THE LADDER

In late September 1999, YES came to my country to play for the second time, but this time, with few publicity (I knew 2 weeks before the concert that YES was going to play again here, and due to job`s reasons, I only bought my tickets one day before the concert). In 1998, YES played 3 concerts in my country, and the publicity and tickets were available 2 months before the concert. I bought then my tickets one and a half months before the concert. In 1999, I went to see YES, and as I didn`t have the new album "The Ladder" (which I bought a week later), I hear the new songs, and one song particularly stayed in my mind: "It will be a good day", the main reason to buy this album. This is the best song from this album. But in general, the album is good. With YES having then a keyboard player like Igor Khoroshev, who is really a very good keyboard player, this album is better than "Open Your Eyes". The songs of this album were composed by the band as a whole. Even Khoroshev, who never was an official member of the band (I don`t know why), is listed as composer with the members of YES. This album has a lot of influence from Jon Anderson`s "World Music" style in songs like "Lightning strikes", "Can I?" (a "world music" remake of "We have heaven"), and "Nine Voices". There are some "World instruments" performed by Randy Raine-Reusch. "Lighting strikes" has a horn section ("The Marguerita Horns") in this "Afro-Cuban" influenced song. It is mostly a Progressive album. But one song is "very pop": the ballad "If only you knew" (dedicated by Anderson to his new wife). Khoroshev sounds like Wakeman sometimes, but YES gained a lot with his keyboard playing, being him a competent keyboardist. "It will be a good day" has very good keyboards atmospheres and good guitars too.