Kansas : Ranking the Studio Albums (Cretin Classics)

Today I rank the 15 studio albums of the amazing American progressive-rock band Kansas. I've been a fan for over four decades and love most of their outstanding output. Kerry Livgren is a stellar songwriter and Steve Walsh had one of the best voices in rock. The band is still going strong today more than fifty years after their inception.
00:00 Introduction
03:57 Album Ranking
36:29 Physical Media & Live Albums
Rock Out and Prog On!

[@brandon1351]

Was good to see you on Tim’s vinyl confession’s ✌️hope to see more videos and guest appearances in future. Tuning in from 🇦🇺

[@stevemurrell6167]

Great assessment of the Kansas catalogue. Kansas are fantastic, I have a lot of their albums on LP, mainly their early ones and their later ones, none of their 80's ones.....basically only their proggy ones. I have all their albums on CD because I bought the box set.

[@Rocker_65]

Very nice video Davey. I'm a prog Rock lover myself, have listened about 4000 prog albums. For me, Kansas is the best prog band US produced. I consider "Two For The Show" (1978) one of the 10 best prog live albums ever made and their best work. Just after that in No 2, "Point Of Know Return" an album which is simply put, breathtaking. I use to listen to it from start to finish without interrupting. No 3 "Leftoverture" which is loaded with classics. Admittedly, I've not listened all their output though. But I want to share something with you :
KANSAS themselves, have reportedly admitted that they 'd been influenced by TOUCH, some other psych/prog group who released their sole self titled album in 1969. YES and URIAH HEEP mentioned them too. I own this '60s relic and it's really fantastic, a masterpiece. Maybe, the first US proto-prog album.
Many thanks.

[@DeanGuenther9708]

Nice show!!!

[@IraSiegel]

Absence of Presence is an underrated gem. Was a bright spot for me in a terrible year. Nice ranking.

[@frankdeideutschrockpop2832]

I'm from Germany... and I love Kansas

[@carlwmpylu]

I like all of Kansas' albums. No duds in the catalogue for me. Here's how I'd rank them (today, at least!):
15. The Prelude Implicit - 3/5
14. The Absence Of Presence - 3/5
13. Debut - 3/5
12. Freaks Of Nature - 3.5/5
11. Song For America - 4/5
10. Masque - 4/5
9. Monolith - 4.5/5
8. Audio Visions - 5/5
7. Point Of Know Return - 5/5
6. Vinyl Confessions - 5/5
5. In The Spirit Of Things - 5/5
4. Drastic Measures - 5/5
3. Somewhere To Elsewhere - 5/5
2. Power - 5/5
1. Leftoverture - 5/5

[@gregggyf]

Good Evening Davey,
Very good review on Kansas, thank you.
I just did a comparison between this video and your previous one and I might have been mistaken when I mentioned during the last video that the volume was low,... so the verdict is,...
I WAS/AM MISTAKEN. : )
Do have a good rest of the weekend.

[@daveycretin664]

Thanks for your feedback, l appreciate it. I’m actually trying a new piece of equipment for my next video so we’ll see how that one sounds. Cheers!

[@kkeenan5618]

Nice job! I definitely agree with your top 3.

[@daveycretin664]

And here I thought I had a contrarian view. Thank you for watching and confirming the exceptional excellence of that particular platter. Cheers!

[@michaelryan5364]

My family moved to Kansas when I was 7 years old. I took an instant dislike to the band Kansas and have not heard an entire song of theirs in decades.