Monolith | 
 enlarge | Artist: Kansas
Label: Sbme Special Mkts.
Category: Music
List Price: $6.99
Buy New: $2.52
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Rating:  41 reviews
Sales Rank: 16367
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 724217
UPC: 886972421728
EAN: 0886972421728
ASIN: B0012GMYKU
Release Date: February 1, 2008
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Condition: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
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| Tracks:
| • | On the Other Side - Kansas, Livgren, Kerry | | • | People of the South Wind - Kansas, Livgren, K. | | • | Angels Have Fallen - Kansas, Walsh, S. | | • | How My Soul Cries Out for You - Kansas, Walsh, S. | | • | A Glimpse of Home - Kansas, Livgren, Kerry | | • | Away from You - Kansas, Walsh, Steve | | • | Stay Out of Trouble - Kansas, Walsh, S. | | • | Reason to Be - Kansas, Livgren, Kerry |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
Limited Edition Japanese pressing of this 1979 album from the American heartland Prog Rockers comes housed in a miniature LP sleeve. Sony. 2008
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| Customer Reviews:
Mushy vocals are buried beneath otherwise fine songs October 8, 2008
E. Fidler (San Diego, CA USA)
I'm surprised other reviewers haven't pointed out that the vocals are *very* badly recorded here (as opposed to how crystal-clear they are on other Kansas albums). They're not loud enough, they're distorted and distant, and they're often obscured by an ill-timed cymbal crash or guitar lick. And it's a shame, because A Glimpse of Home, Angels Have Fallen, On the Other Side, and People of the South Wind are great songs. The Away From You chorus is good, too; but Reason To Be sounds like it escaped from a flower-child festival, and How My Soul Cries Out for You is not great songwriting (melodically poor, with an embarrassing halt and drumbreak in the middle, complete with 'scary' distorted vocal rampup to the final chorus).
This is the first Kansas album my family owned. We drove Dad nuts wearing out the 8-track tape on a road trip to Montreal. Dad hated the album, of course; here's his sum-up: 'Too bad the singer is such a mush-mouth, because he has a nice voice.' To which we had no defense, because even after 100 listens, we had no clue what the lyrics were in some spots on nearly every song! (8-tracks did *not* come with lyrics.) Today, thanks to Yahoo's Music Lyrics site, I do know what's being sung, but still find it hard to match the lyrics to what we actually hear on this recording.
BTW, these are _not_ disco-like songs, as others have stated.
Believe me, if this had been disco, Dad wouldn't have minded so much!
 Inexplicably under-rated July 29, 2008
Music Fanatic (Bettendorf, IA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It totally confuses me to read degrading reviews of this album. Yes, this album came at the decline of Kansas -- right BEFORE the decline. This album is incredible. I enjoy it as much as any of their albums. They have four full-fledged classics, in my opinion: Masque, Lefoverture, Point of Know Return, and Monolith. Track by track, this album is as strong as any of the others. It would be nice to hear it remastered, though.
A wrongfully neglected classic in the Kansas repertoire April 28, 2008
Terrence J. Reardon (Port Saint Lucie, FL)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Progressive rockers Kansas' seventh album Monolith was released in May of 1979.
By 1979, Kansas had two Top 5 multi-million selling albums out of Leftoverture and Point of Know Return and a Platinum selling double live effort Two For the Show.
When drummer Phil Ehart, bass player Dave Hope, guitarist/keyboard player Kerry Livgren, violinist/vocalist Robby Steinhardt, singer/keyboard player Steve Walsh and guitarist Rich Williams got together to create their first studio album since PoKR in early 1979, the pressure was on the band to deliver another great album considering disco and New Wave had hijacked the music scene with a vengeance.
On Monolith, the general sound is still that of the band's famous progressive hard rock sound that characterized their output but mainstream styles like disco and New Wave was pushing prog into the underground.
We kick off Monolith with the majestic epic "On the Other Side" which has superb guitar work from Livgren and Williams and vocals by Walsh and has the classic tempo changes Kansas were known for. Next was the Top 30 hit "People of the South Wind" which was also a killer track and not a disco tune as some attest it. Next is the Walsh penned epic "Angels Have Fallen" and is a great piece. We close the first half with the rocker "How My Soul Cries Out For You" which features Walsh and Steinhardt again on vocals (like the previous track) and duel leads from Livgren and Williams.
We kick the second half off with Livgren's seven minute epic "A Glimpse of Home" which is an awesome piece and one of my favorite Kansas tracks and the guitar work on this track is unbelievable. Next is Walsh's "Away from You" which is a great piece. We follow with the hard rocker "Stay Out of Trouble" which includes Walsh and Steinhardt on lead vocals and Livgren and Williams trading leads like crazed dogs. We close the album with the acoustic guitar and synthesizer piece called "Reason to Be" which was a minor hit but a great track nevertheless.
Monolith reached #10 on the Billboard chart and is their last million selling album to date in the US as it sold a million copies in the US alone. Sales aside, Monolith is not a bad album, just wrongfully ignored!
RECOMMENDED!
 The End of an Era March 23, 2008
Richard Thompson (El Paso, Texas)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
KANSAS - Monolith (1979) (*** ) 8 tracks - (41:45)
Monolith was KANSAS's sixth studio album in five years. The whole band was still together, even under the pressures of stardom, touring, and keeping up the process of writing good songs. Kerry Livgren (guitar/keyboards) was still the main songwriter, and again seemed to pen the most well known songs. In this case, the opening track: On the Other Side, and People of the South Wind (my personal favorite). The album's closer, Reason to Be is a classic KANSAS song. Nice acoustic guitars, good vocal harmonies, and some nice violin sections. A trend the band had started with Point of Know Return, they continued on Monolith, no epic-length songs. A few reached the six-minute plus mark, but that was the extent of it.
Monolith has some good songs on it, but it is just not as "solid" an effort as their two previous albums had been. Many people feel Monolith marks the beginning of the end for KANSAS. The other problem with this particular release is that, just like Two for the Show, this album has only been issued by SONY/Kirshner records. There is no EPIC/Legacy "Remaster" yet (if ever). EPIC has been dragging its feet on this one for YEARS! I heard about rumours of an upcoming remaster back in 2004. The CBS/Kirshner issue is so lacking that the simple single-fold booklet doesn't even have the band members listed or any kind of liner notes. I only have the lyrics because I own a vinyl copy.
I can only recommend this to fans. Hopefully a remastered version will eventually come our way, with more good bonus tracks included like they did on the Leftoverture and Point of Know Return Remasters. Hello? Is anybody listening?
Best Tracks: On the Other Side, People of the South Wind.
On similar wavelength to "Masque" August 28, 2007
Daniel (Virginia)
Another of Kansas's unusual art-rock visionary albums in a similar vein to the 1975 release "Masque". I remembered purchasing this one as soon as it hit the record stores back in 1979 and remembered trying to decipher the album cover's art & meaning, which showed plains indians with astronaut helmets over their heads- science fiction maybe? The inside cover featured a visionary future return of the native americans amid ruins of our civilization(with a verse of the famous "Ghost Dance" of the Cheyenne Indians). It was realy an artistic statement/idea that had not been thought of before and I thought it was great. And yes the music is pretty cool also!
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