Lisa B. from BOULDER CREEK, CA Reviewed on 10/2/2009...
A trip down memory lane for me! The bonus tracks are live performances. Nice, but not a huge deal.
CD Reviews
The One that Started and Ended it All
Snow Leopard | Urbana, IL | 11/27/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This, the most successful of Kansas' releases (yes, the one with "Dust in the Wind"), marked the beginning of the end of the band for me. One notes from the number of songs, relative to earlier albums, that shorter forms are becoming prevalent, and shorter forms from a prog rock band in the mid-70s meant, in practice, a swerve toward pop. Not even Yes was immune to this tendency.As "pop" goes, this is surely some of my favorite, but I didn't get into Kansas (I realized later) for the pop. "Point of Know Return" introduced me (like many others) to the band, but as I worked backward into their earlier music, I found that it was on "Masque", "Song for America" and "Leftoverture" that their music most spoke to me."Point of Know Return" (despite the kitsch of the title) is the kind of pop one could live with on the radio. "Paradox", as the sibling of "Point of Know Return", shows truly what a happy marriage of prog and pop Kansas could concoct. As a keyboardist myself, Walsh's "Spider" is a marvelously intricate thing, though much too short. "Portrait" (an homage to Einstein that I formerly mistook as an homage to Jesus) falls a bit flat on the album, but makes up for it 200-fold on "Two for the Show," where it is simply stunning. Side One (I date myself) ends with "Closet Chronicles", another of the compositional high points of Kerry Livgren's (and Walsh's) career. (It wasn't until years later that I found out this song is an homage to Howard Hughes.)Side Two opens with "Dust in the Wind"--originally a finger exercise piece that Kerry Livgren added lyrics too. There then follow two very unhappy monsters--both "Lightning's Hand" and "Sparks of the Tempest" fell flat for me, then and now. This was worrisome because previously all of the Kansas songs I'd not been fond of had been their more straightforward rockers. Here, we have two songs obviously in the prog-pop vein falling on their faces. Luckily, the album ends with two more genuine masterpieces, but that makes, in all, only three songs on the album I really want to listen to.Any Kansas playlist of their songs that genuinely expanded the compositional possibilities of rock (and it is in precisely this aspect that Kansas is most progressive) must contain "Hopelessly Human", "Nobody's Home", and "Closet Chronicles"--they are must hear, or must have, songs for anyone interested in pre-decline Kansas. The rest of the album, however, while superbly performed, as ever, just doesn't have the creative spark that earlier albums did.In high school, I would become nervous when a band I liked brought out a live album, because it often seemed to be a sign that the band couldn't come up with new material, or that a major change of direction was in the works. Kansas toured "Point of Know Return" extensively, and released a live album to document that. Two noble studio efforts followed, after which the decline became the collapse, and the Kansas I'd become a fan of ceased to be. "Point of Know Return," then, marks the beginning of the end; something that can be heard clearly in the music, especially if you know their earlier stuff."
70's Prog Rock
Thomas Magnum | NJ, USA | 02/26/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Kansas was another in a line of 70's rock artists from the Midwest who enjoyed some chart success in the mid-70's to early 80's. But they had more in common with prog rockers like Yes, King Crimson and the others than with the earnest rock of Bob Seger and the like. Point Of No Return is the top album in their catalog and contains one of the staples of FM rock radio, the hauntingly beautiful "Dust In The Wind". But this album is more than a one-hit wonder. The title track opens the album with it's pulsating keyboards and other standout tracks include the Albert Einstein tribute, "Portrait (He Knew)", the Orwellian "Sparks Of The Tempest", another ballad "Nobody's Home", "The Spider" and the album's closer "Hopelessly Human". The album is remastered with two live tracks that are alright, but don't add much to the original album."
Better than I thought it would be
BENJAMIN MILER | Veneta, Oregon | 06/19/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"As a 16 year old back in 1989, I was getting in to prog rock, while others my age were either listening to Bon Jovi and Poison, or worse, New Kids on the Block. As I was getting in to Yes and ELP, I dismissed Kansas as yet another AOR band, like Boston, Journey, Styx, Foreigner, etc. Boy was I wrong. Kansas was a prog rock band that came from a very conservative area of the country (the state, which bears the band's name). Since there were no "hip" clubs for the band to play in their neck of the woods at that time, they had to perform in bars, so the bar-band influence of their music is strongly felt, while adding the Yes and ELP-style prog rock. I wouldn't call Point of Know Return their best album (that probably goes to Song For America), it was without a doubt their best-selling album. The title track and "Dust in the Wind" receiving constant radio airplay, and those two songs, of course, are regarded not only as classics, but FM radio standards. Although "Dust in the Wind" often gets on people's list of "Worst Songs of the Seventies" (along with "Seasons in the Sun", "Billy, Don't Be a Hero", and Blue Swede's version of "Hooked on a Feeling"), it really isn't all that bad. The band was able to manage some great prog rock, albeit, with a uniquely American flavor. Violinst Robbie Steinhart might be classically trained, but you can tell he was also influenced by Southern-style fiddling. Steve Walsh's vocals are uniquely American, and the Yes comparison often comes from the vocal harmonies. Kerry Livgren's keyboarding inspiration comes from some of the big prog names like Emerson and Wakeman. Aside from the obvious hits, let's bring up a few of the other songs on this album. "The Spider" is a great instrumental prog song that bears an uncanny resemblance to ELP's Tarkus. "Sparks of the Tempest" is the band trying to be funky (like they did on "Two Cents Worth" off Masque). "Paradox" is simply a great rocking track in a traditional Kansas style, would have fit just fine on any of their previous four albums. The only reason why I took a star off is the last two songs, "Nobody's Home" and "Hopelessly Human", which I felt the band slacked off on those two, but it's still a great album, and easy to see how this album sold so well."
A gem shines even brighter
John G. Miller | West Jordan, UT United States | 02/12/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Twenty-five years after the album Point of Know Return came out on vinyl -- twenty-five years after PoKR was released as a single only to have "Dust In The Wind" become the band's most commercially successful song, destined to go down as one of the most beautiful rock songs ever written -- comes the remastered Point of Know Return.The remaster brings out a few sounds that had previously been buried deeper in the original mix, keyboard sounds are stronger in songs such as "Paradox", "Nobody's Home" and "Hopelessly Human", giving the songs a richer texture. PoKR followed up Leftoverture as one of the most complex "mainstream progressive" recordings in rock music with an abundance of classical flavors and unique time signatures. The massive crossover success of "Dust In The Wind" made PoKR the band's best-selling album, but the simplicity of "Dust" hid the aggressively complex nature of this album.The remaster includes all of the lyrics and sleeve artwork from the original, along with new and very enlightening liner notes from David Wild, a contributing editor for Rolling Stone Magazine, and producer/engineer Jeff Glixman. Wild in particular gives great insight to the success/inner struggles the band was experiencing at the time PoKR was recorded. "For all the angst that went on behind the music, Point of Know Return remains a powerful show of Kansas' musical strength," Wild says. Some great additions to the remaster are the live "Sparks of the Tempest", recorded at Merriweather Pavilion, MD, that features some serious rocking guitar work from Rich Williams and Kerry Livgren, as well as some "balls-to-the-wall, go-let-it-all-hang-out" vocals from Robby Steinhardt and Steve Walsh. However, the coup de grace is the final track, a remixed "Portrait (He Knew)" -- a song written about Albert Einstein -- that Glixman admits was rushed when he first mixed it, but now ... WOW! Phil Ehart's drums sound better than ever in the new mix. Overall, it's like listening to a brand new song and easy to forget that it's been around 25 years. The remastered PoKR is a must-have for any fan of Kansas, and a great intro for anyone yet to taste the full flavor of one of the best progressive American bands to ever come down the pike."
An exciting album of progressive hard rock
Jeffrey J.Park | Massachusetts, USA | 01/14/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Over the course of their first five albums, Kansas developed a unique type of progressive rock that fused elements of hard rock with English progressive rock - note that I am not using the disparaging term "stadium rock" when discussing Kansas. By the time of Point of Know Return (1977), the prog and hard rock had been seamlessly fused and made for a very balanced listening experience. Fortunately for them, this was the only way an American band that had progressive inclinations could make it in their home country (just look at poor Starcastle), and they certainly "hit the jackpot" with this album. Point of Know Return really is a great album, with a dynamic range that spans the gamut from the electrifying instrumental The Spider, to the delicate, acoustic ballad Dust in the Wind. The musicianship/vocal performances are superb throughout and the pieces feature decent ensemble work and arrangements. Instrumentation consists of loads of "toccata-like" flourishes on the Hammond organ, moog/ARP synthesizers, along with virtuosic lines on the violin and heavily distorted guitar (the hard rock aspect). Underlying it all is the thunderous rhythm section of drummer Phil Ehart and bassist Dave Hope. The purely hard rock pieces on Point of Know Return include Lightning's Hand along with Sparks of the Tempest, while the rest of the album features concise, prog/hard rock statements. The sound quality of the remastered album is not bad at all (I actually think it is quite good), although the recording quality of the live version of Sparks of the Tempest is only "so-so" and the remix of Portrait (He Knew)is pretty poor. Recommended to those folks whose musical tastes include Styx, Led Zeppelin, Rush, and Yes. Other great Kansas albums include Kansas (1974), Song for America (1975), and Leftoverture (1976). For folks interested in the earliest developmental stages of Kansas, the Proto-Kaw album "Early Recordings from Kansas 1971-1973" is also quite good and provides significant insight into the musical perspectives of Kerry Livgren."
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1
Lisa B. from BOULDER CREEK, CA 
