In the Spirit of Things

In the Spirit of Things is the 11th studio album by American rock band Kansas, released in 1988 (see 1988 in music). It is a very loosely organized concept album telling the story of a flood hitting the real Kansas city of Neosho Falls in 1951. The album is often cited by lead vocalist, keyboardist, and songwriter Steve Walsh as his favorite Kansas album. Its odd mixture of hard rock, progressive rock, and '80s power ballads (forced on the band by MCA Records, which selected outside songwriters in an attempt to generate hit singles) failed to catch on with a mass audience but it remains a cult favorite among Kansas fans. It was the first Kansas album since 1975's Masque to lack a hit single. The album was Kansas's last studio effort for a major label. It didn't receive much by way of promotion, as MCA dropped a slew of "older" artists shortly after its release and famously switched its attention to current younger acts such as Tiffany. Kansas got caught in that decision and the album was a commercial failure. The label did produce several promotional materials for the record, though, including a glossy video for "Stand Beside Me," which was played regularly on MTV and allowed the single to hit the album rock charts, the very last Kansas single to chart in any format. Other songs were released in odd formats, such as a 12" promotional single of "I Counted on Love," an import edited CD single of "House on Fire," and a small-sized CD single of "Stand Beside Me." The album also marked the last Kansas release to appear in vinyl format. A tour in support of this album included a broadcast by the King Biscuit Flower Hour, which many years later released the show as a CD.