Somewhere to Elsewhere

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Struggling through lineup changes, public indifference and ever-slippery fashions through the 1980s and '90s, the members of Kansas have largely stayed true to their vision and a stubborn core of supporters. Somewhere to Elsewhere rewards that patience with a 20-years-after reunion of the band's original line-up. Kicking off with the would-be sequel, "Icarus II," the suitably heroic tale of a World War II bomber crew, Kansas rumbles through all their musical trademarks: Steve Walsh's soaring vocal display (though the years have slightly curtailed its cruising altitude), thunderous guitar breaks that prove guitarists Kerry Livgren and Richard Williams have indeed heard of Metallica, and some strenuous noodling by violinist Robby Steinhardt. It's a throwback to the band's original vision, one that argues you can go home again, even if that's a place that's been distinctly changed by time. In short, long-time fans should find it a pleasant return to form. --Jerry McCulley

Tracks:

Icarus II
When The World Was Young
Grand Fun Alley
The Coming Dawn (Tranatopis)
Myriad
Look At The Time
Disappearing Skin Tight Blues
Distant Vision
Byzantium
Not Man Big
Bonus Track 1

Amazon.com

Struggling through lineup changes, public indifference and ever-slippery fashions through the 1980s and '90s, the members of Kansas have largely stayed true to their vision and a stubborn core of supporters. Somewhere to Elsewhere rewards that patience with a 20-years-after reunion of the band's original line-up. Kicking off with the would-be sequel, "Icarus II," the suitably heroic tale of a World War II bomber crew, Kansas rumbles through all their musical trademarks: Steve Walsh's soaring vocal display (though the years have slightly curtailed its cruising altitude), thunderous guitar breaks that prove guitarists Kerry Livgren and Richard Williams have indeed heard of Metallica, and some strenuous noodling by violinist Robby Steinhardt. It's a throwback to the band's original vision, one that argues you can go home again, even if that's a place that's been distinctly changed by time. In short, long-time fans should find it a pleasant return to form. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews:

Kansas - The Band's Best Album In Years.......2007-06-28

It took 5 more years, but Kansas finally came out with a new studio album of material in 2000. The unique thing about the disc is all of the original members of the band appear on it and Kerry Livgren wrote all the material. The core members of Kansas circa 2000 were Steve Walsh, Phil Ehart, Billy Greer, Rich Williams and Robby Steinhardt who had come back to the band after the departure of David Ragsdale. Kerry Livgren and Dave Hope were not part of the touring band, although Livgren is all over the album and it was recorded at his home studio. So how is the album? In my opinion "Somewhere To Elsewhere" ranks right up with the band's all time best. I really really like it and think every song here is a good one. Walsh's voice is not quite what it used to be, but he still sounds good for the most part here. Livgren contributes some of his best songwriting in years (his solo / group outings are very inconsistent), as he brings the band to a more modern sound in places. The music is typical strong Kansas, the band sounds as good as ever instrumentally. With Steinhardt back in the fold, along with Billy Greer the 3 part vocal harmonies are probably the strongest of Kansas career. Greer and Steinhardt share lead vocal duties with Walsh on several songs. Highlights of the album for me include; "Icarus II" which is a cool sequel to the original song from the "Masque" album about a world war II pilot. "Myriad" is a melodic rocker. "Look At The Time" has Billy Greer on lead vocals and almost sounds like psychedelic era Beatles. "Disappearing Skin Tight Blues" is a great song with Robby on lead vox, and Kansas patented use of blues mixed with prog. "Byzantium" is another cool progressive rocker. Really every song on the disc is good to great. Even the weaker tracks like "Grand Fun Alley" and "Not Man Big" grow on you with repeated listens. I love this album and rank it right up with Kansas best. If you are a Kansas fan and never picked this one up you owe it to yourself to do so. If you are looking to explore Kansas in the modern era this would be a great place to start.

Somewhere to Elsewhere comes out of Nowhere....to be pretty good........2006-06-27

Featuring the classic lineup of Kansas ("Kansas is still..."), the sextet of Ehart, Livgren, Walsh, Hope, Williams and Steinhardt is joined by recent bass player Billy Greer to produce a very nice comeback cd that mostly follows in the footsteps of their classic 70's style.

Steve Walsh's voice sounds a bit rougher and older (surprise!) these days, but he can still put most modern prog singers to shame with his vocal range and emotive style. Steinhardt's vocals sound superb.

For me, this album got stronger as it went along. The opener "Icarus II" is a pretty good song with great lyrics, but I wish they hadn't resorted to the 90's-sounding heavy-chugging metal guitar sounds in the middle of the song (as well as on a couple of other spots on the cd). The next two songs are more in the "bar band" style that they go to a couple of times on most albums (think "Down the Road" or "Stay Out Of Trouble").

Then the more progressive/jazzy stuff for which Kansas gained the favor of progheads starts to emerge in tracks like "Myriad", "Distant Vision" and "Byzantium". Another good bluesy number ("Disappearing...") and the radio-friendly "Look at the Time" keep the album interesting. However, the finale "Not Man Big" is not in my favorite Kansas style, and while some may enjoy the little ditty tacked onto this track ("...Geodesic Dome?"), I find it out-of-place, unnecessary, and kind of an album spoiler.

I've always loved the way Kansas combined the spirit and feel of the American Heartland into their unique brand of prog, as well as the way they were able to rock out like a typical Midwest bar band. So this album gets fairly high marks from me, just because it's good Kansas music; but it would still probably have to stand behind all of their classic 70's stuff in terms of overall quality.

Indulge me for a moment...my personal favorite Kansas albums, ranked best to worst:
1.) Leftoverture (1976) - prog classic!
2.) Point of Know Return (1977) - more odd meters than ever!, very "clean" sound
3.) Song For America (1975) - the title track is their best ever. Period.
4.) Masque (1975) - not as proggy, but lots to like
5.) Monolith (1979) - plenty to enjoy, but a step back from "Left" and "Point"
6.) Kansas (1974) - finding their sound, and some hidden gems
7.) Audio Visions (1980) - showing signs of decline; more AOR sounding
Their live "Two For The Show" (1978) is probably their best "best of" out there. And finally "Somewhere to Elsewhere"...pretty good, a real nice comeback album (22 years later!), and worth your attention and money.

I value interesting music that is played and recorded well. This cd's rating was based on:
Music quality = 7.9/10; Performance = 8/10; Production = 9/10; CD length = 8/10.
Overall score weighted on my proprietary scale = 8.1 ("3-1/2 stars")

Look At The Time!!!.......2006-05-03

Having been a Kansas fan since 1974... I have seen their rises and their falls, and other points in between. Somewhere To Elsewhere is a CD that has a little bit of everything for any kind of Kansas fan. This is definitely one of the best CD's that they have put out in years. It's much more than a Kerry Livgren CD...with the original members of Kansas playing in the background. Granted he did write all the songs. Kerry is a genuis!! He is clearly one of the best progressive rock songwriters ever!!! The CD has some great songs..not the least of which is the opening track Icarus II. The next two songs are in my opinion about the worst on the CD. They are called When The World Was Young...I guess it's and okay song, but Grand Fun Alley is bad, really bad. Songs like this was the reason why I hated the Freaks of Nature CD. Perhaps, this song was a throwback from that CD. The Coming Dawn (Thanatopsis) is my favorite on this one. Great lyrics, music, and singing. One of the most meaningful songs that Kansas has ever done! The next song is the jazzy-progressive rock song Myriad..Wow! This is a good one too. Look At The Time is a ballad, but a nice song overall. Disappearing Skin Tight Blues...the title about say's it all. This is gutsy song. Distant Vision is another progressive rock song...Great job! Byzantine is a weird song, but not bad. It rates as pretty good in my opionion. The final cut Not Man Big would have probably been better suited in the earlier part of this CD. This song is a weak close to an otherwise superb CD. Hey, look at the time...this is done in the year 2000. These fellows weren't kids, but they sure can play and sing! Thanks guys for all the years of great music that you have provided.

Kerry Livgren solo album performed by Kansas..........2006-01-26

Basically, that's what this is: a Kerry Livgren solo album as performed by past and current members of Kansas. Livgren wrote all the songs and plays guitar and all keyboards (my question is: Steve Walsh is an excellent keyboardist and shared keyboard duties with Kerry during the band's heyday, so why does he just do vocals here?).

Yes, it sounds like Kansas. That's to be expected, given that Kerry Livgren wrote such a large part of Kansas' music.

Yes, it's good, high-quality progressive rock. With the possible exception of "Drastic Measures", which didn't sound like a Kansas album at all, I've found this band incapable of making a truly bad album.

Once we've got past those caveats, there really is some good stuff on offer here. "Icarus II", "Grand Fun Alley" and "Myriad" stack up well with anything the band's recorded. There's nothing here that's bad, though I don't think the musical references to past Kansas classics are needed. The "extra track", where they're singing some jokey bit about wanting to live in a geodesic dome really isn't needed either, though it does bring to mind the hidden last track on Kiss' "Destroyer" album.

I'm wondering if this will be the last studio album for Kansas, as they haven't released anything new since then and Steve Walsh is doing solo material...that would be a shame, since these guys are so good, even if this album wasn't a true "band" album.

Yes, it's a mixed bag ... but.......2005-11-22

This is a really phenomenal album in my opinion. Of course I really identify with Livgren's lyrics and find them very honest and revealing. I also think Livgren is an absolutely brilliant songwriter. I don't think this is a Kansas collaboration in the true spirit of the word, but even so, it's still pretty strong. I have to admit that I don't play the first three songs, I always start listening on cut 4. There are some awesome compositions here though. I really like Myriad, and The Coming Dawn. Plenty of prog rock chords and progressions for me. I do agree with one reviewer who thought that Steve Walsh seemed a little far away from the music. While I don't think it holds a candle to the masterpiece of Leftoverture, I think that it is still a pretty strong album. I enjoy it more than any other Kansas album except Leftoverture. I also found Steve Walsh's singing to be far superior to the Kansas live album they did with the London Symphony orchestra.

Average customer rating:

Somewhere To Elsewhere
Kansas
Manufacturer: SPV
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Progressive Rock | Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) | Classic Rock | Styles | Music

Arena Rock | Classic Rock | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00004UB1Q

Average customer rating:

Somewhere To Elsewhere
Kansas
Manufacturer: Magna Carta
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Progressive Rock | Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) | Classic Rock | Styles | Music

General | Classic Rock | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000LX4PFW

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