Following two smash successes, Kansas would release their sixth studio album, Monolith, a year and a half later which is the longest length of time between releases so far. Between Point of Know Return and Monolith, the band recorded several of their live performances and released the songs on a record called Two for the Show. It's a great recording of an excellent live show with no studio overdubs. If you do want to track it down and give it a listen, look for the 30th anniversary edition which added a second CD of live tracks from the same era. I'll provide a tracklist for Two for the Show at the very end of this review, so you can know which songs are on it.
As far as their studio output is concerned, Kansas sort of settled into a groove that brought more of the same. It's not one of their best albums but it's by no means a bad one. I maintain that Kansas has never recorded a bad album, and just because one is more lackluster compared to albums like Leftoverture and Point of Know Return, that doesn't negate the quality of the album, itself. Kansas released eight quality songs that really sound like they could have been written during the Point of Know Return sessions and simply didn't make the cut. The lyrics on this album were partially inspired by The Urantia Book, which Livgren was devoted to before he converted to Christianity. According to Wikipedia, the word "Urantia" in that religion is the name of the planet Earth and the book intends to "present enlarged concepts and advanced truth." The book aims to unite religion, science, and philosophy, so as Livgren is an intellectual, it sounds like something that's right up his alley. I don't know much beyond that about The Urantia Book, but as Livgren converted to Christianity shortly after, it is evidently incompatible with the Christian faith.
The album starts off with On the Other Side, a song urging his listeners to find the truth (or what he believed to be the truth, at the time), but laments that people will often turn away from it because it's easier to avoid the question, despite knowing where to look and the answers being so simple. Musically, this song starts a more guitar-driven sound for the band that will continue to be utilized in the future. The keyboards and violin are still present and we are still treated to a lengthy instrumental section in an odd time signature.
After that we have People of the South Wind, a song that's more pop-oriented to try and appeal to more people and bring in more fans. The lyrics focus on the Kaw people, for whom the state of Kansas is named. It roughly translates to "people of the south wind". It was also the lead single from the album and earned modest success. According to the Wikipedia entry for this album, Rich Williams once called the song the band's "most pop moment", calling out the happy disco drum beat, whereas their songs were usually deeper, more introspective, and in a minor key.
Third comes Angels Have Fallen, a piano-led song which seems to be talking about someone who doesn't like to show people who he really is and acts differently around them, possibly for fear that they won't like him. It's up to him to search for people who are his "true friends", people who will accept him for who he is and not want him to try to be someone he's not. The lyrics of this song are one that I can definitely relate to.
Coming up next is How My Soul Cries Out for You, a blazing rocker that's simply about a man who realizes he needs his lover as much as she needs him, and his "soul cries out for her". The way they ended this song was kind of different. It mostly fades out, but then it starts to fade back in again, stopping at a much lower volume than the rest of the song, and then it speeds up like you're fast-forwarding a cassette tape, and then it moves on to the next song. It's not that rare for a rock song to fade out, but they kind of played with that a little here on this track.
After that we come to A Glimpse of Home. This is one of the longest tracks on the album but it's basically a straight-ahead rocker, with an extended guitar solo in the middle that never deviates from a 4/4 time signature. The song is about Christ, but the Christ of the Urantia book, not Christianity. Reflecting on it in his book, Seeds of Change, he would remember it as an irony that he thought he had found the answers he was searching for but in reality he still hadn't arrived yet. He found the title prophetic -- he had only attained a glimpse of home whereas finding the true source of joy was still a short ways off.
Coming up next is Away from You, a song that starts off with an organ intro slightly reminiscent of Boston's Foreplay intro to Long Time, before emerging with a fast strummed guitar for the verse and a swing feel for the chorus. This is a song about losing someone you care about and wanting to renew the relationship. He starts off reminiscing that as he looked forward in life when he was younger, he never would have known that "gambling with fate" would cause him to end up alone. But no matter how far he is apart from the one he loves, nothing can take him all the way away from her.
The penultimate song on this album is Stay Out of Trouble, a dirty rock song with chunky guitars reminiscent of their earlier songs Down the Road or Bringing it Back. The song is essentially what it sounds like. It's a song appealing to the protagonist to stay out of trouble. He's someone who has been hurt before and now that pain affects his relationships, or lack thereof, and might get him killed if he's not careful.
Finally, we have Reason to Be, another pop-oriented song with synthesized strings in the background which lends to it being a nicer, calmer track than they're used to playing. This is a song about finding your purpose in life, and once you do, everything else seems to fade away and the rest of your life, like a comedy. In light of A Glimpse of Home, we know that this feeling was temporary as Livgren was still a short time away from finding lasting peace and joy, but he would eventually find it, as would be evidenced by the next album Kansas released.
With eight songs, Monolith certainly isn't the album with the fewest songs on it (Song for America still claims that title, with six songs). In fact, in Kansas' first decade, eight songs was essentially the average number of songs for a Kansas album. Kansas, Masque, Leftoverture, and Monolith all have eight songs. Song for America has the fewest with six, and Point of Know Return has the most with ten. Monolith would close out Kansas' first decade on a less than stellar note, but still, after recording and releasing so many albums in such short succession, every album can't necessarily be a winner. Monolith is not a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely won't be one of the albums you return to first if you want to refresh yourself with their output from the 70's. A few months after this album was released, Kerry Livgren would find the Jesus of Christianity, and bassist Dave Hope would follow. Their next album would be where Livgren's newfound faith would start to appear in his music.
Album: Monolith (1979)
Band: Kansas
Phil Ehart -- drums
Dave Hope -- bass
Kerry Livgren -- guitars, keyboards
Robby Steinhardt -- violin, lead and backing vocals, anvil
Steve Walsh -- keyboards, lead and backing vocals
Rich Williams -- guitars
Track list:
01. On the Other Side (6:24) -- Livgren
02. *People of the South Wind (3:39) -- Livgren
03. Angels Have Fallen (6:37) -- Walsh (backing vocals by The O.K. Chorale)
04. How My Soul Cries Out for You (5:41) -- Walsh
05. A Glimpse of Home (6:34) -- Livgren
06. Away from You (4:23) -- Walsh
07. Stay Out of Trouble (4:12) -- Walsh, Steinhardt, Williams
08. *Reason to Be (3:51) -- Livgren
* denotes a single
Live Album: Two for the Show (1978)
Band: Kansas
Phil Ehart -- percussion
Dave Hope -- bass
Kerry Livgren -- keyboards & guitars
Robby Steinhardt -- violin and vocals
Steve Walsh -- vocals and keyboards
Rich Williams -- guitars
Track list:
Disc 1 (original version)
01. Song for America (from Song for America)
02. Point of Know Return (from Point of Know Return)
03. Paradox (from Point of Know Return)
04. Icarus -- Borne on Wings of Steel (from Masque)
05. Portrait (He Knew) (from Point of Know Return)
06. Carry on Wayward Son (from Leftoverture)
07. Journey from Mariabronn (from Kansas)
08. Dust in the Wind, ~acoustic guitar solo~ (from Point of Know Return)
09. *Lonely Wind, ~piano solo~ (from Kansas)
10. Mysteries and Mayhem (from Masque)
11. Excerpt from Lamplight Symphony (from Song for America)
12. The Wall (from Leftoverture)
13. Magnum Opus (from Leftoverture)
Disc 2 (30th anniversary re-release)
01. Hopelessly Human (from Point of Know Return)
02. Child of Innocence (from Masque)
03. Belexes (from Kansas)
04. Cheyenne Anthem (from Leftoverture)
05. Lonely Street (from Song for America)
06. Miracles Out of Nowhere (from Leftoverture)
07. ~drum solo~, The Spider (from Point of Know Return)
08. Closet Chronicles (from Point of Know Return)
09. Down the Road (from Song for America)
10. Sparks of the Tempest (from Point of Know Return)
11. Bringing it Back (from Kansas)
* denotes a single
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