The Prelude Implicit is the fifteenth studio album by American progressive rock band Kansas, released in September 2016.

It is their third studio album without founding member, lead vocalist and keyboardist Steve Walsh, who retired from the band in 2014; the other two being 1982's Vinyl Confessions and 1983's Drastic Measures.

While the group would continue to release live and compilation albums throughout the next decade, Native Window was formed as a side project by Ehart, Greer, Ragsdale and Williams who wanted to record new material as a separate entity.

[3] Tim Jones of Record Collector magazine found the album "an attempted simulacrum of heyday glories, laudable while not quite scaling the heights", remarking how "the trademark intricate interplay of strings, driving rhythm and golden harmonies is all present and correct" and "should please the faithful, without eclipsing more recent predecessors like Somewhere to Elsewhere".

[6] AllMusic's James Christopher Monger praised the album for being "something that sounds both familiar and forward thinking" and wrote that "the technically superb The Prelude Implicit – literally – hits all of the right notes and should please longtime fans, despite the absence of Walsh".