MIRROR TO THE SKY

Let's be honest: the classic prog band Yes is no more. The last genuine Yes album was Fly From Here, and the last real masterpiece by Yes was Magnification. Fly From Here was mostly composed by Downes, guess that's why it worked out almost as good as Drama, moreover it reminds The Yes Album in some passages. Magnification was the last Yes studio album with Anderson. Let's be accurate, the band Yes was mostly Jon Anderson's affair since its birth. I admit, other members' contributions were essential, but most of musical ideas and concepts came from Anderson. (That's why his solo albums, especially Olias Of Sunhillow, are musically closer to Yes than any solo effort by Howe or Squire, not to mention Wakeman or Moraz.) Now, Anderson is missing, and Downes stopped doing the writing after Fly From Here, so the band turned from Yes into Davison and Co. Surely Davison did an excellent job as a vocalist in Glass Hammer, and now he does a great job as a vocalist in Yes. However, his domination as a composer brings a very dubious result. His musical thinking is deeply poppy, looks like he unwittingly contaminates with pop every musical matter he touches. (In Glass Hammer all the music was written by Shikoh, Schendel and Babb, Davison only sang.) Heaven & Earth is (I'd say) shameful. The Quest is IMHO better but still unworthy of Yes. And now, their new album... I agree, it's somewhat better than The Quest, but that's all. There're a few brilliant moments in Luminosity and the title epic, and the three songs by Howe on the bonus disc are very nice. The rest is mediocre. Of course I understand the enthusiasm about Mirror To The Sky expressed by many listeners after being disappointed by Heaven & Earth and The Quest, I even started to be slightly enthusiastic myself... but after listening to Mirror To The Sky, the devil pulled me to put the Union LP on my turntable, and... Well, in brief, I gave up. Nothing to discuss. Union is widely considered a weak Yes album, but after Mirror To The Sky it was like a breath of fresh air and a sheaf of fresh ideas. Of 30-year- old ideas, now sounding more fresh than new ideas from Mirror To The Sky! No, the new Yes album is in fact not Yes. Far from that.