YES (1969)Ah, like putting on a pair of old slippers, we're back in the comfort of the company one of the titans in the Prog Rock pantheon. Masters of the line-up change and involving the late Chris Squire and Britain's favourite curmudgeon Rick Wakeman, Yes are a band of whom I have passing knowledge only. Although my Genesis experience suggests that I might know more of their stuff than I realise. For me, it's Jon Anderson's distinctive, light but husky vocal that is as characteristic of their sound as anything and I was quite a fan of his work with Greek ivory-tickler Vangelis. Wikipedia rather strangely notes that the lineup of Anderson, Squire, Bill Bruford, Peter Banks and Tony Kaye 'remained intact for the album's recording'. Staffing in Yes was certainly peripatetic, but I'm sure they generally managed to stay together for the laying down of 10 or so tracks. It's an assured start. Definitely Yes as we know it. Sweetly sung by Anderson and complicatedly played by the rest of them. 'Looking Around' is rather surprisingly catchy and the oddly named Harold Land combines complex bass twiddles with ecclesiastic organ. 'Every Little Thing' is a Beatles cover, apparently. You could have fooled me although they do cheekily insert the guitar riff from 'Day Tripper' halfway through. Now I DO know 'Survival', which generally makes it onto Best Of compilations. The transition from the first, let's call it 'movement' to the second is a bit clumsy but this alone on the debut marks them out as something a bit different. Yes are renowned for their album art, all that Roger Dean stuff, so this is an utter flop, very much of it's time and about as literal as you can get.
Right, must crack on if I'm going to get two major artists done before the end of the year. Unlike some of their contemporaries, Yes have chosen to call on Western movie music, rather than classical as a basis of their opening offering 'No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed'. I was convinced that it was The Magnificent Seven, but after checking on Wiki-cheat I do realize that it is from 'The Big Country'. It is terrific too. This is one of my favourite Yes tracks. Its a bit frenetic and Anderson seems to be struggling to keep up, but you can fault the grandeur of it all. 'Then' is a bit messy and 'Everydays' is, well, episodic I guess. There's some intricate drumming and quite a lot of wistful vocal. 'Sweet Dreams' is great, almost pop, if you like your pop with a weird time signature and insanely difficult bass line. The rich orchestral sound comes through very strongly on 'The Prophet' and they nick some stuff from the Planets, just to confirm their prog credentials. Anderson sings "Ast-er-al Traaa-veller" on the song of that name. The perils of being a singer in a band who'll use 5 notes when one would do. The title track is another true classic, the chorus again references the Beatles I think. Artwork? Don't like it. Possibly slightly racy.
The Yes Album? Possibly the most can't-be-arsed album title ever. However, it does have a ring of the definitive about it and you can apply that description to the content. There's some career defining stuff on this, not least the opening 'Yours Is No Disgrace'. From the opening DUH-DUH-DUUH-DUH! to the slightly awkward lyrics "Caesars Palace, morning glory, silly human race" and Anderson's delicately layered vocal, it all comes together quite nicely. Peter Banks has been booted out and Steve Howe is in and I think you can tell the difference in the guitar work. It's well over nine minutes long, so they're certainly making an effort. The unfortunately named '(The) Clap' (the 'The' was dropped on later issues - wonder why?) is an entirely different proposition, short and undoubtedly folky. Basically Howe showing off. It appears to have been recorded live. Ooo, ooo! Starship Trooper is broken down into 3 movements. 'Life Seeker', 'Disillusion' and 'Wurm' (undoubtedly umlauted). This one definitely sits in the middle bit of the Genesis/Yes Venn diagram, those cascading guitar notes could just as easily be Hackett. Howe is off again when we get to the Disillusion part. Wurm is a very satisfying progression of semi-improvised chords that Howe had in his back pocket when he arrived from the poorly named 'Bodast' (thanks Wikipedia). Only two parts in the marvellous 'I've Seen All Good People'. This could be Anderson's best vocal performance (although 'Wondrous Stories' probably beats it). "Don't surround yourself with yourself, move on back to squares". Totally meaningless but also truly poetic (well I think so anyway). Second movement is boogie-woogie influenced with Squire's warbling bass driving it along. Yes at their best. 'A Venture' is more theatrical and goes a bit 'Jazz Club toward the end. The fourth long track, 'Perpetual Change' doesn't quite reach the heights of the others for me. It's a bit disjointed and tends too much towards the jazz-blues neck of the woods. Dull cover to go with the dull title. Kaye's foot is in plaster because they had just been in a car accident outside Basingstoke, which for non-British readers, roughly approximates to our version of Nashville. OK?
The artwork is coming on isn't it? This is the first Roger Dean, but it's not really typical. Wakeman, gold cape and all, is in for Kaye. This sometimes veers from the horrific to the inspired. However it starts well, lute-ish plucking soon gives way to Squire's bass, I must assume that rather like Zaphod Beeblebrox, he has availed himself of a third arm in order to achieve the complexity of his playing. It's all good though and 'Roundabout' is something of a Yes classic I think. One thing I am becoming aware of is that, Yes are not so good at what some people refer to as 'the words'. Lyrically they are a bit poor. Not that that matters, no-one came here expecting Morrissey. Not really on board with 'Cans and Brahms', one suspects it might have been the Grand Wizard's idea. If anything it comes across as a bit cheesy. However the short 'We Have Heaven' is quite engaging. Anderson sings it in a round with himself. 'South Side Of The Sky' might be a 7 minute jam session. It does have some guts about it though. They calm down in the middle but Anderson's la-la's sound twee. 'Five Per Cent Of Nothing' is awful for the entirety of its 36 seconds. They manage a decent 3and a half minute pop song with 'Long Distance Runaround'. That Beatles influence just won't go away will it? 'The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)' is interesting for airing some new noises that you probably thought weren't really possible with a bass guitar. They weigh in with a 10 minute offering at the end. 'Heart Of The Sunrise' starts with mad bass wrangling which then mutates into a very very very simple bass-line which even I could play (with a couple of weeks tuition). Eventually it all settles into a gently sung song which gathers strength as it goes along. Just great really, Anderson's voice soars at times. Spotify stocks a reissue of the album with 'America' included at the end. This is interesting as, to me, it shows what sets Yes apart from their turn-of-the-decade contemporaries. If anything, it's a cover of the Simon and Garfunkel song, but they also weave in bits from the West Side Story piece as well. Also, it's nothing like a cover really. More of a 're-imagining'. Yes weren't afraid to apply their touch to concurrent classics of contemporary culture, which suggests they did see themselves as being in the business of entertainment.
CLOSE TO THE EDGE (1972)Three tracks! The constraints of two sided vinyl and the inconvenient need to flip the bloody thing over halfway through probably frustrated them immensely. It's quite a jumbled start. Almost like an overture and soon startles with Anderson's high pitched gasp. There is a dalliance with reggae and funk here but the middle bit is all too pedestrian. Anderson gets up and he gets down we learn. Wakeman gets an extended go on the church organ before resorting to showing off on a number of other keyboards. Am I giving the impression I don't like it? I don't mean to, it's great. It all fades away to the sound of birdsong. Side Two starts with 'And You And I', which takes a while to get going. There seem to be a number of false starts before they settle into the strummed guitar melody. Not sure about Anderson's vocal on this one, it's almost as if he's chanting it, but not quite. He picks it up in the second part (Eclipse) but relapses in part III, The Preacher, The Teacher. There are some nice woozy guitar sounds around this time however. It's all wrapped up with 'The Apocalypse', which isn't very apocalyptic. Anderson sounds like he's drifting off to sleep. Finally 'Siberian Khatru'. It's got something of Carlos Santana at the start but settles into some funkeh-bass pretty quickly. There's a kind of pizzicato organ or guitar sound that I last heard on War Of The Worlds. You can picture Wakeman hemmed in on all sides by piano, Hammond organ, harpsichord and synthesizer. On the Roger Dean front: Plain cover, although the sinuous logo is now fully in place, but inside the gatefold a full blown classic, although the depiction of being close to the edge of the world is a bit literal. It's like one of those blank scenes you used to get with a sheet of Letraset transfers to add to it. Right, Bruford is outta here, Alan White is installed on the drumstool.
I always thought it was 'topographicAL'. Not sure about this. It must have been a double album with one track on each of the four sides. Wiki research tells me it is Anderson's hippy-dippy take on four Hindu shastras. The first part - The Revealing Science Of God/Dance of the Dawn - is a bit pedestrian and wordy at first, eventually they break into some hamfisted harmonizing and it gets going. It's all fine, very accomplished, but it doesn't quite do it for me. Towards the end Wakeman throws in something that sounds like the theme tune to The Rockford Files. Side 2 - The Remembering/High The Memory - confuses me because Anderson starts singing "Relayer, Relayer", but that's a completely different album isn't it? He also has a funny mid-atlantic intonation when he sings "and I do think very well". Good gong- and cymbal-work at the start of Side 3 (The Ancient/Giants Under The Sun). Some nondescript mucking about eventually develops into a sort of jungly bass line accompanied by an approximation of whalesong. It could be as bad as I am describing it. I think it's probably just getting a bit too abstruse and clever. Howe's acoustic guitar solo about three-quarters of the way through is nice, quite Tull-ish actually, and melds pleasantly with Anderson's vocal. Side 4, Ritual/Nous Sommes Du Soleil, is the most recognizable track I'd say. The recurrent riff is good and memorable and White gets his moment in the Soleil about two thirds through. I can't decide if the whole thing is a bit undercooked or burnt to a cinder. It's not quite right though. I'm tempted to say they were too ambitious and stretched themselves too far on this one. There are some good moments but it is just a bit too much of a ragbag. Sorry. This is probably their seminal work and I am exposing myself as the worst kind of philistine by not being blown away by it. Artwork is good. You can't have fish swimming through the air and a waterfall with no apparent river supplying it, so we'll have to say it's surreal in a modest way.
Oh. Maybe Lydon and the lads had a point after all. Yes are now looking like a bunch of spoilt kids that no-one has the courage to say "No" to. At least, that's the first impression with the nigh on 22 minute 'The Gates Of Delirium'. The first time I listened to it it just seemed stupidly extravagant. Then I started to wonder if it was actually brilliantly bonkers and started to enjoy it. There's no doubt it is all over the bally option (as my dear departed mother-in-law used to say - not sure what it means but you get the gist). Anderson reckons its about War. Well he would. Themes come and go and there's certainly a sense of conflict as they all seem to be disappearing into their own little corners to experiment with their instruments, but there does appear to be some joined-up thinking going on and it always just about works. It's most coherent moments are when Anderson is singing and the last part 'Soon' is particularly good. Wakeman is now gone (he didn't really last did he?) and the ivories are now being wrangled by Patrick Moraz. Apparently Vangelis got a try-out but wasn't really on board with the concept of touring. Track 2 is 'Sound Chaser' and regular readers will know I find jazz stylings a little unnecessary at the best of times, so this is something of a challenge to my prejudices, which I'm sorry to tell you remain firmly in place. There's nothing wrong with a proper tune lads. Anderson's polyphonic "Cha-cha-chaaaa, cha cha's" are faintly ridiculous too. Only three tracks again, and the last is 'To Be Over'. Nice sitar at the start and Anderson's gentle vocal is a welcome relief from what we've just been put through. There's bits of steel guitar and some more conventional twiddles as well. Its still a hodge-podge of musical styles mind. And that's it. The deluxe edition on Spotify has a single version of 'Soon' and some other stuff. Roger has gone to town on the Fantasy architecture for the cover. Haven't they heard of a plumb line?
There's a substantial break before this one. Wakeman returns because Moraz wasn't cutting it and they'd all got over their "musical differences" on 'Tales Of Topographic Oceans'. Dean has been given the boot too. This sleeve design is by long time Floyd-collaborators Hipgnosis and it does look a lot like it could be one of theirs. This marks a departure stylistically too. No mega-tracks this time, limiting themselves to a mere 15 minutes on the longest 'Awaken'. Only 5 in total though, you've go to learn to walk before you can run. Also more commercial, and remember this was before punk had really bitten, so you can't credit that with the differences. The intro to the title track is pure rock and roll and it trundles along nicely. Brings out the best in Anderson's voice too. It's a very big sound which suits them pretty well. The more reflective 'Turn Of The Century' also puts a bit of production layering over the vocal, giving a sort of sugary-sweet effect. Nice playing from Howe on the acoustic guitar too. Wakeman jumps onto the Wurlitzer at the start of 'Parallels' and he is clearly the prime mover here. It's full bodied with lavish Anderson voicework and ends as abruptly as it starts. 'Wonderous (sp.?) Stories' is one of my favourite Yes tracks. It has a genuine sense of, well, wonder about it. That soaring "Heeeearing" is quite uplifting and I love all that plinky-plonky stuff going on in the background. The final 'Awaken' is a bit of a throwback to earlier work, much less focused than the rest, but certainly worthy of being called 'epic'. Squire seems a bit more subdued throughout the album too, which I think is a good thing, his bass gymnastics sometimes tended to dominate in the past.
If you were to ask me, I would have thought that Tormato was considered a bit of a dog by Yeslings, and if the subject of Yes albums were to come up on Pointless I would expect it to be a shoo-in for a pointless answer (which on reflection, means nothing at all, naming any Yes album would tax most of the British public). However its good and I enjoyed it a lot, so maybe my instincts are wrong. I think the following Drama might have marked a lowish point. This sees them moving into a poppier era. There is a LOT of Anderson on this. 'Don't Kill The Whale' was a not very successful single. It has a whiff of Oldfield about it, that very clean electric guitar is a lot like him. 'Madrigal' does feature some harpsichordish sounds but doesn't really count as one in my book. 'Release, Release' is all too breathless and features some fake audience noises on the rather lumpy drum solo. Yes have a bit of a predilection for science fiction themes so 'Arriving UFO' allows them to indulge themselves. There is some interesting keyboard work from Wakeman on this one but it all feels slightly stitched together in the end. Now I quite liked 'Circus Of Heaven'. The opening section has a slight calypso feel to it. Wordy though, and that's Anderson's son at the end. 'Onward' is a rather pleasant gentle piece which features either synthesized brass or the real thing.And finally.. 'On The Silent Wings Of Freedom'. Messy. More Hipgnosis sleeve art. Wikipedia tells boring stories about how it came about, but it is basically a picture of a bloke with water divining sticks which has been subjected to a rotten tomato-ing. Restless soul Wakeman was off again after this one, but Anderson went too.
I have to admit that I expected Drama to be a massive disappointment. No Anderson. No Wakeman and some fairly crappy artwork. But then I started listening to it and realized that not only is it the Yes album I know best, but it's actually really, really good. A bit of background. I bought this as a birthday present for my brother (possibly around the time of release - but I can't be sure). I think he was a bit nonplussed at first (he admitted as much to me the other day when we were listening to it in the car) but he did also tell me it was the best present I ever gave him and we are in agreement that it is a great album. But it didn't look good before you put it on the turntable. Anderson and Wakeman had been replaced by an entire band, Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes of The Buggles, and it cannot be denied that Horn on vocals sounds like he is just doing (an admittedly very good) Anderson impression. If it amounts to a Yes pastiche, then it is a well executed one and the songs do stand up. 'Machine Messiah' features instruments making whining engine noises and some pretty grand keyboard cascades. Bro says that Squire's bass is 'burbling'. It's as good an adjective as any I guess. Next we have micro-track 'Man In A White Car', which I could've sworn was a full-blown song. It certainly seems like it could have been worked up into something utterly pompous. 'Does It Really Happen' is full on classic Yes. Complex bass, complex drums, complex bloody everything, and yet all resolving into a meaningful whole. I've never been to a Yes concert, but Bro is a veteran and tells me that air-drumming is the done thing. As a whole Drama tends toward a kind of staccato vocal style from Horn which works well with the high pitched delivery. 'Into The Lens' always puzzled me when I was young. The whole "I am a camera. Camera camera" thing was a little odd to me. I listen to it now however and can appreciate the genius of its apparent stupidity. 'Run Through The Light' sees Horn trying on a bit of Sting styling on his vocal. They still find plenty of time for instrumental flights of fancy. Last track is 'Tempus Fugit', which is really more of the same, but there's nothing wrong with that. Against all odds this is a very satisfying album, Roger Dean is back at the cover designer's easel, but it's not one of his best. I never liked those cats. This is all followed by a bit of mucking around with a new band called cinema involving Squire, White, Kaye, Anderson and Trevor Rabin, which then morphed back into Yes-sans-Howe who went off to form Asia. Anyway, Asia are a band for another day and the upshot of all this from a Yes POV is 90125.
I never really liked that opening messy rattle and crash opening to 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart', but it didn't do the song any harm and remains the Yes song you are most likely to hear on the radio today. It's quite an odd thing really, lots of jarring stops and the odd shriek from Anderson who is now back on board as the Cinema project gets subsumed into a new version of Yes. This is their most commercial album by a long way and it really does have it all, high bombast, complicated arrangements, diabolical lyrics and a real sense of catchy pop. The poor lyrics are exemplified in 'Hold On' ("Justice to the left of you, justice to the right; Speak when you are spoken to, don't pretend you're right") and 'It Can Happen' ("It can happen to you; It can happen to me; It can happen to everyone even-tu-a-lee"). Complex arrangements can be found on 'Changes' which starts off slowly and studious before they get in touch with their MOR/Dire Straits muse. There's a really horrible frenetic bit just at the end too. The instrumental 'Cinema' is short and White (I assume) appears to be playing with a hand held clicky gas lighter throughout. When it comes to bombast, 'Leave It' takes the bourbon, abernethy AND custard cream. I always thought the exclamation of the title at the end of some lines was just like that heard across UK town centres at closing time "'E's not worth it Terry. LEAVE IT!" It's also a bit Dalek-like at times "LEAVE IT (DOCTORRRRR)!". Anyway, that's probably just me. There's some not-quite successful a capella stuff and more weak lyrics "goodbye, goodbye, goodbye bad; Hello, hello hello heaven". However, I'm not saying it isn't enjoyable. 'Our Song' starts just like Cat Stevens' 'Old School Yard', with that shimmering keyboard sound and becomes something like what REO Speedwagon or Journey were peddling a few years earlier. I really like 'City Of Love'. From the deliberate farty bass to Anderson's multilayered vocal. "Street corner wanderlust"? "How they jive and jingle"? "No woman no cry"? There was a video released at the time - 9012 Live - and this was a bit of a highlight on that too. It finishes with the substantial 'Hearts' which is slightly more traditional Yes I'd say. Quite epic actually and with a melancholy ending. Cover art is boring boring boring. Designed on an Apple computer claims Wiki-impressed-with-itself.
BIG GENERATOR ( 1987)Moving beyond my ken now. The first impression is that they've been listening to too much Beach Boys on 'Rhythm Of Love'. Mind you, that's about the most interesting thing about it. The lineup here is the same as for 90125 but it's a patchy effort. You almost get the impression they want to break into the poodle-rock market. The title track is a case in point where the conventional guitar grinds are set against Owner Of A Lonely Heart type fits and starts. 'Shoot High, Aim Low' sounds like a Floyd song with a Gilmour-esque groany vocal delivery, strangulated guitar solos and everything done in a minor key. I reckon I could have done the percussion on 'Almost Like Love' with a chopstick and a biscuit tin. More lyrical disasters on the musically decent 'Love Will Find A Way' - "Here is my heart, waiting for you; Here is my soul, I eat at Chez Nous". Oh dear. 'Final Eyes' belongs on one of those 'Soft Rock' compilations that were so inexplicably popular in the early nineties. I began to lose interest during 'I'm Running', but my attention was grabbed back by the slightly discombobulating 'Holy Lamb', which could be an attempt at a Christmas carol. It's good really. Has an air of Wonderous Stories about it. Jeez Loo-eez! What is it with the artwork in the mid eighties? This is rubbish, but there are two alternative versions. Is that interesting? Not in the least. Now, next up, if it walks like a Yes album and quacks like a Yes album, then it is a Yes album, even if it is rather awkwardly called Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe.
I think it is just the fact that Squire didn't want to play and the Yes name was his ball. They're not shy about portraying themselves as Yes, the Roger Dean cover is almost a caricature of his work and it sounds the part. Even the name is saying - look, we all know what this is, so we're not going to try and pretend otherwise by calling ourselves 'Buttered Crumpet' or something. Wikipedia tells us that the band was seeded by Anderson because he was unhappy with the commercial direction the band was taking. Thank God he wasn't in Genesis then. He certainly achieved his dream of moving away from stuff that was going to appeal to a wider audience. Die-hards only for this one I think. Plenty of sci-fi themes and musical volte-faces. I liked 'Fist Of Fire' which seems to have a sense of purpose about it. They breast the 10 minute mark on 'Brother Of Mine' which is a bit rambling but has its moments. I know I'm biased but the start to 'Birthright' seems like a straight rip-off of Marillion's 'Assassing', even down to the hefty drumbeats that come later. Not quite sure what Anderson is trying to say with the line "This place ain't big enough for Stars and Stripes" either. 'The Meeting' is a rather sweet little ditty. 'Quartet' too is very good and I think I detected a number of lyrical cross-references to earlier Yes songs.'Teakbois' starts with a full-on Salsa rhythm, which is novel for this lot. I can just see Anderson with big ruffled sleeves and a pair of maracas.As I look at the 7:40 running time I do wonder if they are going keep it up for the duration and indeed about three-quarters of the way through we seem to have made the transition from Cuba to Africa before we're yanked back across the Atlantic again. I imagine it split the fans, but I found it all rather inventive and enjoyable. 'Order Of The Universe' sounds like a gameshow theme tune at the start and when Anderson gets going he seems to get quite worked up about it. The closing 'Let's Pretend' is as light and fluffy as its title suggests. I'd say this is a qualified success. There's some odd detours from the usual Yes beaten track, but it is a good album.
Risky. In a brazen proverb-defying experiment, the many cooks of Yes come together (in a 'Union', d'you see?). So this consists of Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe, Squire, Rabin, Kaye, White. Or to put it another way, One main vocalist, two drummers, two guitarists, one bassist and two keyboard players. Actually when you think of it that way, it doesn't seem too over the top. Probably more than enough percussion though. This and the next album, 'Talk' are not available on Spotify so I had to turn to a friend for copies. Not sure why they are omitted. Reputedly many of the horde of members don't rate this one and the fans aren't keen either, indeed, my album providing saviour curled his lip as he handed the disks over, but it isn't so bad as to be shameful. The whole collective were never in the same recording studio at the same time and the songs themselves are a mish-mash of ABWH and latest Yes lineup compositions. It's fairly middle of the road. Both of the openers 'I Would Have Waited Forever' and 'Shock To The System' are quite anthemic. Kinda liked Howe's solo guitar 'Masquerade'. The title 'Without Hope You Cannot Start The Day' is a bit bleak isn't it? Not a great song either, an Anderson effort. The overall impression is that the whole thing is an exercise in coasting, using up some leftover songs and essentially just seeing who blinks first in the inevitable deadwood-cutting that would follow. 'Silent Talking' probably sums up the whole album, a horrible mess of styles all rubbing up against each other. The saving grace is that each song is the brainchild of just a few of them, so within themselves, the songs are fine, if a little bland at times. You know me, I'll leave no metaphor unextended, so I'll say that this broth is not so much spoiled as over-cooked. The Roger Dean cover is a good one, lots of nice curves.
So if there had been name wrangles on this album, they could have called themselves SWARK, or WRASK or SKRAW. We have Squire, Kaye, Anderson, Rabin. My album supplier intimated that this was the lower quality of the two he gave me, but I quite enjoyed this one even if it is a bit bland. I wouldn't call it prog. There is A LOT of layering on Anderson's vocals. Polyphonics were big in the mid-nineties. 'Real Love' has some nice throaty fuzzy bass. The aptitude for pisspoor lyrics has not been lost however. Consider this: "I wanna love, I wanna give, I wanna find another way to live" from 'Walls'. They might have been better off by finishing it with "I've been a miner for a heart of gold". The last piece is 'Endless Dream', in three parts, the opening 'Silent Spring' has a whiff of the old Yes about it, but it only lasts 1 minute 55. The main part, which doubles as the album's title track, gets a bit confused and starts tripping over itself. Then there is a short coda, also called 'Endless Dream' which is presented as a sort of choir of Andersons. Artwork is Abacab-level awful.
KEYS TO ASCENSION (1996-1997)They've thrown me a curveball with this. There are two albums, imaginatively distinguished by the number '2' at the end of the title of the second, a lot of which are live performances of older material. Well I ain't going through all that lot again, so we'll just concentrate on the new studio stuff from each album and call it all 'Keys To Ascension' The lineup now is Squire, Anderson, Wakeman, White and Howe (I DO hope you are keeping up, there will be a test at the end - not a joke). So on the first album we have 'Be The One', which is bashy and crashy and all rather good and 'That, That Is' coming in at a whopping 19:15. Howe's characteristic guitar plucking starts it off and we get treated to some berserk bass playing by Squire before it all calms down and Anderson croons away for a while. As you might expect, with nearly 20 minutes to play with they run the gamut, but it does represent a return to form I think.There are many more new studio tracks from the '2' album starting with another behemoth, 'Mind Drive'. Yes go about their business pretty confidently on this album. They capture their old selves really well. The second movement in 'Mind Drive' does appear to be strongly influenced by Zep's 'Kashmir' and there's also a little harking back to the sound of 'Wonderous Stories'. They are still polishing up some stuff they found down the back of the sofa though, Wiki-passes-for-research tells me 'Children of Light' was written by Jon and Vangelis as 'Distant Thunder' a few years before. Roger Dean retains the sleeve design contract. They have a new band logo as well, although they take a belt and braces approach by using the old one at the top too.
The road goes ever on and on. Yes have maintained the quality throughout, but are they progressing or just rehashing the same old stuff again and again? Lineup news: Wakeman is off to be curmudgeonly and has been replaced by someone going by the name of Billy Sherwood. There's some genuine pop here. 'Open Your Eyes' is good and I assume that the slightly butcher voice on the song is Sherwood himself. They also have a go at tackling World Peace on 'No Way We Can Lose', but only manage a Miss World-level of insight - "We can all find a way to resolve our differences, there's no way we can lose; When we all realize that there are no differences, there's no way we can lose". Good luck with that boys. In fact even by Yes's crappy lyrics standards this is particularly poor. "I am the man in the moon, and I hope to shine upon you very soon" and "Round and round and round I go; Where I stop no-one will know" are two typical pieces of doggerel from 'Man In The Moon'. 'From The Balcony' is a nice two-handed piece from Anderson and Howe and 'Somehow..Someday' is quite soothing too. Of course they have to weigh in with a 20 minute-plus track, and this time it is called 'The Solution'. However, there's a twist, the song itself only lasts just over 5 minutes, which is a relief because it's a right dog's breakfast. Then I thought there would be one of those hidden tracks because there is a couple of minutes of silence, but eventually birdsong, crashing waves etc come through and we get snatches of songs from the album. It's a bit self indulgent and ends up just being tedious, especially when you are on a mission like me and just want the damn thing to finish. Bit of a dull cover, somewhat reminiscent of their very first album.
OK. Let's not be coy. In my humble opinion this is a terrific album. Let's get the formalities over with first. Sherwood has abandoned keyboard duties and we have a new member, the starkly Russic named Igor Khoroshev. Wikipedia gasps that this is the only album where they are a sextet. Is that interesting? Don't think so. For what its worth, Igor does a decent job of emulating the Wakeman style. Anderson is on good form and Squire does a good line in glassy bass. There's a lovely quirky start to 'Lightning Strikes' which soon evolves into a rather fun salsa rhythm.'Can I' is somewhat 'ethnic' as well. Mind you, Anderson hasn't abandoned the rhyming dictionary just yet. Some of the lyrics might still be described as a little trite. However the final product is deeply satisfying and proves they haven't lost it just yet. Cover art: More RD. Naturalistic flying buttresses ahoy!
As we breach the millennium we are approaching the end. Only two more after this, although you might be forgiven for not thinking so judging by the amount of live albums and reissues you have to scroll through on Spotify to get to this one. Igor has been given the bum's-rushki, Sherwood is gone too. Wakeman is lurking in the background and will eventually return one year later, but for this album they are sans keyboardist. Only Yes could have come up with the solution of replacing the keyboards with a full orchestra. So this incarnation is 'WASH'. It is my intention to move on to Jethro Tull after I finish with this lot and the opening title track has a touch of the Tull about it. A sort of folkiness to the melodies, although Anderson would never pass for a bone fide hand-on-the-ear singer. The track is a bit of a curate's egg. Mostly good, but some horrendous collapses in places. After that they go a bit Bond-theme on 'Spirit Of Survival' Squire employs a chugging bass and its all very dramatic. 'Give Love Each Day' is as romantic as the title suggests.The chuck in a couple of 10-minuters, 'Dreamtime' and 'In The Presence Of'. The orchestra really comes into play here and I think it does give the album something extra however,I don't know what they were thinking with the cover.
If that is Anderson singing then I'm a double headed Fender 8-string fretless bass, and I can assure you, I am not. It's David Benoit, who replaces Anderson and Geoff Downes makes a return on the keyboards. I like Benoit's voice actually. It is still light, but a lot smoother than Jon Anderson. It's mildly interesting I suppose that on both occasions when they have had to replace Anderson, they've gone for a straight imitation (Horn) or an approximation (Benoit). I think it tells us something that for many bands, their 'sound' is intimately entwined with their singer's voice. For that very reason, this doesn't sound like a Yes album, even though musically they are sticking to what they know. Interestingly Horn is the producer, so the Buggles element is in place again, and I think it shows with a more consumable, poppy product. The whole first half 'Fly From Here' suite is some rehashed abandoned Buggles material. One part of it is called 'Bumpy Ride' and I held out faint hopes that they'd covered the Hoosiers' song of the same name. The second half, which one might quaintly call 'Side 2' in 2011 is a collection of shortish songs. Squire has borrowed the rolling bassline from Pearl Jam's 'Jeremy' on 'The Man You Always Wanted Me To Be'. 'Life On A Film Set' is a bit like 'Horse With No Name' and there is something quite Asia-ish about the "riding the tiger" motif in the lyrics. Howe gets to indulge himself with some classical guitar whimsy on 'Solitaire'. They close with 'Into The Storm' and it must be said that they do sound like their old selves. Rodge has dusted down his paintbox for the cover. It's probably fair to say that if you liked 90125 and Drama, then you'll like this. And if you like the Buggles then you'll like this. In fact, you'll probably like it anyway. It's quite good.
Here we are again at the end of an odyssey. I usually finish them off quickly, being heartily sick of the artist after listening to their entire studio output, good or bad, but for various reasons I've cruised into home slowly and smoothly this time. Yes have been remarkably consistent all along. I can't remember any real dogs and some albums are truly worthy of the accolade 'classic'. Even their later stuff maintains the standard, which is rare in Supergroupland. The lineup here is Howe, Squire, Downes, White and new singer Jon Davison. The guys are obviously feeling their age now as not only have they picked a singer who does a spot-on impression of Anderson, but they don't have to call him a different name either, nor even spell it differently. New ground is not being broken here. I think they wanted to add the missing 'One' to the title of 'Step Beyond', but you can't do that without everyone expecting them to break out into some ska influenced Madness. That particular song also has an over-simplistic keyboard melody. 'A World Of Our Own' is repetitive and slightly dull. 'It Was All We Knew' borrows the melody from 'My Grandfather's Clock', I swear it, which is appropriate given the nostalgic theme of the song. They go epic to finish the album, orchestral and portentous. As a swansong for Squire this is OK, but his best work was far behind him when he died earlier this year. Sherwood is back to replace him. From now on Yes will almost certainly have to continue to use Roger Dean covers, it's part of the mythology. This is a good one.
I was going to do a Yes lineup quiz to finish off, but it's just too hard and I can't be bothered. Instead I'll ask a simple question of those of you who remotely care. Your dream Yes lineup please (real or fantasy) and no Union-style job creation schemes involving 3 keyboardists. I dare you to leave out Squire.
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