ANDERSON BRUFORD WAKEMAN HOWE

It's hard to believe that 5 musicians of this caliber (I'm including the amazing Tony Levin) could get together and produce such a dissapointing album. It's not horrible, but it does have a lot of serious flaws. First, the lyrics. As with most of his solo albums, Jon Anderson seems like he took most of the lyrics from Hallmark cards and Christian rock. There are almost no displays of the inspired poet he once was. Instead, too much of the words here are insipid, sappy, and corny.

Second, a lot of the songs are are just not that strong in terms of composition and execution. Maybe Squire would have been able to help in that regard. Well yeah, obviously, he would have. A lot of this stuff just lacks balls. The Long Lost Brother of Mine section of track 3 is particularly dorky and cringe-inducing.

As for Bruford, Wakeman and Howe, I don't think any of them really shine. There are whole chunks of music with no sign of Howe, Wakeman and/or Bruford. I wish you heard them all playing together at the same time more often.

That being said, there are enough good songs to rate this with 3 stars. I especially like Fist of Fire, which is hard-hitting, dark, and menacing and features a lot of cool stuff from Wakeman.

Then there's Teakbois.