HEAVEN & EARTH

The previous Yes album "Fly From Here" was pretty much a disgrace. So a new lead singer joins the line up for "Heaven & Earth" who is supposed to sound like Jon Anderson. Ok, so everyone knows what Jon Anderson sounds like right? Imagine his voice being washed out of all emotion and feeling, and you will have an idea of what Jon Davison sounds like, the new lead singer. Anderson didn't really have the strongest voice in the world, but at least he had emotion and feeling. Davison has a weak voice and sounds like he is singing songs for a children's show like Sesame Street. Bleah!

If that's not bad or embarrassing enough, the rest of the band sounds like they are as washed out as the singer. And most of them are long time vetrans of the band. This is watered down pop music and that's all it is. It is even worse than a lot of pop music. Madonna has more grittiness than this album.

What a sad thing to happen to what was one of the most important and best progressive bands ever. Now they are hardly even a shadow of themselves. This is not Yes. It isn't even a bad copy of Yes. What it is, is a bad progressive band that sounds like they hardly even knew the first thing about prog, and that just can't be Yes, right? Tell me that it's true that the Yes name was hijacked and is now being held for ransom. This is just terrible and it makes me sad. Where is Chris Squire? It says he is in the band, but I hardly hear any bass, and this is definitely not the trademark bass sound that he is so famous for. What is Steve Howe trying to do here? It's like he is mimicking himself and doing a poor job of it. I don't even want to talk about Geoff Downes, who only shined on "Drama" because of the awesome material he had to work with. Other than that, he is famous for making terrible choices with band line ups.

This album is bad, bad, bad. There is no prog and there is no emotion and everything is bland. I can't take it anymore....Arghhhhhhhhhh! Quick someone put on "Relayer" or "Close to the Edge" before my eardrums decide to revolt and shut down all together. 1 star. Drivel!