Published on Jul 11, 2000
When Kansas fans heard earlier this year that the “classic”
lineup — including guitarist Kerry Livgren — was reuniting for
their first album together in 17 years, they must have pinched
themselves to see if they were dreaming. This was, after all, the
Kansas that most people know, pumping out songs like “Dust In The
Wind” and “Point Of Know Return.”
But if you expect their “reunion” album,
Somewhere To Elsewhere, to be the return to top-40 form that
some people might be looking for, you’re going to be disappointed.
That’s kind of what I expected the first time I listened to the
disc — and walked away shaking my head. (“Reunion” — I know, the
wrong word to use, as Kansas has never gone away all these
years.)
The truth is that you need to approach this disc in two ways:
first, you need to look at it as a progressive rock album, one that
doesn’t give a rip whether radio touches it or not. Second, you may
choose to approach it as if it were a solo album by Livgren
featuring some very special guest performers, as Livgren is
responsible for all 10 songs (though I don’t know who to blame for
the 90-second throwaway “bonus” track).
The showpiece of the album, “Icarus II,” is a narrative based on
the true story of a pilot who ordered his crew to abandon their
war-damaged plane while he guided the wreckage away from American
troops. This isn’t the type of song that will hook you on the first
listen — and I kind of expected it to have those hooks. But when
you hear vocalist Steve Walsh ring out with “I’m going home” near
the end of the song, that’s when the magic is clearly visible in
this track. With each successive listen, I’ve found new things to
like in this track.
Other tracks like “Grand Fun Alley” and “Myriad” hint that
Kansas still knows how to write a melody that would set a radio
programmer’s mouth drooling. But make no mistake, Kansas doesn’t
seem to be interested in writing hit singles on
Somewhere To Elsewhere; the focus is on the music and how
the band translates the movements of the songs. “Myriad,”
therefore, becomes less of a hit single and one of prog-rock’s
finer moments of the last few years.
Livgren’s religious views occasionally show their head on
Somewhere To Elsewhere, but they never dive into preachiness
or anything that may turn a listener off. But there most definitely
is a spiritual aspect in songs like “The Coming Dawn (Thanatopsis)”
and “Byzantium” that makes the songs quite pretty, and allows them
to be heard on several different levels.
Yet
Somewhere To Elsewhere suggests that Kansas is not quite as
comfortable in their familiar skin as they would like to be. Tracks
like “Disappearing Skin Tight Blues” and “Not Man Big” just don’t
have the spark that one might expect in an album so eagerly
awaited. “Disappearing Skin Tight Blues” actually sounds out of
place when compared to the musical richness of tracks like “Icarus
II,” and suggests that the band may have been trying a little too
hard on this one to make it sound like a top 40 possibility.
And while many people are falling over themselves to praise
“When The World Was Young” as the potential hit single, I honestly
didn’t find myself captivated with this track. It’s not bad, but it
doesn’t have those magical qualities that I heard in other songs
like “Myriad.”
Somewhere To Elsewhere is an interesting portrait of a band
nearly 25 years removed from their hit single glory days, and it
makes me wonder what they would have been capable of had they kept
this lineup together all these years. Maybe some of the directions
you can hear the music move in would have seemed more natural in
hindsight. Still, it’s hardly a poor effort, and while there is
still some tentativeness, the disc suggests that the band still has
the magic that made them superstars. Here’s hoping this disc is a
first step for the “classic” lineup.