OLIAS OF SUNHILLOW

Jon Anderson´s first solo efford was his most ambitious and one of the most controvertial undertaking of his long and prolific career, either with Yes, solo, or with his many side projects with others. The fact that he played and sang everything on the album is a major achievement on itself and also - in my vision - the record´s biggest weakness. If he had called in some real good musicians to beef up some of the instrumental passages, it surely could reach a much higher status. As it is, Olias Of Sunhillow is very good, but it could have been excellent.

Let´s face it, I am a BIG Yes fan. And even more so when this album was out. I had to have it and I was completely taken by its lavish cover and pictures. The two gate fold was one of Roger Dean´s best, a real masterpiece and set the right mood to hear the record (something the CD version never did, it only contains part of the cover art and almost none of the lyrics and story). The music inside is very much inspired by both Yes and Vangelis works at the time. There were even some rumours that he played on the album (untrue, but it seems he was a kind of advisor for some parts). Anderson does a great job considering that he up till then was only known for his vocal prowness. His limitations as a musician at the time were enormous, and still, he did it very well. He reportedly played over 20 instruments on the album, including many exotic ones.

And yet I don´t hear Olias Of Sunhillow that much. I have to be in the right mood and it´s clearly not the album to just listen to any time (mostly I only put it on late at night or very early in the morning). It is too attached, too involved to the concept of the story to hold it on its own. It´s the perfect background music for the lyrics and the fantasy universe he created. I can´t see Yes playing any part of it on one of their shows (or even Anderson´s). Too new age-ish, too ambient music, and there´s nothing wrong with that. But I guess most of us fans wanted something musically more eathier at least on some parts. So I can understand both the praising and the criticism this album has got since then. The production was good, but could be much better.

Conclusion: good record by one of the most influential singer/songwriters of all time. He proved capable of doing everything himself and it worked well inside the story-frame. Just don´t expect any rocking moments or any great instrumentation in the vein of Yes or any other band. It´s an interesting musical story and should be seen as just that. Rating: 3,5 stars.