Kansas
Masque

THE REVIEW

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.