SONG OF SEVEN

I wish I could say that I have a soft spot for this album, but I can't quite bring myself to go that far. One good thing I'll say about it is that Jon Anderson's voice has rarely sounded better than on this album. Somehow these vocal melodies fit his vocal cords perfectly: he sounds less strained than on a lot of Yes songs from the late 70s (even though he still reaches for the same gorgeous high notes) and his voice overall has a really sweet, childlike quality to it. He also sings a duet with his daughter Deborah on the lengthy title track, which goes off a lot better than when he brough one of his children along on Yes's Tormato.

Unfortunately, a good vocal performance can only do so much good when the music itself is crap. Alright, there are a few memorable moments such as the catchy "Some Are Born" and the title track which is a great celestial soundscape, and "Heart Of The Matter", an unconvincing stab at a hard rock boogie, has at least stayed in my memory for the wrong reasons, but everything else goes in one ear and straight out the other. Utterly toothless, insipid pop fluff without any distinguishing features besides the vocals. I do find it interesting that the production of this 1980 album has a typical early-to-mid-70s flavour to it, perhaps because Jon refused to stray from his hippie roots by jumping on the synth-pop/rock bandwagon (time corrected that 'mistake' by the time he rejoined Yes three years later, I suppose...), but that doesn't really help to make the album less boring. No one except big Anderson fans need bother with this.