Where do I begin on this review? I guess I should start by saying that I’m a Yes fanatic and I have been since I was twelve years old – and for those keeping track, that’s a long time ago. I picked up their Close to the Edge album at a garage sale and hated it the first time I spun it. It took several repeat visits before I got it. That’s the thing with Yes music. You often don’t “get it” the first time you hear it. There’s a complexity that you miss with the casual musical encounter. That applies to this album, too. No, I’m not saying this is another CTTE. But then again, neither is any other Yes album.  For me, Yes is both a simple joy and a complex thing. I love Jon Anderson and a part of me feels a disloyalty to him when I like a Yes album without him. The thing is, Yes is Jon Davison, Geoff Downes, Steve Howe, Chris Squire and Alan White now. So, to like Yes in the modern day means to accept that, and I do. There really has only ever been one Yes song I haven’t liked in the whole catalog (more on that later). So, it’s a safe bet that I’m going to like a Yes album. It’s just a matter of how much I’m going to like it. I actually like this one a lot.

A number of critics have panned this complaining that it’s not progressive rock or not complex enough or whatever. Others have said that it doesn’t sound like Yes. Those are really pretty ridiculous complaints if you think about it. Let’s look at them individually. First, it’s not progressive rock enough. What exactly does that mean? There are a very wide variety of bands and sounds that (depending on the listener) are considered progressive rock. Everything from Marillion to Tool to Pink Floyd to Rush to the Beatles to Radiohead to Muse to Vangelis to Giant Squid and more can get labeled as “prog.” It’s a wide ranging field and there is no one sound by any means. I would say that this is as proggy as any number of things considered “progressive rock” by others. If you want to look at a traditional definition, progressive rock is music that progresses the style of rock music. By that definition most of the stuff that gets labeled prog wouldn’t be. I mean, playing something that sounds like something else played forty years ago isn’t progressing anything. So, that’s a silly argument, too. “It doesn’t sound like Yes.” So, there is a “Yes” sound then? I mean, to some degree, I get it, and I’ve commented where they’ve given us a sound here that seems new for them. Honestly, though, what is the common ground from “Beyond and Before” to “Siberian Khatru” to “All Good People” to “Owner of a Lonely Heart” to “Rhythm of Love” (that’s the Yes song I can’t stand, by the way) to “Soundchaser” to “Roundabout” to any number of other Yes songs? The “Yes sound” is a moving target. It’s an ever expanding field and by producing and releasing music under the “Yes” banner, they make that field grow.

So, what we’re left with is this question: “is this a good album.” No, it’s a great album. One can quibble or argue about where it lands in terms of the Yes catalog. But, the more you fuss and fight about it and try to categorize it, the more you miss the point. This is an entertaining disc. It’s one you should put into your player and let wash over you. It’s one with the classic layers of depth that reveal themselves in repeated spins. I like this album a lot and I’m glad it’s made its way into the Yes catalog. I’ll be listening to it for years to come. Of course, it’s Yes, so that’s a given.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2014  Volume 4 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Atmospheric melodic sounds open the album and the song builds out from there. The lyrics talk about drifting at one point and there is a real feeling of a guided drifting. I really like the vocal melodies and themes on this. There are some classic Yesisms in the music that drives the chorus. I really love the instrumental section on this piece. In some ways it makes me think of some of the guitar driven stuff that we heard on Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe. I’m reminded just a little of “Brother of Mine.” Geoff Downes manages some particularly tasty keyboard passages. This movement really feels a lot like classic Yes.