Nice summary of their later stuff. I pretty much agree with all of it.
Have you heard the latest, Fly From Here? If so, what do you think?
I really enjoy FFH, and it's the sequel to
Drama that never was. Had that line-up made another album, this would've been it! Well, with Benoit instead of Trevor behind the mic, this is as close as to
Drama-Yes we could ever have again, and as a HUGE fan of
Drama, this is a great album. There are 2 things that stick out to me - Steve Howe's guitar playing is phenomenal, and Benoit does a good job of performing on his first Yes studio album! Sadly enough, as a drummer, I am not too terribly excited by Alan White's drumming. It's good and works fine for the music but it's not like
Drama-good. As for Downes and Squire, they do pretty well, but I feel their performances on
Drama were better. Nothing really stuck out to me about Chris's bass playing. However, Geoff's keyboards provide the PERFECT sound and atmosphere to the album and really help that
Drama-feeling.
The title track/suite is expansive, but is a bit disjointed and feels less cohesive than any of their side-length suites/epics/tracks, even compared to "Mind Drive" and "That, That Is", particularly with the fade-in of "Part IV - Bumpy Ride", which sounds a bit tacky to me. The playing is good-to-great, but some of the material is a bit mediocre. It's hard to tell if the odd-meters seem forced or if they're natural, because they're scattered throughout the album, but it's hard to tell if it's the sugar-on-top to sweeten the album, making it tastier to prog-fans who crave something sweet... or if it's the sugar-baked-in, made and mixed in the pieces and not an after-thought.
Either way, the songs have some catchy hooks, good or bad ("Life On A Film Set" and it's nagging "riding a tiger" lyric...), and the production is top-notch. I think it will age pretty well with me, and sits at about the same place Yes' previous 2 albums would sit, despite being 3 very different albums by 3 different line-ups, but it's Yes - the band that's never released more than 2 consecutive studio albums with the same line-up!
If you are one of those fans that count ABWH as the 13th Yes album, and
Keystudio as their 16th, that would make
Fly From Here the band's 20th album, and being the end of a group of 10, mirrors the release of
Drama, but instead of being the end of an era of Yes,
Fly From Here sounds like the beginning of something new for them. If this line-up manages one or two more studio albums. I think they'll get to say all that is left, and they've still some time to put out good, or better material. I read that Squire is looking forward to doing a follow-up, and as a fan of FFH, I await their output (hopefully before the end of 2015!).
EDIT - Also, the full version of "Hour Of Need" is just spectacular! My playlist for FFH includes it instead of the normal, shorter version. I just love the explosive intro and outro!
-Marc.