•
Rating: After the successful attempt with Song For America, the third studio album by Kansas, Masque, arrives towards the end of 1975. The cover features the famous painting entitled "Water" by the sixteenth-century artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo. The musical creativity of the band does not stop even in this album, quite the contrary.
It Takes a Woman’s Life (To Make A Man) is a song somewhat structured like Down The Road from the previous album, with a catchy vocal line, prominent piano and organ, and saxophones: essentially a good piece of rock, very catchy. Then we move on to the blues of Two Cents Worth, with a nice bass intro by Dave Hope and the intertwining riffs and solos of Rich Williams' guitars, especially in the central interlude finally featuring some violin and synthesizers. It is a song that speaks about alcoholism.
The great anthem of this album is obviously track 3, Icarus (Borne On Wings Of Steel), where finally Robby Steinhardt appears as one of the piece's protagonists. Right from the intro, we encounter very progressive phrasing, more than in the previous two songs. The vocals are wonderful, with the genius, composer, keyboardist, and guitarist Kerry Livgren sometimes accompanying the virtuoso keyboardist Steve Walsh, a man with remarkable vocal talents. And again we fly together with Icarus through infinite skies, on the enchanted wings of Steinhardt's violin and with the keyboards sealing everything, only to resume the guitar and synth vocals.
The start of All The World is instead slow, which gradually becomes more engaging, especially when Phil Ehart enters with the drums and then the synthesizers create the usual, wonderful melody in Kansas' typical style. Child Of Innocence is another great rock piece, where Robby Steinhardt sings with his incredibly powerful voice, and Rich Williams' guitar is the true protagonist.
It’s You is a pearl, pure and simple, a wonderful folk rock, where the violin reigns supreme, with its well-arranged riff. Another fast piece steeped in progressive rock is Mysteries and Mayhem, especially in the introduction, where we witness a real proliferation of passages and stops by the rhythm section. And then the finale is all glory: The Pinnacle, a majestic piece, with an epic attack, in which the keyboardist-singer Steve Walsh's voice reaches unreachable heights and the entire band is in general on top form: in short, a true example of Symphonic Rock, with capital letters.
Masque is a desperate attempt to emerge from obscurity, an overlooked album that reached only number 70 in the American charts, at the time (1975-1976) not very oriented towards prog. Masque, which gave impetus to the creation of masterpieces like Leftoverture and Point Of Know Return, is an integral part of Kansas' classic discography and is absolutely one of the most evocative albums the band has ever recorded. Masque encloses wonders, a prelude to the great success of subsequent albums.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Two Cents Worth (03:10)
(Livgren, Walsh)
Well I been drinkin' again
And I know it's a sin
But I just can't refuse an old friend
Cause life is gettin' me down
And I been two times around
And there ain't nothing but pain around the bend
I'm not made for the time
I'm born in the wrong century
There's too much craziness here
In twenty-five years I have used all the tears in my eyes
Now this old world is a fright
You know my future ain't bright
And I'd just crawl in a hole if I could
Or maybe live out in space
Or some other far away place
And not come back to this earth till it's good
Oh but I'm dreaming again
I know that I'm here till the end
There's too much craziness here
In twenty-five years I have used all the tears in my eyes
Well you might think that I'm all wrong
The things I say in this song
I really wish I could see it your way
Cause there's a storm rollin' in
And it just might be the end
So I'm praying we'll all get away
Now my cup is running dry
The weight of the world gets me down
There's way too much craziness here
In twenty-five years I have used all the tears in my eyes
There's nowhere to turn
So I'll just have to learn not to cry, no more
It's all I can do till we find something new
But I'll get by you know I'll try
In twenty-five years I have used all the tears in my eyes.
04 All the World (07:13)
All the world's forgiving the change is all around
And people everywhere have seen the light in what they've found
It's a happy place in the human race
When all our lives are lived forgiving
All the world's for living when love is what you find
Despair and loneliness you've got to leave them far behind
Tell the clouds to go let the feeling show
It's great when life is full of living
Everyone's aware they know to change the world we've got to care
And people all should know should have happened long ago
Or could it be that I just now found out
Life is meant to share and it means the same thing everywhere
Living everyday, helping people on their way
Cause sometimes life gives everyone some doubts
Can I have time? Is it right what I feel?
At times I doubt what I normally know is real
But right now I don't know what to do
And it's all because of you
I could tell you if I knew that you'd believe
As slight and elusive as life sometimes is
Right or wrong as we both know we all can be
I could never have denied that I need you by my side
'Cause without you life don't seem that much to me
I can see an old man cry, it's his time to die
And life no longer gives him any breaks
He hasn't got a home, no one to call his own
Still he tells no one that it is more than he can take
When the time is so unkind, an empty future plays in your mind
When the darkness cries out to you, can you escape it?
What can you do?
All the world's forgetting the hate that filled our hearts
The times of selfish reasoning that keeps all apart
This world was meant to share, let them know you care
By making someone's life worth living
All the world's believing that this felling's got to stay
till all the world is living
till all the world is giving
till all the world is loving every day
05 Child of Innocence (04:38)
Sweet child of innocence
Living in the present tense
Father Time will take his toll
Rack your body and steal your soul
What became of all the years
Are you drowning in your tears
Who will catch you when you fall
Who will hear you when you call
I will comfort you, take your hand and see you through
I will take you through the door
Who do you think you are
Try to live forever and you won't get far
I wait behind your door
Makes no difference if you're rich or poor
Though you're weary and afraid
Still you try to flee my blade
Come and walk in my new land
If you'll only take my hand
In the image of those who have walked before me here
I am cast in the web of an ancient spell
I am holding on to life, I'm drifting in the stream
Everything's much clearer now
We live within a dream and never wake
Judge not by what you see
More than you can count are here with me
Give up your foolish pride
All that walk the earth have died!
07 Mysteries and Mayhem (04:20)
Well I'm trying to tell you about a thing I thought I saw
It came to me in a dream one night
When a voice began to call
I heard my name being summoned as I looked around to see
A hooded judge and jury
There was no mercy there for me
Well I can't make it, I just can't figure it out
This dream is drivin' me crazy
I gotta know what it's all about
The mark is upon me, and the mark of Cain brings fear
A cold wind's blowin' right down my back
I'm runnin, I'm runnin' from a figure that's dressed in black
I think my legs are made out of lead
Cause I'm runnin' but I'm going nowhere
The bad dream is coming closer and closer
I got a feelin' he'll always be there
Forever is a long time to spend in agony
And the demons of confusion have got a place for me
The mark is upon me, and the mark of Cain brings fear
I was tired, so tired of runnin'
I had to turn and look around
I saw eyes that looked right through me
And a voice that made no sound
My body froze and I stood and stared, unearthly face before me
From the depths of a hooded nightmare, I saw what could not be
Mysteries and mayhem from the pinnacle I see
There's no answer when there's no question
The mark of Cain bears hard on me
08 The Pinnacle (09:35)
I've so much to say, and yet I cannot speak
Come and do my bidding now for I have grown too weak
My weary eyes have seen all that life can give
Come to me, O young one, for you I can forgive
I stood where no man goes, and conquered demon foes
With glory and passion no longer in fashion
The hero breaks his blade
Cast this shadow long that I may hide my face
And in this cloak of darkness the world I will embrace
In all that I endure, of one thing I am sure
Knowledge and reason change like the season
A jester's promenade
Lying at my feet I see the offering you bring
The mark of Cain is on our faces, borne of suffering
O, I long to hear you say it's not been wrong
I stand before you now, a riddle in my song
The answer is that sweet refrain
Unheard it always will remain
Beyond our reach, beyond our gain
Trapped in life's parade, a king without a crown
In this joy of madness, my smile might seem a frown
With talons wrought of steel, I tore the heart of doom
And in one gleaming moment I saw beyond the tomb
I stood where no man goes, above the din I rose
Life is amusing though we are losing
Drowned in tears of awe.
Loading comments slowly
