FLY FROM HERE

I must admit, I had the lowest of expectations for this album. Jon is and always will be the real voice of Yes to me, and despite Drama being a really strong album I just wasn't prepared to accept the fact that they were going to go Jon-less a second time.

After they fired Oliver Wakeman and rehired the Buggles to help with the album I was convinced this band had totally lost it and were going to turn in the biggest turd of their career. Quite frankly, that's what I wanted to happen. How dare you fire Jon Anderson! At first I wasn't even interested in hearing the album.

Am I eating my words now? Yes I am! To an extent though.

Having the songwriting and production talents from the guy who was behind some of the biggest pop successes of the 80's and 90's (Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Pet Shop Boys, Seal, etc) has really worked in Yes's favor, and they have turned out some of their most naggingly catchy and memorable vocal melodies that have graced a Yes album in years. That's one thing that's really striking about the album is how strong the vocal melodies are (for the most part, we'll get into the offensive stuff later). Another nice thing, and I hate to admit this, but it's nice to listen to a Yes album where the lyrics make sense and aren't full of ridiculous grammatical errors. The instrumentation is also very much like it was on Drama, uncluttered and tight. Some great unison playing by the band.

The "Fly From Here" suite is really strong overall, which has a darker, more atmospheric feel than most typical Yes tracks. Fans of the Drama album will find a lot to like here. Think "Mind Drive" or parts of "Machine Messiah." It's more a suite of very strong songs rather than a full-blown prog epic, but the songs really sound like they belong together. All are quite stately and dramatic. The "Sailor, sailor beware" section will eat into you like a leach! "Sad Night At The Airfield" is Yes sounding a little like Pink Floyd but that is definitely a good thing, very dramatic and dark song with some astral slide guitar which is very similar to Gilmours slide work. Sounds like it could have been one of the best tunes on The Division Bell. The main chorus of "Fly From Here" is fantastic. Steve Howe's playing is on fire like I haven't heard him in quite a long time. Just the right amount of distortion, plus a nice, sharp attack. Grand percussion fills spaces at just the right moments, and heavenly mellotron choirs make surprise appearances as well. Sounds totally fresh despite it being a major rework of a previously unreleased track, and has just enough of a retro flair to not feel like we're too far from a classic Yes album.

The only downside of it is the wretched piece of circus music called "Bumpy Ride" which does nothing but nearly derail the entire suite - thankfully the end is strong enough to recover it. It's a bizarre section of music, first starting with semi-mild circus music, reverting back to a short ambient section from the main section, then repeating itself again, this time faster and to a nearly hilarious effect. There's some very awkward and unsettling chord changes with Howe's silly "Arriving UFO" effect. When the corny Survivor-style 80s synth brass hits at the beginning of the Fly From Here reprise you may just lose it - all I could think is wow, they've made it through a flawless new epic and NOW they're going to screw it up? Come on! It does finish nicely though, and you still get the general impression that you've heard some really good music. Still, when I hear a Yes epic I want to be wowed for the entire duration. This is the first 20 min plus Yes tune which has sections of music I absolutely cannot stand, which fortunately are brief but I don't like feeling like I'm hearing an interruption when I'm listening to a song that's 20+ minutes long. Thankfully, the suite is indexed, so you can conveniently skip it. I don't know who wouldn't want to.

Unfortunately this is the beginning of an uneasy period of the album where you feel things could fall apart at any minute. Next we have Squire's disgusting, saccharine ballad "The Man You Always Wanted Me To Be" which is no better than your typical corny soft-rock fare. "Life On A Film Set" is hit or miss for me, it starts with a very mellow and awkwardly sung section but does gain some energy in it's second half and finishes strong. Again, fans of Drama will like this one, which is also from the same time period.

Now on to Howe's self-penned tunes - "Solitare" is not his best acoustic solo spot, and in fact is downright awkward sounding. The sections of the song sound unrelated and stitched-together and the overall sound is clumsy. Thankfully he pulled out a minor gem with "Hour Of Need" which is a sunny,mellow acoustic tune with a nice chorus. Wouldn't have sounded out of place on The Ladder.

The real bang-up job of the album is the closing tune "Into the Storm" which is the only collaborative effort on the album and features writing credits from not only Benoit David but Oliver Wakeman and Trevor Horn as well. It starts off sounding like a Flower Kings tune (which I'm totally fine with!) in the sense that it has that optimistic sunshiney major-key prog sound we all know and love, with a cute analog synth/guitar unison line and some really firey Howe runs before the multi-layered vocal harmonies kick in. Plus it's got Squire's cool "underwater" bass sound from Tormato. It's instantly lovable. The "Armies of angels are starting to fall..." backed by an appropriately angelic mellotron choir may knock you out of your chair. It ends with Benoit reprising the "Fly from here" line over a cool bass and guitar driven jam. Hands down the best tune on the album. Perfect.

Final thoughts? Lots of really strong material here. Even though it's not as consistant as The Ladder, or it's lesser follow up Magnification, I would have to say already that I prefer this album over those ones already. Although not as consistant, the high points are much higher for me. Unfortunately the few lows are pretty bad, but there's not too many of them. Benoit David is fantastic, overall I'm really impressed with his singing on here. Plus he doesn't belt out the astral high notes as often as Anderson did, so guys with a more average range such as I can actually sing along (and you'll find yourself doing it) in most spots. Yes also does well with a strong producer, they've done some really good stuff when they've been "reigned in" and I think that at such a late stage of their career, outside guidance/writing can be a good thing. Overall my feelings about the album are good. It's not up there with their best, but is easily one of their strongest if not the strongest from their later period (mid 90's and forward) and has a few gems that would be compilation-worthy. For sure worth checking out, and for those still crying the blues about Jon being gone (which was me prior to hearing this) please try to keep an open mind!