Leftoverture is the fourth studio album by American Rock music band Kansas, released in 1976. The album was reissued in remastered format on CD in 2001. It was the band's first album to be certified by the RIAA, and remains their highest selling album, having been certified 5 times platinum in the United States.
Background
Steve Walsh began to experience writer's block prior to the recording, and his contribution to the album would ultimately be limited to co-authoring three songs; it fell on
Kerry Livgren to fill the void.
The new compositions retained much of the classically inspired complexity of Livgren's previous work.
As with their previous album,
Masque, Kansas recorded
Leftoverture at Studio in the Country in Bogalusa, Louisiana. The Studio in the Country was so named because, as Livgren described on
In the Studio with Redbeard radio show in the episode spotlighting
Leftoverture, "it was in the middle of a swamp. We'd walk out of the studio and there would be
alligator in front of the studio,
mosquitos the size of B-52s and at times
would run into the control room."
Leftoverture opens with the song "Carry On Wayward Son", which Livgren wrote as a sequel to "The Pinnacle", the final song from the previous album Masque (1975).
The album's title, Leftoverture, is a portmanteau of leftover and overture.
Reception
The album was met with mixed reviews.
Rolling Stone called
Leftoverture Kansas's best album to date, and said that it "warrants Kansas a spot right alongside Boston and Styx as one of the fresh new American bands who combine hard-driving group instrumentation (with a dearth of flashy solos) with short, tight melody lines and pleasant singing."
The magazine
Playboy reviewed the album as "extremely strong" and lauded Kansas for representing "the solid, Midwestern values of our vast musical heartland."
In contrast,
Robert Christgau said the album lacked the intelligence and conviction of European progressive rock, and that the self-deprecating humor implied in the song and album titles is completely absent from the record itself.
More recently, AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that the album contains "neither hooks nor true grandiosity to make it interesting" and, despite the great single "Carry On Wayward Son", the fact that Kansas "never manage to rival it anywhere on this record is as much a testament to their crippling ambition as their lack of skills."
Classic Rock History critic Brian Kachejian rated "The Wall" as Kansas' all-time best song, as well as rating "Carry On Wayward Son" number 2 and "Miracles Out of Nowhere" number 5.
Ronnie Platt, who became Kansas' lead singer in 2014, rated three songs from Leftoverture as being among his 10 favorite Kansas songs – "Carry On Wayward Son", "The Wall" and "Miracles Out of Nowhere".
Track listing
Personnel
- Kansas
-
Steve Walsh – Electric organ, piano, additional synthesizers, vibraphone, lead and backing vocals, congas.
-
Kerry Livgren – electric guitar, piano, clavinet, Moog synthesizer, Oberheim and ARP Instruments
-
Robby Steinhardt – violin, viola, lead vocals on "Miracles Out of Nowhere" and "Cheyenne Anthem", backing vocals
-
Rich Williams – electric and acoustic guitars
-
Dave Hope – bass guitar
-
Phil Ehart – drums, percussion
- Additional personnel
-
Toye LaRocca, Cheryl Norman – children's voices on "Cheyenne Anthem"
- Production
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
