HEAVEN & EARTH

I really can't understand the fuzz around this record. Is it a kind of Asch conformity thing or am I getting mellow as I get old? By the time of the release of Open Your Eyes (1997) I heard Steve Howe say that they were trying to unite the best of the 70s and the 80s Yes. Well, Heaven and Earth did it. First I appreciate the fact of the band moving on to something else and not simply repeating old formulas. Jon Davison proved to be a helpful and talented hand in the writing department. I don't dislike any of the songs. According do Davison, they were paying more attention to the harmony side of it and I can see where he is coming from. To Ascend is one of the best Yes tracks in many years. Subway Walls, the opening track and The Game are all very fine, so is Light of the Ages. In a World of Our Own has a Beatlesque feel to it, and Step Beyond and It Was All We Knew have a childish (not in a pejorative way) cadence. The arrangements are fine, the drums is good (not pedestrian as I read here) and, as mentioned before, the harmony is strong, emotional (what music should really about) and there is no lack of good guitar licks.

It only isn't rated as five stars in respect of the magnificence of Close to the Edge.