''The Prelude Implicit'' is the fifteenth studio album by American
progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...
band
Kansas
Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...
, released in September 2016. It is their third studio album without founding member, lead vocalist and keyboardist
Steve Walsh, who retired from the band in 2014; the other two being 1982's ''
Vinyl Confessions'' and 1983's ''
Drastic Measures''. It is their first album with lead vocalist and keyboardist
Ronnie Platt, keyboardist David Manion, and guitarist Zak Rizvi, who started as a co-producer and songwriter before being named a full member of the band as well as the first album to feature violinist
David Ragsdale since
Freaks of Nature.
Background
The first album since 2000's ''
Somewhere to Elsewhere'', it marks the longest period between two Kansas studio albums to date. Founding member
Kerry Livgren
Kerry Allen Livgren (born September 18, 1949) is an American musician, best known as one of the founding members and primary songwriters for the American rock band Kansas.
Livgren, raised in Topeka, Kansas, developed an early interest in musi ...
, who had returned as the main songwriter for that album, departed the band again following its release leaving
Steve Walsh as the group's sole songwriter. His reluctance towards committing to new studio material left the band without new output. While the group would continue to release live and compilation albums throughout the next decade,
Native Window was formed as a side project by Ehart, Greer, Ragsdale and Williams who wanted to record new material as a separate entity.
Walsh's departure in 2014 and the addition of Platt and Manion and later Rizvi paved the way for a new Kansas album.
Reception
Tim Jones of ''
Record Collector
''Record Collector'' is a British monthly music magazine focussing on rare and collectable records, and the bands who recorded them. It was founded in September 1979 and distributes worldwide. It is promoted as "the world’s leading authority o ...
'' magazine found the album "an attempted simulacrum of heyday glories, laudable while not quite scaling the heights", remarking how "the trademark intricate interplay of strings, driving rhythm and golden harmonies is all present and correct" and "should please the faithful, without eclipsing more recent predecessors like ''Somewhere to Elsewhere''".
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
's James Christopher Monger praised the album for being "something that sounds both familiar and forward thinking" and wrote that "the technically superb ''The Prelude Implicit'' – literally – hits all of the right notes and should please longtime fans, despite the absence of
Walsh
Walsh may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Walsh (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters
Places Australia
* Mount Walsh, Mount Walsh National Park
Canada
* Fort Walsh, one of the first Royal Canadian Mounted ...
".
Ultimate Guitar
Ultimate Guitar (Ultimate Guitar USA LLC), also known as Ultimate-Guitar.com or simply UG, is an online platform for guitarists and musicians, started on October 9, 1998 by Eugeny Naidenov and based in San Francisco, US. Its website and mobile ...
staff enjoyed the balance between hard rock, AOR and prog rock of the new songs, signaling in particular "the album's grand, epic piece" "The Voyage of Eight Eighteen", which "could have been written in the same sessions that produced tracks like '
Song for America' and 'Magnum Opus'." The reviewer also wrote that the new Kansas line-up "doesn't at all sound like a band bereft of musical inspiration", but "like a band firing on all cylinders, putting out the music they actually want to make" and probably producing "the most inspired thing they've done since their heyday."
Track listing
Personnel
;Kansas
*
Ronnie Platt – lead vocals, piano on "The Voyage of Eight Eighteen"
*
Rich Williams
Richard John Williams (born February 1, 1950) is an American guitarist, primarily known for being one of the only consistent original members of the Rock music, rock band Kansas (band), Kansas alongside drummer Phil Ehart. Both have appeared on ...
– electric and acoustic guitars, producer
*Zak Rizvi – electric guitar, vocals, producer, mixing
*David Manion – piano, keyboards, organ and sound design
*
David Ragsdale – violin, vocals
*
Billy Greer
Billy Greer (born January 26, 1952) is an American musician who was the bass guitarist for the rock band Kansas from 1985 to 2024. He joined the band when they reformed, making his debut appearance on 1986's '' Power''. He had previously worked ...
– bass, vocals, lead vocals on "Summer"
*
Phil Ehart – drums, percussion, producer
;Production
*Chad Singer – engineer
*James Cobb, Jonathan Beckner, Will McPhaul – assistant engineers
*
Jeff Glixman – mixing, mix and mastering producer
*
Vlado Meller
Vlado Meller (born in 1947 in Humenné as ''Vladimír Meller'') is a Slovak audio mastering engineer, currently with Vlado Meller Mastering in Charleston, South Carolina. Meller works across many genres of music, with credits on rock, hip-hop, p ...
– mastering
*Denise de la Cerda – artwork
*Michie Turpin – photography
*Christine Boyd – logo and title design
*Thomas Ewerhard – album layout
Charts
Also charted on Billboard charts at No. 17 in Vinyl Album Sales, No. 10 in Internet Albums, and No. 14 in Current Albums.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prelude Implicit, The
Kansas (band) albums
2016 albums
Inside Out Music albums