No gimmicks, just Yes music.

"The sum is greater than all the parts combined." This has been said about Yes's music, and I'm finding
that this is the case when listening to the new Yes album Heaven and Earth.
Yes have been in a tight spot commercially probably since they released the Union album. This has
caused mixed reviews, and poor reception for many really good Yes albums since then. Yes has an
identity crisis. People can't just listen to Yes for what the music really is, but instead have really high
expectations, because there are so many aspects to past Yes albums to compare to. We have the frantic
Jazz fusion style of Relayer, the more mellow spacey mellotron soaked sounds of Close to the Edge, and
then there is this entirely new Yes that started in 1983 with Trevor Rabin as almost the band leader
instead of a replacement guitarist. Starting with the Union album each project has had a different
lineup, with different circumstances. Any album that is missing a member of the classic lineup from '73
will be highly scrutinized by Yes fans, and critics. But generally from 1971's The Yes Album to 1980's
Drama, the sound of Yes remained the same, with intense playing, strong harmonic vocals, an angelic
sounding lead singer, and epic arrangements which so many Yes fans love. But then Jon Anderson joined
this project called Cinema with Trevor Rabin, it made the band name change Yes by default while
breaking new sonic ground both in the pop genre, and the prog rock genre.
It was a totally new Yes sound, more shred oriented, or arena rock oriented, but with pop sensibility.
Many Yes fans hated this new sound. I was happy to see Yes still making albums, and I found myself
eventually becoming a fan of the new Yes. Theywere still technically very good, and still quite different
from anything else out there. They were still really Yes, most of the time. But later another project
happened on the side with Jon Anderson,Bill Bruford, Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe. Suddenly there
were two Yes bands. The A.B.W.H. sound still had this pop sensibility, but sounded much more like the
earlier lineup, because of the styles of Wakeman on keyboards, and Howe on guitar. Howe brought
some of the pop sensibility from his days with Asia, and later with GTR. The results were fantastic, and it
made of for the gap in Yes albums from 1983 to 1987.
Then the confusion began with the Union lineup. A combined ABWH and Trevor Rabin Yes project
released the Union album. The album apparently was partially recorded by individual musicians sending
tapes in, and additional studio musicians. It turned out to sound too obviouly pop oriented in places,
and the songs didn't seem to go together well. The better songs seemed to be from the Trevor Rabin
lineup, and the Billy Sherwood contributions. Billy Sherwood then added his own kind of Yes sound in
the Open Your Eyes album in 1997, and the Ladder in 1999. These changes in sound, added up to people
not knowing what to expect when a Yes album is released. But in actuality the Yes sound remained a mix
of hard rock, pop, and prog rock the whole time. Yes were trying to make hit singles, but this posed a
problem because the Yes fans would lambast the albums, and the albums were not technically as
impressive as theearlier stuff, and not really hard core prog rock anymore.
Now add to that, Jon Anderson leaves Yes, and Yes after 10 years of no albums go into the red to release
the Fly From Here album, and now with a singer that sounds very close to Jon vocally the Heaven and
Earth album.
They were alredy having this post-Union identity crisis, and Yes was showing with the Drama, and Fly
From Here albums that Yes without Jon Anderson was a hard sell.
So what could Yes do? They could make an instrumentally heavy album that makes up for the lack of
Jon. They could utilize the new Jon and make a retro Yes sounding album. Or they could do what they
did with the Ladder which was to combine the old and the new, which had dazzling results.
They didn't really attempt to make an instrumentally heavy album, and I'm not surprised. They did sort
of combine the old with the new, but more from a tried and true approach rather than a retro approach
like parts of the Ladder. They didn't really shoot for up tempo pop songs like 'Open Your Eyes', or 'Don't
Go' from the Magnification album. Instead they just came up with 8 mostly mid-tempo songs, and
focused on melody, and tried and true approaches to Yes arrangements. The songs are accessible, but
not obviously pop sounding like 'Shock to the System' from the Union album.
The first track 'Believe Again' is very catchy, with a repeating motif that clearly was a Howe contribution.
He uses the volume pedal to introduce this motif which sounds like something from his Remedy album.
On thesolo he uses the same motif to start the solo, but with no volume pedal, and slight distortion.
Throughout the album, I don't really find many new guitar ideas introduced, but some of the guitar ideas
are new to a Yes album. Overall it seems conservative, and restrained somewhat.
'Believe Again' has some really great uplifting, positive lyrics that you would expect from Yes. I found
that with Jon Davison's singing he sounds better when he sings a phrase that includes higher notes, than
when he sings lower notes. Singing is a dramatic thing. Singing lower notes is difficult because you don't
have much room to express yourself. Jon Anderson seems to be able to put stress into the lower notes,
but when he sings higher notes, it's always clear, and you take it for granted, unless it's a louder song.
But with Jon Davison his higher notes seem to be more dramatic than Anderson, and his lower notes are
sung well, but not as much dramatic impact. Other than that, although I prefer Jon Anderson's singing
overall, he does an excellent job of expressing the lyrics, and singing overall. I was getting tired of
hearing Jon Anderson's globalist left leaning, new age lyrics which seemed preachy at times. Jon Davison
reflects the earlier lyric style of Yes, but something hegenuinely feels, and believes in. That is a fine line
to walk, and we are fortunate to have someone like Jon Davison singing for Yes. When Trevor Horn sang,
it was so different from Jon that it sounded true to what Trevor wanted to sing, but it lyrically was
somewhat dated, and vocally was not exceptional for the most part. Davison really knocks it out of the
park.
To be honest, the next couple tracks I found to be an aquired taste that I still am aquiring. The first track
was mid-tempo, and it's one mid-tempo track after another. Alan White's drumming style seems to have
moved in a more adult pop direction with a more jazzy swingy sound, and even some vibes, and bongo
drums in there. But 'The Game' is still pretty catchy. It just doesn't have the syncopation that I would
expect, and the piano sounds seem to be layered in a way that kind of disorients me. It almost sounds
out of tune. It's not a disaster, but it's just a bump in the road at first. I think what I'm missing is some
rhythm guitar. But at any rate, it's just a slighly wierd arrangement. It seems a little softer than other Yes
songs.
At any rate, it's another catchy song, that's not overtly using pop cliche's and gimmicks.
What I mean is that you could use anything as a gimmick to give the listener the impression that this is
really hip, or a true prog rock album. It doesn't have these gimmicks that sort of all short that I find on
many of the latter Yes albums. It just moves nicely, and it's very polite, not insulting your intelligence for
the most part.
Probably the track that I'm most critical of it 'Step Beyond'. The lyrics I find are too pretentious, and
repetitious. The rhyming almost sounds forced, and it has this cute Marillion like synth pattern almost
throughout, which perhaps should have come in later instead of in the beginning. At first I wanted to
skip the track which is rare for me, but I find it nicer the later you get into it. It's similar in feel to some of
the tracks on the Magnification album. I would have to say it feels kind of corny, because it could have
been slighly faster, and played more aggressive, and the lyrics wierd me out a little.
So far the album is delightful, with such a rare sound. Hardly any music out there that sounds like this,
but we did have one bump in the road, and nothing so far really spectacular as far as technical playing,
or something that jumps out at you. No Yes-gasm yet.
The albums is definitely my choice for hearing something relaxing. It would be great to listen to while on
a nature walk, or in the park.
'To Ascend' really shows off a great melody, and some moving lyrics. It's a jewel of a track. But again it's
mid-tempo, nothing really radical instrumentally. It's a Yes ballad of sorts. I like the vocal mix with Chris.
I love hearing Steve Howe'sold acoustic guitar sounds in this mix. Alan White throws in some rim
tapping in there to keep the meter going. Nice string arrangement. It's really quality stuff. This is a new
development with Yes these ballad type songs, and a side of Yes that I am happy to see appear. I think
this is a timeless piece.
'In a World of Our Own' has some clever lyrics that has unexpected twists and turns. It's a bit of a jazzy
shuffle in parts with vibes, and acoustic piano. Again it doesn't have too many gimmicks, it sounds
appropriate, very mature. Howe just teases us with this jazzesque solo, playing these quick phrases. The
lyrics make this song, it's not that much instrumentally. The melody is a bit mundane, but the lyrics, and
the mood are memorable. They do kick intothis part with organ stabs, but it Alan White just keeps
playing this shuffle. It seems like Alan should have put some fills in there, to build it up. Howe's guitar
solo really captures the mood, and puts the icing on the cake.
'Light of the Ages' is a very promising title for a song, so I was expecting something really special. It shas
this intro with some syncopation, and tom rolls sort of like Pink Floyd, or maybe Rush. With the string
arrangement, and with Howe's slide playing, it's very promising start. Chris does this run on the bass
which sounds like something Jon Anderson would like to sing. Then it moves right into a mid-tempo song
that has this strong melody, and again promising lyrics. This song has lots of twists and turns, changes in
key, tempo,and instrumentation just like this hard core '70's prog. But the melody is different, and the
way it's arrange sounds different. This is where I think the sum is greater than the parts combined. It's
like Yes with Eddy Offord, it's just rich with so many textures, and chords. You might find the vocals to
be a little squeaky sounding compared to Anderson here. Just really nice, and worth listening to over
and over. Jon Davison seems to like to rhyme more solidly than Jon Anderson. I kind of wish this song
would be longer, and go somewhere, it builds up into something, but ends. They could have done
something with this.
'It Was All We Knew' is a more up tempo, but still kind of a 'Margaritaville' Yes thing. This reminds me of
the group America in parts, and also the Association. It's a la la la song. Light hearted song. Steve puts
some dual guitars in there with this repeating motive. This song does have a part that jumps out at you.
Howe's more later guitar approach is not very hardedged, not really distorted, usually I don't like that,
but maybe that would be more appropriate for this song. Well it's kind of a dreamy song, nothing like
the previous song, just whimsical. It's kind of repetitious, so I might get tired of this one after awhile, but
it's short, and sweet.
'Subway Walls' is probably the most challenging song to listen to from the sense that the song is more
constructed tightly with a string intro by Geoff Downes who co wrote the song with Jon Davison. I keep
forgetting that this lineup is 4/5ths of the Drama lineup, which I really liked. This one does sound more
like the Drama sound with the minor chord string intro. The playing gets more technical on it, much like
Drama's 'Does it Really Happen' track. It's full of surprises, and this is the one track that does have
sounds, and techniques, and an arrangement that is something that I really haven't heard from Yes
before.
It's not over the top frantic jazz fusion playing like 'Sound Chaser', but it's edgy, and shows how strong
Yes are both instrumentally, vocally, and in the song writing/arrangements. The lyrics ask some
questions that are worth asking, and this goes good with the rest of the songs subject material. This one
would be fun to see Yes play live. I hope they play this one live. It's got a burning Hammond solo from
Geoff Downes along to this tricky odd beat, then Steve Howe proceeds to rip a solo with his classic
repeating runs approach on a distorted guitar.
In summary this album should be very friendly to progrock ears, but some of the songs are accessible,
and it's not too heavy. It's a heart warming album and a breath of fresh air from those Yes albums that
seemed too preachy in parts, and too gimmicky. The vocal balanced nicely by Billy Sherwood. With the
exception of one track, the overall sound is not flawed as far as I can tell. There are many other prog
rock bands out there putting out great stuff, even recently, but there is nothing quite like this album out
there. It's a unique, purposeful, refreshing gem of an album. It could have been a little more edgy, and
instrumentally technical, and I sort of mis Jon Anderson's singing on it, but that doesn't prevent it from
being a very enjoyable recording that I will enjoy for years to come. I think it has moredepth than many
a Yes albums, it's a grown up Yes sound.