LOVE WILL FIND A WAY

"Love Will Find a Way" is a very good Pop Rock song from Trevor Rabin with good arrangements , including a string section arrangement in the introduction (done by Rabin), plus some acoustic and electric guitars and a solo played with harmonica by a session musician. It also has some good keyboards atmospheres and good lead and backing vocals, plus the very typical eighties studio production (some reverbation added) and very present drums by Alan White. It is one of the best songs from their "Big Generator" album and it was a good choice to be released as a single. It was a hit for the band in the U.S. and a very popular song in the radio. It also has a video clip which I watched once in one TV channel of my country. The song was also played on tour by Yes in some dates in late 1987, but with an abridged version which didn`t include the harmonica solo. Maybe it wasn`t easy to play this song in concert so the band only played it during a few concerts.

"Holy Lamb" is a religious / spiritual song by Jon Anderson done with a Pop Rock arrangement. It has a brief organ solo by Tony Kaye at the end. With the lyrics having a similar theme to "The Meeting" which was recorded by Anderson-Bruford-Wakeman-Howe in their album from 1989. The differences between both songs are that "The Meeting" musically is a more Progressive Rock song than "Holy Lamb". Yes also played "Holy Lamb" in concert, but not in all the dates of their "Big Generator" tour in 1987-1998, and they sometimes played the song without drums in an abridged version.

Yes will find their way (towards harmonic convergence)

Love Will Find A Way is a song written by Trevor Rabin which was released as a single from the Big Generator album in 1987. The 7" single holds an edited version of the song which is about half a minute shorter than the album version. The b- side of the single is Holy Lamb (Song For Harmonic Convergence) also from Big Generator. Both songs are good but if you have Big Generator there is not much extra here worth wanting.

The 12" single holds instead an extended version of the title song running for seven and a half minutes (compared to the just under five minutes of the album version). This longer version does not compare favourably with the album version in my opinion. The 12" version of the single also holds a remix of the song called The Rise And Fall Mix. The latter is really only a curiosity and does not stand up well to repeated listens.

A music video was made to the song which used, if I'm not mistaken, yet a different edit which is only slightly shorter than the album version.

I bought this cassingle when it came out, but once I got Big Generator, it basically became redundant to me. I say "basically" because the version of "Love Will Find a Way" on the single is slightly different from the album version. Specifically, the cool violin-combo introduction is not included, and the song fades about 40 seconds after the harmonica solo, while Anderson is singing "I believe that there's a way." One measure is also removed right before the fade begins. "Holy Lamb," the b-side, appears to be identical to the version on Big Generator.

I also picked up the twelve-inch single a few years ago at a used record shop. The extended mix of "Love Will Find a Way" retains the violin intro and, as is typical for the time, a drum-machine pattern replaces Alan White's drum parts. The guitar is also pushed back a bit in the mix. One thing that's cool is that the vocals on the second verse ("so you wanna get over me") are mixed a bit differently, providing a nice contrast with the three-part harmony of the first verse. The mix sticks to the original structure of the song until the end of the harmonica solo, around 4:20, after which it devolves into breakdown, then cycles through a few instrumental sections. Between 5:45 and 6:00 the vocals familiar from the ending of the album version return, mixed differently of course, and the beat goes on after these end, with a replay of the violin intro, a bit more drumbeat, and a somewhat abrupt end. Not bad, but not special.

The "Rise and Fall Mix" of "Love Will Find a Way" is much more of a departure from the original. It is interesting - - it uses parts not included in the canonical mix - - but not inventive, as Trevor Horn's reimagining of "Leave It," for example.

The single version and the extended mix of "Love Will Find a Way" are on the 2009 reissue of Big Generator, meaning that only the "Rise and Fall Mix" isn't easily obtainable. But since that mix is far from essential, the twelve-inch single is really for fans only - - two stars. The seven-inch single (or the cassette single) is even less essential, and deserving of just one star. Since this entry includes both, I'll err on the side of leniency and assign two stars.