Masque is the third studio album by American progressive rock band Kansas. The album was released in September 1975, remastered for CD in 2001, and again remastered and reissued on vinyl in 2014. The opening track, "It Takes a Woman's Love (To Make a Man)", was remixed for release as a single, including additional guest vocals and segments far different from the album version, but was not popular. The album includes both songs in the epic progressive rock style which Kansas favored and songs which took the heartland rock elements of their sound in a pop-oriented direction, foreshadowing their next album Leftoverture, on which those two approaches were more integrated.
Masque peaked at #70 on the Billboard album chart, and approximately 250,000 units were sold within months. Like all three of Kansas' first three album releases, Masque attracted new commercial interest due to the platinum success of the band's fourth and fifth studio albums (Leftoverture and Point of Know Return), being certified Gold for sales of 500,000 units in December 1977.
Background and recording
Masque was written and recorded at a time when Kansas were unsure of their band identity. Guitarist/Keyboardist Kerry Livgren commented, "There's the really progressive side of the band and then on the other end of the spectrum there's something like 'It Takes a Woman's Love'. You put those on the same album, and it's like 'Who are these guys?' We wondered that too." "It Takes a Woman's Love" was written specifically to appease record label owner Don Kirshner's demands for the band to produce a song with the potential to be a hit single.
Reception
In a retrospective review, Bret Adams of Allmusic said that Masque "foreshadows the tight melodies and instrumental interplay on the next two albums, Leftoverture and Point of Know Return, which together serve as the peak of Kansas's vision." He remarked that Robby Steinhardt's violin work stood as distinctive from other progressive rock violinists, and praised the bleak lyrics and combination of satisfying rock with dense progressive arrangements on individual songs such as "Two Cents Worth", "Icarus - Borne on Wings of Steel", and "Mysteries and Mayhem".
| extra3 = Walsh
| title4 = All the World
| length4 = 7:11
| writer4 = Walsh, Robby Steinhardt
| extra4 = Walsh and Steinhardt
Personnel
- Kansas
- Steve Walsh – organ, piano, clavinet, Moog synthesizer, congas, lead and backing vocals
- Kerry Livgren – lead and rhythm guitars, acoustic guitar, piano, clavinet, Moog and ARP synthesizers
- Robby Steinhardt – violin, lead and backing vocals
- Rich Williams – lead and rhythm guitars
- Dave Hope – bass guitar
- Phil Ehart – drums, percussion
- Additional musicians
- Earl Lon Price – saxophone on track 1
- Production
- Jeff Glixman – producer, remastered edition producer
- Lee Peterzell – engineer
- Jimmy Stroud – assistant engineer
- Jeff Magid – remastered edition producer
Charts
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! scope="col"| Chart (1976)
! scope="col"| Peak<br />position
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