ANDERSON BRUFORD WAKEMAN HOWE

2.5 stars. Just a huge disappointment given who is playing on here but I understand it's 1989. The last really good YES album prior to this is "Drama" in my opinion which doesn't compare to their classics. This is a tough listen for me with Bruford's electronic drums and Wakeman's plastic sounding high pitched synths. Fans must have been hopeful though back in the day after a couple of commercial sounding YES albums in "90125" and "Big Generator" here was the classic lineup without Squire(my favourite) but replaced with Tony Levin who I'm a big fan of. Three tracks over 9 minutes would have first caught the eyes of the classic YES fan but when they spun it, well this is I guess a modernized sounding YES and it does not sound good. A lot of cheese and sugar here. Check out the World music sound on "Teakbois" if you dare(haha). A ballad in "The Meeting". I'm sorry but "Fists Of Fire" makes me laugh. I don't want to get any more insulting other than to say these guys knew better didn't they? I do adore that album art though.