KEYS TO ASCENSION 2

(As far as I'm concerned, the 45 minutes on the second disk of this album should've been released as a proper studio album, and even though it wasn't, it should still be considered as such. The first disk is the second part of a concert partially released as Keys to Ascension in 1996. Keys to Ascension also had about half an hour of new studio material. The live recordings contain way too much overdubbing for my taste, so I haven't listened to them in years. The studio tracks on Keys to Ascension 2, though, are a different story.)

Keys to Ascension 2 is as strong as any of the eight Yes studio albums (counting both Keys and Keys 2 between 90125 in 1983 and Fly From Here in 2011. But on paper, this really shouldn't be the case. First of all, the Yes of the mid-to-late 1990s was formulated to capitalize on 1970s nostalgia, and some of the material here seems to self-consciously echo that era. Secondly, as I understand it, the songs on Keys to Ascension 2 were drawn from the same corpus which yielded the studio material on the first Keys to Ascension - - easily the worst two songs of Yes's career to that point, and possibly ever. It's a significant understatement to say that my expectations for this album were low.

But immediately, said expectations were positively dashed, so to speak: the album-opening "Mind Drive" was the strongest track Yes had recorded since Drama. Assembled almost seamlessly from a few different parts, "Mind Drive" repeats itself, but never gets boring. It makes sense that of the seven new songs from the Keys albums, this is the only one fans clamored to hear in concert. Although there was no tour to promote Keys to Ascension 2, those fans eventually got their wish a few years later. The next three songs - - "Foot Prints," "To the Power," and "Children of Light" aren't at the level of "Mind Drive," but are generally good. Only "Sign Language," a wandering instrumental, is weak. "Sign Language" is credited to composers Steve Howe (guitars) and Rick Wakeman (keyboards), although the understated keyboard part makes me wonder whether Wakeman actually recorded it himself.

The performances on Keys to Ascension 2 are very good, especially Wakeman's and Howe's solos and Chris Squire's bass parts. Some credit for the quality of the album is probably also due to producer Billy Sherwood.

The studio CD Keys to Ascension 2 is nearly a four-star album; it's better than three-star albums like Big Generator, Talk, or Open Your Eyes, but not quite something I can claim is an "excellent addition to any prog rock music collection."

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