ANDERSON BRUFORD WAKEMAN HOWE

It should have been a foolproof plan. Put back together the Fragile/Close to the Edge era lineup of Yes minus Chris Squire, get back to the group's prog roots, and put out an album for the joy and appreciation of prog audiences disaffected with the Big Generator's output. And it has to be said that ABWH make a good show of it for their debut album. The inclusion of Tony Levin in the lineup on bass is an inspired choice - his bass style will never be mistaken for Chris Squires, but this helps distinguish the band's sound from classic Yes and takes it into slightly different territory, and I'm sure the band all realised the potential advantages of having a rhythm section who (through their work on three King Crimson albums) were already used to working with each other. And some of the songwriting is pretty good - Brother of Mine has some pretty good passages.

However, there's an issue: the production values are so 80s they hurt, and not in a good way. From Rick's occasionally Casio-sounding keys to Bill's artificial-sounding drums to the cheesy clapping during Brother of Mine, the sound of the album is horribly dated - and probably sounded dated back in 1989, considering that the production values here would be more suited to an early Asia album. On top of that, the mix is really shoddy - the drums are too loud, Steve Howe's guitar playing is too quiet, and Tony Levin's bass performances are often buried entirely. One for the committed Yes fan only.