Heaven and Earth was disappointing for a couple of reasons. It was the first album from the latest lineup, so people were naturally excited to check it out anyway. Also, the band had just come off a three-album tour featuring classic albums that kicked ass. I assumed that somehow playing through those classic albums would put the band into a mindset similar to where they were in the 70's, and the music they subsequently wrote would reflect that. Not really a fair assumption, but not that ridiculous. The biggest stretch was probably that Jon Davison sounds the most like Jon Anderson of anyone else other than Anderson himself, acts like him onstage, has the same "spiritual presence" and hey, he even spells his name the same way. When we heard that he was also a songwriter and was working with Squire and Howe on new music, somehow I assumed that the results would be similar. Yeah, dumb to think that, eh?
What we got was an album of very nice music, I mean it all sounds great, but honestly it's boring as fuck. No energy, nothing uptempo. I wasn't expecting an entire album of "Tempus Fugit" but I also wasn't expecting a CD of elevator music.
If they ever make another album, I hope there's more of Downes in the writing, and perhaps even input from White, if he's well enough by then, just to vary things up a bit. Downes' only writing credit on H&E was part of "Subway Walls", and that was easily my favorite track on the album.
Compared to this,
Fly From Here feels like a B+/A- album, and even while *I* personally liked it, it wasn't so well-received by many fans (I don't think, at least at the time of its release - opinions may have changed since then), but with the way
Heaven & Earth turned out, the previous album has way more of that unique Yes-sound that I enjoy than H&E did.
I kind of hope that Yes put out just ONE MORE album, and throw in all of their best material and take it up a notch, just to say "Hey, this is it, this is the last one, so we're giving it all we've got" and just call it a day with one last album, one last tour, and hang up the towel.
Alternatively, if they want to continue the tradition of making Yes the type of revolving-door band, keep Howe and Downes, maybe Sherwood (who is pretty damn good on the latest CIRCA: album release last month), and write some fresh material. If White isn't up to it, find a fresher drummer, or just keep Schellen, who has worked with both Downes and Sherwood, in Asian and CIRCA: respectively, and already has some chemistry with the band.
With the exception of Jon Davison, the rest of the band consists of 3 members of Asia and 2 members of CIRCA:/Yoso, so they've definitely got some pretty good chops, and recent albums by Asia have been fairly good. I think this current band, with Davison/Howe/Downes/Sherwood/Schellen, could turn out one great record. I'd be excited to see how it would turn out.
If not, maybe they should just "pass the torch" and slowly revolve out older Yesmen and bring in new ones, but with White currently out, if Howe left, I wonder if anyone would still go see their concerts? The cries of Yesfans saying that it'd just be another "Yes Tribute Band" wouldn't be unreasonable, but then again, every iteration of Yes is technically a Yes Cover band when you think about it...
-Marc.
Topic: The Official Yes Thread (Read 262642 times)
