90125

Anderson's back! Howe's!.... not... no, instead we have Trevor Rabin, a talented, if misdirected, musician (oh yeah, and Wakeman's gone too). Now, many fans know that Rabin would be a lead force in Yes's music for the next 13 years, and only maybe one of those albums was any good. This may be out of anger (about the lack of Howe) that most fans think this, but really, compare the quality of guitar in something like CTTE against something like OWNER OF A LONELY HEART and you'll see what I mean. Not to mention that OWNER... was the song that turned me off Yes until i finally brought up the courage to buy CTTE (and how surprised I was!). Anyways, this was more of an adaptive move by Yes, change with the market to survive. They did, so the plan must've worked, and we fans would later be rewarded with some great albums, but we had to put up with some bad ones along the way.

Let's get onto the songs, shall we? I've already registered my distaste for the first song, so I'll skip that one. HOLD ON is a decent rock song with some good melodies and general catchiness, but this is not good prog music. IT CAN HAPPEN gets annoying after the 50th time someone repeats "It can happen to you, it can happen to me, it can happen to everyone eventually...", however, I will credit Rabin on this one for coming up with a pretty cool guitar riff. CHANGES is the band's apparently stab at 80s prog... and it doesn't really work, losing itself somewhere in it's length mixed with poppy verse and choruses. CINEMA is a /wonderful/ instrumental that's very refreshing, but that's only until the voice-stumental segment of LEAVE IT pierces your brain like some kind of ice pick. OUR SONG is their average pop song, but CITY OF LOVE is actually a cool song that actually leaves a good taste in your mouth after you listen to it. HEARTS concludes the album on a kind-of-prog note that's not bad, but not too overly great.

So, in the end, this is a great 80's pop record, but as progressive... it's... not.... well....

...any good. (It makes my heart feel lonely)

Decent album, and at least it kept the band alive so we culd still have them around today. Fans might enjoy it, 2 stars, people who want really good post-70s Yes should skip right to the Keys To Ascension albums.

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