. It is as though after 'Masque' the group made a diversion to the musical style of 'Leftoverture', before returning to the familiar territory explored with 'Masque' - with 'Point of Know Return' being the result. This is a highly rhythmical and powerful piece of work, but it only reached a chart position of 70; I think this is probably because there are no tracks which were real contenders for being singles, so the exposure it got never provoked great interest. Nothing about the album production suggests a weakness, after all the combination of the marvellous lead-singer Steve Walsh and guitarist/keyboardist Kerry Livgren remain the dominant songwriters....

Although labelled a rock group, Kansas is slightly non-conformist since they include a violinist (yes, I know ELO also had strings !) and, on this album, the previous 'main core' of synthesizer/guitar is expanded to include that instrument far more, as well as lead vocals from the violinist Robby Steinhardt, together with more prominent piano work - there does of course continue to be the presence of bass, organ and drums. However, as hinted at earlier the key ingredient is the singing voice of Walsh, who I think is easily one of the best male vocalists to ever feature in a popular band.

The album opens with the most commercial song on offer, the enjoyable and bouncy 'It Takes a Woman's Love' - yet despite repeated attempts the track failed to provoke interest in the album. The similarly energetic 'Two Cents Worth' follows before the powerful 'Icarus - Borne on Wings of Steel' and emotionally-charged 'All the World' (these latter two tracks ultimately, and justifiably, becoming favourites of Kansas aficionados despite the lack of enthusiasm for the album as a whole !). The following track, 'Child of Innocence', is in my opinion the least successful on the album and lacks refinement but is still perfectly listenable; I feel a similar but less negative feeling about 'It's You', which follows - although it is strangely rather short at only just over 2 mins running time. Normal service is resumed with the only true 'rock' song on the album, 'Mysteries and Mayhem', which is dominated by prominent vocals and guitar work.

Then, as if by design, the last track marks a high-point of real distinction - and it is called 'The Pinnacle'. Another fan favourite, and as suggested my favourite from the album, it possess all the attributes that are good about Kansas - namely an identifiable story, extrovert emotions, a style (with instrumental/vocal interludes) similar to the best the group has produced and a worthwhile duration to cover all those positive aspects.

For some the music from this mid-'70s album might be showing it's age, but either through nostalgia or basic recognition of quality rock music most should see it for that it actually is : an excellent album, which might have proven to have less popular appeal but still contains many memorable songs and no true duds. I can't say how the remastered CD, with some bonus tracks, now offered sounds as I'm quite happy with my original, rather old but very cherished, CD and tatty vinyl LP ! Whilst not the first album by Kansas that you should audition, I still think it is an essential purchase along with the other 6 of their first 7 albums: 'Kansas', 'Song for America', 'Leftoverture', 'Point of Know Return', 'Monolith' and 'Audio-Visions' (and to experience them live, ''Two for the Show''). Or better still, get the good-value boxset with most of them included !

Boxset - Original Album Classics

Kansas
Song for America
Leftoverture
Point of Know Return
Monolith
Audio Visions
Two for the Show or the full-vesion Two for the Show: 30th Anniversary Edition [Us Import]