ANDERSON BRUFORD WAKEMAN HOWE

This is Yes in all but name. We have here an explosion of ideas-some lengthy and suite-like- performed by 4/5ths of the classic Yes line-up that recorded 'Fragile' and 'Close To The Edge'.

Jon Anderson seems particularly fired up by a disdain for the capitalist mechanisms of the music industry on the opening track 'Themes' which features lyrics like 'Be gone you ever-piercing power play machine!' and 'I am out at thee with a vengeance!'.

After years of amassing solo projects under their collective belts, Bruford, Howe and Wakeman sound inspired and driven playing in the same room. Wakeman's keyboard wizardry then blasts through the speakers on the cinematic 'Fist Of Fire' like a long lost friend!

Next is the multi-part 'Brother Of Mine' which is fine but doesn't do quite enough to justify its running time. This is followed by 'Birthright', a song where Jon Anderson waxes lyrical about the nuclear testing in South Australia in the 1950s.

Musically, the band are in top form here with Howe's stinging guitar lines matched with Bruford's tribal polyrhythms against a backdrop of Wakeman's painterly keyboard layering.

As with a lot of Yes albums since the glory era, things become a bit inconsistent after this point and the middle sags considerably with some decorative, feathery material. The latin-infused 'Teakbois' picks up the pace a bit but feels more like a Jon Anderson solo venture than a true group effort.

Things are salvaged though with the hard-rocking suite 'Order Of The Universe' which hammers things home with a big drum sound, kitchen sink percussive clangs, hard-rock guitar and cheesy but epic synth brass. This track is also the closest Anderson's choirboy vocals have come to sounding 'gritty'!

The closing track 'Let's Pretend' rounds things off nicely with a spare arrangement of vocals and acoustic guitar and the whole production is packaged in a fantastic canyon fantasy landscape sleeve by Roger Dean. What more could a Yes fan ask for at this point?

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