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CIRCA: 2007

Circa:

Crossover Prog


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Circa: Circa: 2007 album cover
3.15 | 54 ratings | 6 reviews | 4% 5 stars

Good, but non-essential

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Studio Album, released in 2007

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Cut the Ties (5:40)
2. Don't Let Go (6:57)
3. Together We Are (6:31)
4. Information Overload (5:54)
5. Trust in Something (7:55)
6. Keeper of the Flame (2:32)
7. Life Going By (3:47)
8. Look Inside (5:04)
9. Brotherhood of Man (11:48)

Total Time 56:08

Bonus DVD from 2013 reissue:
- The complete album performed live
- "Chronological Journey" - A Musical Journey Through 3 Decades of Yes
- Behind the Scenes Footage

Line-up / Musicians

- Jimmy Haun / electric & acoustic guitars, vocals
- Tony Kaye / keyboards
- Billy Sherwood / bass, lead vocals, mixing
- Alan White / drums, percussion, vocals

With:
- Cole Coleman / la?d (3)
- Michael Sherwood / vocoder
- Scott Walton / keyboards & vocoder (DVD)

Releases information

Artwork: Glen Wexler with Carsten Steinhausen (logo)

CD self-released (2007, US)
CD + DVD Purple Pyramid ‎- CLP 0357-2 (2013, US) Bonus DVD includes full album performed Live Oct 2007 plus two documentaries, new cover

Digital album released January 15, 2020

Thanks to Angelo for the addition
and to projeKct for the last updates
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CIRCA: Circa: 2007 ratings distribution


3.15
(54 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(4%)
4%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(52%)
52%
Good, but non-essential (30%)
30%
Collectors/fans only (13%)
13%
Poor. Only for completionists (2%)
2%

CIRCA: Circa: 2007 reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Angelo
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
4 stars Approximately bass driven

When Circa released there first album in the spring of 2007, I was among the first to order - and so far without regret. With Circa:2007, the band provides a very listenable set of progressive rock tracks, that clearly shows influences from all eras of prog since the late 1960s. To me, that means the music brings memories of Yes, but also Pallas, Styx and maybe even a hint of Genesis or Marillion at times - without ever copying the sound of those bands. Circa have their own sound, and I like it.

From the quiet intro of Cut the Ties (followed by some amazing bass work of which more can be found throughout) the album is a journey through 9 great guitar and keyboard driven prog tracks. The vocals sometimes remind me of more AOR like bands, but the music simply never let's up the prog character completely. The multi-voice vocals on Information Overload, the (slide?) guitar work on Together We Are Right and the a capella intro of Life Going By are just some of the great moments on this album. The closing track Brotherhood of Man is 'the long track', with just under 12 minutes, and very much worth checking out for yourselves.

Overall, the only set backs for me with respect to this album are the many multi-vocal choruses, which have never been my taste, and Look Inside, which I find a bit boring. Then again, if these guys have played with Yes and this album represents the music they made there, I may finally have to bite the bullet and start enduring (or ignoring) Jon Anderson's voice. Maybe this is not the most renewing album in prog at the moment, and some pieces border on AOR, but it's definitely worth checking out. The excellent musicianship of these four horseman tips the scale toward 4 stars.

Review by poslednijat_colobar
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars Solid modern Yes album!

The debut album by Circa: is almost a Yes album and it's intelligibly, because if you see the names of the musicians, you'll find out three Yes members (one current - Alan White, two former - the original one - Tony Kaye and Billy Sherwood) with a guitarist Jimmy Haun, played on 1991's Union. The musicianship is of high quality and the songs are quite catchy, made in typical Yes style. Yes now aren't producing any studio albums, so if we want to know what they would make, probably the answer is in front of us - something like Circa:. Have a nice trip with this classic sounding album. 3.4 stars

Best songs: Cut the Ties, Don't Let Go and Trust in Something

Review by SouthSideoftheSky
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Symphonic Team
2 stars Keepers of the flame

Yes has so many offshoots in terms of solo and side projects that "Yes Related" could almost be considered a subgenre in its own right here at Prog Archives! Circa's four members all have previous connections to Yes. The two core members are Billy Sherwood and Tony Kaye. Billy's association with Yes goes back to the early 90's when he contributed one song to the Union album. He toured with Yes on the Talk tour and then became a full member of the band for Open Your Eyes and The Ladder. Guitarist Jimmy Haun also participated in the creation of Union. Kaye is of course the member of Circa whose history with Yes goes back the furthest as he was a founding members of that band and played on their first three studio albums. In the early 80's Kaye re-joined Yes and recorded a further four studio albums with them. Finally, the drummer in Circa is none other than Alan White who has played with Yes since 1973 until the present day.

Given the members' histories and close association with Yes it should not come as a surprise to anyone that Circa sounds a bit like Yes. Billy Sherwood can even be said to be something of a Chris Squire sound-alike both vocally and on the bass guitar and Jimmy Haun's guitar playing is heavily influenced by that of Steve Howe. As if all these Yes-connections were not enough, Trevor Rabin is credited on two songs and Billy's brother Michael Sherwood (who also played a small part in the Union album) is credited for providing vocoder!

This debut album by the group is a highly professional recording with several good moments, but the material is not the band's strongest. I first heard this album in live format on the Circa: Live DVD where they were performed the whole album. While this album is by no means bad, but it is not the kind of album that deserves to be performed live in its entirety. Thankfully, Circa would go on to make better albums after this one.

I can recommend this album to fans of Yes, but if you have the chance I would say go for the aforementioned Circa: Live DVD instead of this studio album as there you will get all the songs from this album plus a nearly 40 minute long medley of Yes material and one full Yes song.

Review by patrickq
PROG REVIEWER
2 stars I admire and respect Billy Sherwood, but much of his music is marked by what I can only describe as a bland sameness. There's a reasonable amount of compositional variety on his solo albums, as well as albums by World Trade and Circa:, but somehow, even his different songs often sound the same. Fortunately, there are exceptions, such as The Big Peace and some of the material he wrote with Chris Squire. But unfortunately, Circa: 2007 fits the pattern, despite the fact that former Yes guitarist Trevor Rabin co-wrote two songs, and even though the rest of Circa: (guitarist Jimmy Haun, Yes drummer Alan White, and onetime Yes keyboardist Tony Kaye) are listed as co-writers on the whole album.

"Cut the Ties" is a nice-enough opening song whose ending echoes Rabin's "Love Will Find a Way." But "Don't Let Go" plods too much for a second song. "Together We Are" and "Keeper of the Flame" are ponderous, and aren't really that distinct from "Don't Let Go." For what it's worth, I wouldn't've guessed that either "Don't Let Go" or "Look Inside" were the songs Rabin was involved in writing.

There are some bright spots. "Brotherhood of Man" is novel, and despite its length, it doesn't seem unnecessary long - - a criticism it would be fair to level at most songs on Circa: 2007. "Information Overload" is also unique and catchy. Its lyrics are a bit trite, but poetry was never Sherwood's forté.

Sherwood's expertise is in making records happen and making them sound good, and he certainly delivers here: Circa: 2007 brings together an impressive array of musicians, and it sounds great. Naturally, the performances are very good; Haun is impressive throughout, and especially on "Trust in Something." Sherwood himself does a good job with the bass, and although we know that he can play like Chris Squire, he doesn't do that much here at all. The vocals are Sherwood, no more and no less: they're nothing earth-shattering, but they don't detract from the songs either. And as usual, his multitracked backing vocals are well done (White and Haun are also credited with singing backup).

The production is credited to the band, but Sherwood is listed as having recorded, engineered and mixed Circa: 2007 - - which is probably tantamount to his having really been the producer. It doesn't hurt that he enlisted Joe Gastwirt to do the mastering.

But ultimately, the compositions are pedestrian. Circa: 2007 is not a bad album, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone other than fans of Billy Sherwood or Yes. I'd suggest starting with Sherwoods's solo debut, The Big Peace, or with Yes's Open Your Eyes.

Latest members reviews

4 stars As the previous reviewer of this album, cd, or however we refer to such a production in this day of Information Overload has noted, the lyrics on this album are adequate to not so adequate. . . . The music is very good to excellent. In a sense, this is a concept album; not to the degree of, sa ... (read more)

Report this review (#162177) | Posted by ken_scrbrgh | Tuesday, February 19, 2008 | Review Permanlink

4 stars I've often found during the years that the most enduring relationships are couples where the partners are aware of each others' flaws, and love each other in spite of them. I say this because I really do love this album, but man, does it have some serious blemishes. Understand that in my heart ... (read more)

Report this review (#159864) | Posted by Teaflax | Saturday, January 26, 2008 | Review Permanlink

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