CONSPIRACY

Conspiracy is a duo consisting of Chris Squire and Billy Sherwood. Chris and Billy first met in the 1980's and quickly became friends. Sherwood was first considered for the position as the new lead vocalist of Yes to replace Jon Anderson (when the latter was busy with Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe), but Billy wanted nothing of it. Sherwood's first contribution to a Yes album was the song The More We Live - Let Go, a song co-written with Squire. This song first appeared on Union in 1991 and was re-recorded for this first Conspiracy album. Another Yes song that the two wrote together and that is recreated here is Love Conquers All which originally came out on the box set Yesyears also in 1991.

In 1995 Squire guested on the second album by Sherwood's band World Trade, providing bass and backing vocals to a couple of songs. On some editions of the Conspiracy debut one of the songs from that World Trade album (Say Goodbye) on which Squire sings is included as a bonus track. The drummer of World Trade, Jay Schellen is also the drummer on most of the tracks of Conspiracy, even though Alan White plays on a few tracks.

After having toured with Yes as an extra guitarist in support of Talk, Sherwood was promoted to full member of the band for the Open Your Eyes album in 1997. A couple of songs from that unfairly maligned Yes album originated in the Squire/Sherwood song-writing partnership. Billy remained with Yes until 2000 and recorded the excellent The Ladder with them in 1999 as well as the fantastic live album/video House Of Yes - Live At The House Of Blues. After Billy left Yes he stayed in contact with Chris and this resulted in the continuation of their musical collaboration under the name Conspiracy. Or, actually, this first album of theirs was released under their full names and the album title is Conspiracy.

With the exception of the aforementioned Yes songs, the material here is new. The unmistakeable vocals of Chris Squire blend very well with those of Billy Sherwood, and together with Squire's unique bass guitar playing many Yes-like features are present. The songs are melodic and the production is good, but this album cannot measure up to the music of Yes. Neither does it compare well with Billy Sherwood's solo career.

The bonus tracks vary depending of the edition. My CD comes in a digi-pack with different cover art and features two bonus tracks. The first of these is The Big Peace which is the title track from Billy Sherwood's magnificent first solo album released in 1999. This amazing 15 minute epic simply outshines the Conspiracy material and I cannot stress enough how much better Sherwood's solo albums are compared to Conspiracy. The other bonus track is a cover of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb.

Share this CONSPIRACY review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to SouthSideoftheSky
• Report this review (#190178)
• Buy CONSPIRACY music online with PA partners
• Show all CONSPIRACY MP3/Stream
• Go to CONSPIRACY page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Conspiracy page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for CONSPIRACY related discussions