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Yes - In the Present - Live from Lyon CD (album) cover

IN THE PRESENT - LIVE FROM LYON

Yes

 

Symphonic Prog

3.53 | 165 ratings

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memowakeman
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars The only experience we had with an Anderson-less Yes was in the 80s with the Drama album, but now since 2010 he left the band after a long, long career, a French man named Benoit David took his place and challenged himself in order to fill those heavy shoes. However, he really suit in Yes' style since his voice is very alike to Jon Anderson's one, and since he really knows the band's music and goals. So when David joined the band, it was first called In the Present, which toured around the world giving some very good shows, at the point of recording and releasing one of them, from Lyon, France.

So this live album is an example of how Yes sounds in concert nowadays with the incorporation of this man, though the band's essence is the same with Squire, Howe and White, plus a Wakeman, not the original Rick, but one of his sons. Well, the beauty of this is that after more than 40 years of career the band still has a wonderful sound live, the same energy and the same quality as performers, if you do not believe me, I invite you to attend to one of their shows, or to get this album.

"In the Present ? Live from Lyon" is a two-CD live album that contains fourteen tracks that give us more than two hours of good music, in a trip to Yes discography, taking tracks from the 70s and 80s, and though I love the most of the songs here, I would have really loved to have at least a couple of passages of the "Fly From Here" album, which is the first Yes studio album with Benoit David as a full-time member. Anyway, put your headphones and listen to this excellent performance, which will make you have a very good experience.

In the first CD we will find classic songs such as "Siberian Khatru" which is opens the concert; along with "I've Seen All Good People", "Yours is no Disgrace" and "And You And I"; but we will also find lesser known pieces, but really good such as "Onward" (whose laid back sound really cause me goosebumps), "Astral Traveller" (with an Alan White's drum solo), or the addictive and intense "Tempus Fugit" taken from the Drama album. All of those tracks make a killer set list for the first part of the show, which finishes with "Corkscrew" a Steve Howe solo track in which we can appreciate his acoustic guitar skills.

The second CD contains six tracks but five out of them reach at least ten minutes. It opens with "Owner of a Lonely Heart" which might probably be the most successful Yes song, commercially speaking. And then, a feast of long, amazingly performed tracks begin. All of them are classic tracks that any Yes fan should know; songs from the 70s with the exception of "Machine Messiah" which is from the dramatic 80s (pun intended). So here we will really have a strong, solid batch of great classic tunes such as "Southside of the Sky", "Heart of the Sunrise", "Roundabout" and "Starship Trooper".

What a wonderful live show of this new Yes era. Recommendable for old, new, past and current fans of the band.

Enjoy it!

memowakeman | 4/5 |

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