ANDERSON, BRUFORD, WAKEMAN, HOWE

In order to provide an anchor to my personal rating system, I needed to review my own worst prog album. The criteria for this would include the following: no new or interesting musical contributions, veteran musicians who should know better (I won't hold some poor material against a band that is trying to experiment or find their way), and lots of cheesy and/or irritating parts. Much as it pains me, ABWH has these characteristics in spades.

I liked the cover art. I liked the artists (even with the absence of my favorite Yes member). I liked the extended lengths of songs. Then I heard the music. Tacky synth effects and flourishes, cliched rhythms and melodies, and that's not even including Teakbois. The only one that I liked is the mellow closer, Let's Pretend; unfortunately, it's impossible to pretend that this album happened.

Don't get me wrong--there is MUCH worse music out there. This music is simply generic and cheesy, especially from a prog perspective and considering these musicians' commendable accomplishments (both before and after). Even though it's packaged as a Yes album, I don't feel like I found the "lost" Yes album...I feel like I bought a turd sandwich.

Maybe I just need to hear Love Beach to put things in perspective...