In a contemporary review for
New Musical Express, Max Bell wrote that, despite Kansas having all the elements for subtlety, "bristling with hard rock commonplace, speed and beat, they rapidly cancel any hints of originality", showing a lack of personality which transforms the listening of the album in a boring enterprise.
AllMusic's retrospective review gave the nod to the band's mix of progressive rock and
boogie rock as being unique, but contended that it also makes them less interesting than other progressive rock bands. They also criticized their ambitiousness as being overdone: "there're a lot of scales and arpeggios, galloping triplets, dramatic organ, and stately ballads that signify nothing and go nowhere." The platinum success of Kansas' fourth and fifth album releases:
Leftoverture (1976) and
Point of Know Return (1977), revived commercial interest in the band's early output, it being reported in January 1978 that both the albums
Kansas and
Song for America had at that point each sold between 300,000 and 400,000 units, with the third Kansas album,
Masque (1976), having been
certified Gold for sales of 500,000 units the previous month. Both
Kansas and
Song for America would eventually be certified Gold for selling 500,000 units,
Song for America as early as 1980 but
Kansas not until 1995. == Track listing ==