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Kansas has been a busy band lately… and how many people knew? It's not everyday some quiet, unassuming mid-western sons get to celebrate a 25th anniversary and some 30 million in overall album sales… and still live to tell and tour about it. Not that the two are interrelated however. 

Kansas has always opted to let their music do the talking-critics darlings in no way, shape, or form. Then again, as critics or human beings alike, we tend to dissuade that which we don't understand. So Kansas's enigmatic role in Rock n' Roll rides the crest and crash of the curtain, and they've survived and more than enough have stayed with them for a still ongoing 30-year show. 

"Ultimate's" succinct yet spot-on intro reveals much of the band, outward realists, who were inwardly surreal, and with a wealth of impregnable talent. Kansas, progressive separatists grounded in a rootsy environ, had much in common with the worthiest of super groups still in existence. Having begun in '73, it wasn't until their breakthrough "Carry On Wayward Son" soared quickly heavenward as their fourth LP, "Leftoverture" was released in '76, that Kansas became a welcome addition to the mainstream of Rock. Yet for all the notoriety, little changed the original framework the band was originally constructed of. 

Their style remained focused in thoughtfully penned compositions, driven neither by success or the hit follow up, yet they of the more appreciated AOR bred era, were not to be denied in spite of themselves-their '77 follow up, "Point Of Know Return," spawned their highest climbing hit, "Dust In The Wind," as well as the unmistakable title track. Kansas was very much a Genesis/Dregs hybrid that even today is difficult to grasp and have a lot more in common with a post-"Lady" Styx than anyone could probably conceive of. Their earthy, homespun guitar Rock foundation was intertwined with majestic vocals, atmospheric percussion, and further stretched by lengthy, orchestrated complexities that could stagger even the most seasoned of listener intellect. 

So on that note, "The Ultimate Kansas" could very well be 26 tracks of pure torture for the mid-life listener only now coming to grips with the slower pace; but more likely, this collection is a can't miss that touches upon everything their golden Epic years had to offer from '73-'83. From the obscure beginnings of their self-titled debut, to the historic campaigns of "Masque," "Leftoverture," and "Point Of Know Return," to the hazy and unheralded later years where strife unseated success to earmark titles like "Monolith," and "Drastic Measures," everything in their illustrious history is included in this two disc collection. 

The remastered sound, stellar Glixman-led production, and thorough ten album coverage make up for an economical gatefold and one era photo, occasionally odd song sequence, and the inclusion of "Cheyenne Anthem…" and even this, cancelled out by the curtain closing live epic, "Magnum Opus." Overall, the music, as has always been the case for the still traveling road warriors, who only two years ago released the very new, "Somewhere To Elsewhere," with naturally very little build up, is  the main event. "The Ultimate Kansas" is a justifiable tribute chronicling one of America's best.