HEAVEN & EARTH

2014's Heaven & Earth is so flat. It's so soulless. It's bland, pedestrian, sleep-inducing, insipid, and every other synonym for "boring" there is. It's like if Air Supply or some other soft rock act decided to try to make a Yes album. Steve Howe's guitar never really takes the lead, and it usually ends up buried under a sheet of pillowy organ and gently-strummed acoustic guitar. I also get some awful echoes of worship music. I could absolutely imagine seeing songs like this being played at some church youth group.

"In a World of Our Own" is one of the rare high points on the album. It's got a strange, lurching rhythm, and the organ has some occasional crunch to it. The conclusion of "Light of the Ages" is another relative strong point.

I thought it was going to be close between Union and this for second-worst Yes album, but this makes me long for the relative dynamism of Union. Everything on Heaven & Earth is soft and flat. There's almost no sonic variation. At least the aesthetic trappings of Yes's sound save this from being relegated to the same cellar as Open Your Eyes.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2019/03/24/deep-dive-yes/