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Yes - In the Present - Live from Lyon CD (album) cover

IN THE PRESENT - LIVE FROM LYON

Yes

 

Symphonic Prog

3.53 | 165 ratings

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toroddfuglesteg
4 stars Hmmm.........

The Yes purists will gather around the speakers now and poke their walking sticks into them. The question is: Is Benoit David any good ??? Or let me re-phrase that: IS BENOIT DAVID ANY GOOD ??? Or to re-phrase that: Isbenoitdavidanygood???

The songs here are the usual best of Yes type of stuff with perhaps their massive hit single Owner Of A Lonely Heart as a sore thumb in the set list. Well, for me it is. The inclusion of Onward and Tempus Fugit is a welcome change of set list. Machine Messiah too is great. The rest is the typical best off stuff. And the band is performing them excellent. The solos is a bit boring to say at least.

Then we have Benoit David......

OK, he is 90-95 % from where Jon Anderson was in the 1970s. Benoit David cannot quite reach the high notes Jon reached on the classics like And You And I and Roundabout. That is Benoid David's shortcoming. And it is pretty visible when you sit and wait for that tone....... there...... there.... THERE !! .... not quite !! He missed it !!!

Then again..... Is Jon Anderson still as good as he was in the 1970s ? Would he reach these notes too ? I don't know. But Yes with Benoit David on the road is a very credible rhythmic orchestra and this live album proves that shelling out money to see them is really a no brainer. The alternative is to buy a time machine and go back to the 1970s. In that case, we are talking substantially more money than going to a Yes gig anno 2012 would set you back.

How would I rate this double album compared to Yesstory and others ? For a start, Awaken is sorely missing. But this is still an album just a notch below the great albums and an essential album for Yes fans.

But the bottom line is that this is a great double live album.

4 stars

toroddfuglesteg | 4/5 |

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