Kansas (2) – Song For America

Pretty low rating on this particular version. Mine sounds very engaging and dynamic so a minimal 4.5. There is some volume difference between several tracks but not too distracting. This remains a jewel in the Kansas catalogue with the title track one of my all-time favorite Kansas songs. But overall a must own album. Kansas has something magical to their sound, especially the first 6 a 7 albums, which few bands can touch.

Those UK-epic pressings (also 'Leftoverture' ) have ,room' and crisp clarity
I missed in the Kirshner pressings...excellent!

Her ewe have an amazing album by Kansas and sounds great.

Is it just me or does this remaster sound bad? My original Kirshner LP sounds much better. This version is heavy on the mids. Very "crunchy". Seems oddly EQ'd. I also despise the single edit of Song For America. Completely butchers the song, imo.

This has excellent SQ. Jumps out of the speakers.
(Rega RP6 with Ortofon Black LvB250 cart through McIntosh MA5200 amp & Axiom M60 v2 speakers.)

What a great album this is.
And, technically/sonically it is excellent too.
No problems/issues for me.

My runouts match almost identically but I also have the picture/lyric inner sleeve

Kerry didn't write Lonely Street according to the LP credits

My copy sounds great! So clean and quiet! Haven't compared to original though. But this one is quite impressive.

Song For America really is foretelling of what the listeners about to be musically showered with. You get alot of influences here a bit of Americana i.e. country the use the fiddle, jazz behest of the chordal movements, rock courtesy of two amazing guitarists and classical European influence. Unlike their debut Kansas 2nd epic release features more pronounced synthesizer performances (Mini-Moog/ARP strings), longer compositions and very tight arrangements eloquent, majestic yet never pompous in overall delivery.
Steve Walsh's vocals are amazingly strong and under control and can be subtle, melancholic or dynamically story drenched lyrically.
The rhythmic end bass and drumming are all top notch and tights with lots of rhythmic and harmonic interplay.
I know most Kansas with Point and Leftoverture but I feel SFA is probably the apex of their historical releases and the remastered early 00' version was re-engineered with a cleaner crisper sound. This is American prog rock on par with anything European where belting out at the time and a shinning example of how talented this band was back in the "golden" era of progressive rock.