YES, FRIENDS AND RELATIVES

From 1997 onwards, Yes produced a lot of live albums, compilation, anthologies, and DVD's. It is of course very intersting for the YesFans, and for the band (moneywise). Most of these efforts are basically good. Some are not great and this one belongs to the latter category. It is a patchwork of solo works from several band members. Lots of the songs here are pure crap (all the Anderson ones of which "10 Million" is really the worse of all, as well as the "Esquire" ones - with notable awful vocal sections). There is one track from Earthworks (one of Bill's band, formed in 1986) : it is quite jazzy with horrible vocals.

Howe's stuff is a quite average as well. Actually, there is only one good track which is a cover of "Walk Don't Run". All the other ones are real bad : "Red & White" being its poorest input, with awful vocals - again ! Two of his contributions are excerpts from YesClassic songs : "Roundabout" : rounded down to less than three minutes (one gets the great accoustic guitar intro , but when it comes to vocals, it is a complete mess. "Tales" is rendered in a nine minute accoustic medley and is not too bad compared to the rest of Steve's numbers.

To get average to good numbers, we have to look into Rick's direction. "Ice" has nice symphonic arrangements but is a bit too repetitive. The first good track of this album is "The Pyramids Of Egypt". Really good (except the narrated intro); it sounds a bit like Jeff Wayne's "War Of The World". "Arthur" is a live track and is a sort of mini-suite (can't talk about an epic here) with a great intro & finale, but the middle section is rather long and dull. One of his weak contribution (the other one being "Sync Or Swim"). The longest track of this album (over twenty-one minutes) is "Journey". Even if, at times, it's sounds OK, the more the song advances, the more it turns out to be a bit boring. It could easily be cut in two to keep the level to an acceptable standard. Something funny : around minute seventeen or so, one can easily hear the riff of "American Woman" from the Canadian hard rock band "The Guess Who". It will last for about two minutes. It is played live as well.

Fortunately, there are two outstanding numbers, credited to the whole band. These are live renditions for "America" and "Close To The Edge". What is a bit annoying here, is that they both come from "Keys". "Keys I" for "Ameraica" and "Keys II" for "Close". "America" is great of course. By the way, it is not the longest live version by any means. The longest one is to be found on the compilation "The Word Is Live" released in 2005. It clocks at ...16'21". Then "Close To The Edge". This is by far the best track here. See my review for "Keys II" for more details.

Having said all the above, you will understand that most of the tracks are not worth the expense. Since "America" and "CTTE" are already available on Keys, there are only Rick's work that is worth to be taken into consideration. Still, this is only for die-hard fans (like myself). Two stars.