MIRROR TO THE SKY

I'm listening to this album as I write the review. I listened to 'Cut from the Stars' last night. A good song, Steve Howe is just as good as ever, however, I must mention one downfall of the album, and it is a MAJOR pitfall. The lyrics. Now, Jon Davidson does a good enough job with singing his best Jon Anderson impression. I've heard it said that Yes is like an art gallery, going from one room to the other with lineup changes. I believe that that is true. 'All Connected' opens with some nice guitar, which I think is a slide, but I could be mistaken, I'd have to go back and look again. I'll have to do a deep listen again sometime. 'Luminosity' is one of those songs that when it ends, you say 'oh that's over? sad' and then never really listening to it again. Great guitar though, and I do enjoy the song, very nice guitar solo. I have yet to hear a Yes song that's over 9 minutes that is bad. Great ending solo by Howe, his playing hasn't aged a day. Next up we have 'Living out Their Dream' this album so far reminds me of Colin Masson's 'Isle of Eight' which is in a way good, since that is a good album. So if you've ever heard that, you'll like this album a lot. The instrumentation reminds me a lot of that, but on here there's less distortion on the guitar. The song is good, mostly instrumental, one of the shorter songs on the album, long guitar solo in the middle, again, very nice. This album does feel kind of celestial in a sense, very good so far. It does the job of bridging the gap between the last few albums and classic works. It's a modernized version of Yes. They're progressive rock, so, while those who wish Yes were more like the classic era, I sympathize, but also, bands are allowed to evolve. That's what a major part of Yes is, evolving. Next up we've got the 13+ minute 'Mirror to the Sky'. I know i'm going to be talking a lot about Colin Masson here, and it may just be me, but if you told me that this was a Colin Masson album, I'd believe you. I love the guitar throughout, percussion/drumming is very solid. Downes is no Rick Wakeman, but he does a solid job with soundscapes and such during instrumental breaks. The orchestral section is very well done. I realize that the more recent Yes albums have these longer songs on them, but I still wish some had those side-long suites, those epics every now and again. I suppose the last one would be on 'Fly From Here', with the 5-part suite, great song. 'Circles of Time' is a nice shorter ballad, more of a pop-song, suites Davidson's voice well enough, but strays from the album's sound a bit much in my opinion, still a nice song. Not as nice lyrics, pretty enough however. 'Unknown Place' is another 8+ minute track, which opens up on a very lovely Howe acoustic intro. The bass on this song is strong, and the track continues into a vocal section after some chanting. I remember the pretty instrumental sections more than the vocals sections. 'Once Second is Enough' is another shorter song on the album. It passes by, filler, which I'm hesitant to say about a Yes album, but this song is filler. 'Magic Potion' the album closer, repeating guitar line from Howe provides this song with a sense of motion, moving towards the end of the album.

Overall, does this compare to many of Yes's earlier works, no, however, it is still a HUGE step up from many of their previous works, so, I was on the fence about 4-5 stars. If this was a random artist's album, I might be more leniant towards a 4. I debated, and finally decided to give it four stars. Despite some of this album's noodling in some places, it's relatively structured, and besides, that album cover.