HEAVEN & EARTH

To cut to the chase straight away, this is a pleasant album, no more no less. In Yes's case I find this to be a good thing because to my ears the previous few albums weren't, in fact I found them to be quite annoying. Fly From Here was a boring rehash of fairly boring material, Magnification was a snooze fest and I'd have to go back to The Ladder as the last album of theirs I enjoyed a lot and still do. On the flipside, nothing here is exciting in any way, it just trickles along and now and again you'll probably tap you foot to a rhythm. Possibly. Heaven and Earth contains a lot of songs that are ok to hear if you lower your expectations just a bit and listen to them without constantly reminding yourself that this is in fact Yes. It then takes on an identity of its own, although it's a small identity. Honestly, how many decades back is it that Yes were actually Yes? Either you accept that or you don't, I mean, come on, they have reinvented themselves for better or worse several times without bothering about expectations, but some people have apparently failed to notice and accept this for a quite some time. Yes has been uninteresting for a very, very long time now, questionable personnel choices have been way more interesting than the music. Just a few thoughts that spring to mind: - Jon Davison does a very good job by not trying to emulate Jon Anderson. Apart from the natural high pitch of his voice I can't detect many similarities; he's apparently comfortable being himself. Good for him. Benoit David was quite bad in that respect. As an aside I'd like to say that I can't understand the view that Yes without Jon Anderson isn't Yes. JA was instrumental in fabricating some of Yes' most horrendous atrocities (Talk or Open Your Eyes, anyone?). This album is miles better than those albums, go figure. - Why is it that most drummers upon reaching a certain age seem to think that less is more? Well, they couldn't be more wrong! If a drummer such as Alan White loses his balls, he should go and join an old folk's dance band. The man has achieved great things in the past, the magnificent Relayer is a case in point, but the last albums have made me wonder if he isn't suffering from arthritis or something. Deep Purple's Ian Paice is another case in point, just tired old men - The bass is still interesting and great, 'nuff said. Good old Chris. - Steve Howe? Well, sadly on here he sounds undistinguished, but on the other hand I doubt that the spirit of these songs would allow great guitar pyrotechnics. That's just the spirit of Yes nowadays. - The keyboard player, whassname, is adequate, I doubt even Rick Wakeman could light much of a fire under mid tempo songs such as these, but as I said, he doesn't have to, that wouldn't be in the nature of these tracks. - The vocal harmonies are nice. Period. they are probably the main connection to the Yes of old and still good. One thing that does disturb me quite a lot is that all songs are a bit samey. A lot samey, actually, after a while the album starts to drag. As I would rate the previous albums 2 stars and this seems better, I think I'll have to give it 3 stars. I can't picture myself listening to it very often though. It's easy listening, and I suppose that's ok.