IN THE PRESENT - LIVE FROM LYON

Yes

Symphonic Prog

3.53 | 165 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Obviously, if you are new to Yes, and have never heard a live recording, then you should be marching right down to your local record store to experience Yessongs.

But for the Yes fan, who has followed this band through triumphs and changes and wrong turns and comebacks, this album represents a fantastic discovery. Yes exists, even without the great Jon Anderson, and there is life in this material, even if you have heard these songs a thousand times before.

Yes has probably not sounded this good since the 70's. Benoit David brings a sweet sincerity to the vocals which has been lacking for the last couple of decades. He just carries such a friendly presence, that element which has been so special and positive about Yes. You can tell he really loves to sing in this band, and that he has a great deal of reverence for the songs.

The sound of the band is also great. The digital age has not been kind to Yes. Modern production techniques often made the band sound tinny and cheap on recordings in the 90's, because Yes songs have so much mid-range melody in them. The digital synthesizers that Rick Wakeman and Tony Kaye and Igor Khoroshev were palying didn't help matters. The keys played by Oliver Wakeman here sound just right, and the mix brings back the scope and grandeur and mystery of the music.

We have yet to hear what this band can really do. "Fly From Here" was a great resurrection of some Drama material, and a calling card for a resurrected band. I would love to hear what Benoit David could do as a writer, not having to jusitfy or apologize to fans for being the new vocalist, but being allowed to carry his own vision into the Yes of the future.

Anyway, this album documents a revitalized Yes on a special tour that showed how this music can still be played like it is meant to be played. I love it, and I am grateful for it!

freyacat | 4/5 | 2011-12-14

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