CD Review: Yes – Like It Is: At the Mesa Art Center Frontiers Music All Access Rating: A-
Yes - Like It Is: Live At The
Mesa Art Center 2015
Those who didn't get their fill of Yes playing its landmark albums in their entirety in concert with Like It Is – Yes at the Bristol Hippodrome can go back for a second helping. In this companion audio/visual release, with its warm sound, the progressive-rock masters – now missing dearly departed bass virtuoso Chris Squire – perform 1971's exalted Fragile and 1972's equally acclaimed Close to the Edge with colorful panache, faithfully recreating that hallowed original material with pleasant reverence, joyous whimsy and deft precision.
Weaving their way through the complex, multi-part pieces that have become the stuff of prog-rock legend, Yes displays its virtuoso chops in gracefully traveling the well-worn, shape-shifting passages of some of its most distinguished, and adventurous, works. The contrast of gentle, inside-out dissonance and cloud-bursting beauty – courtesy of swirling vocal harmonies, Steve Howe's guitar intrigue, melodic flights of fancy, flowering instrumental jams and time-signature mischief – is magical as Yes wanders through the wondrous mini universe of "South Side Of The Sky" and expands the already cinematic title track to Close to the Edge. The breezy, summery intro to "Siberian Khatru" morphs into an furious march, and Squire's signature bass motors through a lightly bouncing "Long Distant Runaround" and propels "Roundabout" into Geoff Downes' dancing keyboard spirals and sunny merriment, while the dream logic of "And You And I" mesmerizes, as singer Jon Davison negotiates the sweeping emotions and sonic puzzles of Yes with expressive aplomb. And the nostalgia trip that is Like It Is: Live At the Mesa Art Center, a Frontiers Music release, sends the faithful home smiling.
– Peter Lindblad
2 CD/DVD Review: Yes – Like It Is: Yes at the Bristol Hippodrome Frontiers Music Srl All Access Rating: A-
Yes - Like It Is: Yes at the Bristol
Hippodrome 2014
The path's been pretty well beaten by now, the progressive-rock elders of Yes having performed live the favorite songs of 1970's The YES Album and 1977's Going for the One so often they could be forgiven for being bored to death with them. On its spring 2014 tour of the UK, Europe and Canada, Yes pledged to play both of them in their entirety, however, delving ever deeper into two of the most iconic records of their extensive catalog.
Playful and eager to engage in extended jams stretching the boundaries of famously complex arrangements, Yes breathes new life into dusty old compositions on the engrossing and expansive two CD/DVD set "Like It Is: Yes at the Bristol Hippodrome," the venerable masters taking liberties with subtle, nuanced alterations. A rollicking, extended piano run here, some extra guitar noodling there, and a gorgeous blending of vocal harmonies thrown in everywhere make for a joyous, captivating listen – the sound so vivid and clear, emphasizing the band's full-bodied instrumental flourishes and calculated precision, off-kilter melodic shifts and wonderfully interwoven vocal harmonies.
Summery and cheery, "Starship Trooper" culminates with a spiraling crescendo, the entwined machinations of guitarist Steve Howe and bassist Chris Squire sending wordless messages heavenward, while "Yours Is No Disgrace" motors through complicated twists and turns with easy grace. The proggy hootenanny of "Going for the One" is an aural ballet of elongated movements, the swooning "Wondrous Stories" and "Turn of the Century" are beautifully rendered to win over even the most jaded of audiences and "Awaken" swells majestically. And if it's intricate acoustic guitar picking you want, Howe obliges, with his folksy, whimsical turn on the lively instrumental "Clap."
Occasionally, he strains to reach certain notes, but otherwise, vocalist Jon Davison handles the material with warmth and skill, while Geoff Downes' keyboards add symphonic color to and shade in grand arrangements and Alan White glues it all together with intuitive rhythmic dynamics. Doing just one classic album in a concert setting seems to be passe for Yes, who've taken the concept to a whole new level. Not long afterward, they would attempt three on another series of live outings. Would it be too much to ask for four?
– Peter Lindblad
DVD Review: Yes – Songs From Tsongas: The 35th Anniversary Concert Eagle Rock Entertainment All Access Rating: A-
Yes - Songs From Tsongas:
The 35th Anniversary Concert
It does the heart good to see Jon Anderson and the rest of Yes so happy together, especially in light of the bitter divorce to come in 2008.
Four years earlier, there were no signs of bad blood between the two sides when the cosmic progressive-rock voyageurs' classic lineup traveled through the past at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, Massachusetts, and closed out their 35th anniversary reunion tour.
Adding to the slew of Yes live releases over the years, an effervescent and exhilarating special edition two-disc DVD set containing an expertly filmed version of that blissful virtuoso performance, as well as a separate 70 minutes of live footage from a rainy night of Yes playing at the Estival in Lugano, Switzerland, is out now, released by Eagle Rock Entertainment.
The two stagings couldn't have been more different, the spartan set-up at Lugano a sharp contrast to the vivid, trippy spectacle of colored lights and alien, amorphous scenery – dreamed up by the one and only Roger Dean – that surrounded Yes at Tsongas, a joyous occasion highlighted by Anderson unabashedly running out into the crowd to belt out a stirring rendition of "Rhythm of Love" that's a veritable flood of silvery synthesizers, harmonized vocals, bubbling bass and sonic exuberance bursting forth.
Shooting the band from a variety of angles and smoothly pulling in tight for unobtrusive close-ups, the camera work is well-organized and clever, capturing the chameleon-like complexity and power of Yes as a whole and allowing individuals to shine on their own. Rick Wakeman's piano practically dances during his solo turn on "The Meeting," and Steve Howe deftly works out "Second Initial," his chance to go it alone, as Howe jumps between country, folk and rock genres like a world-class gymnast throughout, with Anderson's ageless vocal panache, Alan White's drumming is on point and Chris Squire's bass rambles on with precision and grace.
And Yes does justice to its legacy of innovative musicianship and compositional intrigue, gracefully navigating all the enigmatic time changes, unfolding drama, expansiveness and shifting melodic pathways of favorites such as "Your Move/All Good People," "Going for the One," "Starship Trooper," "And You And I" and a stunning version of "South Side of the Sky" – among others – with skillful finesse, a magical imagination and warm emotion.
Making the Tsongas performance even more special is a seven-song acoustic segment, where the quintet gathers in a close sitting, joking and smiling as they dive into winsome, charming readings of "Long Distance Runaround," "Owner of a Lonely Heart," "Time Is Time" and "Wondrous Stories" with the easy nature of old friends in the throes of strong drink and nostalgia. Even the shuffling blues treatment they give to "Roundabout" steps lively, and when a laughing Anderson proclaims he can't remember the words to "This Is Time," the gentle ribbing he gets from his comrades is delivered with good humor.
Out in the wet streets of Lugano, Yes runs through a condensed version of the Tsongas set, their energetic treatments of "Long Distance Runaround," "Roundabout," "Owner of a Lonely Heart" and a rollicking "Going For the One" ringing out in the rain. Shot in a more basic fashion, the show, nonetheless, is just as transcendent as Tsongas, if a bit shorter in duration. For Yes fans, it doesn't get much better than this.
– Peter Lindblad
CD Review: Yes – Heaven & Earth Frontiers Records All Access Rating: B-
Yes - Heaven & Earth 2014
Flashes of the old Yes,the one capable of grandiose symphonic brilliance and sublime pop artistry, appear throughout Heaven & Earth, the progressive-rock institution's uneven 21st studio LP, released via Frontiers Records.
One such display is "Subway Walls," 9:20 of delightful left turns, a jazzy instrumental passage that flexes Chris Squire's muscular bass lines and is gilded by Steve Howe's imaginative, stealthy guitar exercises, and a beautifully engineered chorus that sounds surprisingly fresh and vibrant.
So does "The Game," this bright, mellifluous river of flowing, flooding pop sounds barely contained by artfully constructed guitar puzzles and expertly woven vocals, and despite its inane lyrics, the rising swells of piano, strummed guitar and Jon Davison's impassioned singing in "To Ascend" are particularly affecting. Jon Anderson's vocal doppelganger is in fine form here.
Too often, though, Yes seems uninspired, even goofy, on Heaven & Earth. And producer Roy Thomas Baker, so instrumental in helping Queen soar to great heights, doesn't appear willing to edit them. "Step Beyond" is a strange gum ball machine of bouncy synth blips that could be playful and child-like, but instead, it comes off as unfinished and lacking sophistication, as if Yes needed to fill time. And the lukewarm "Believe Again," the inactive opener, has extended periods of flatness, blank spaces of subdued, aimless noodling that's content to remain in the background, where it belongs.
While their Utopian ideals, warm nostalgic thoughts and dreams of a world where love extinguishes hate and selfishness are wonderful and high-minded, the New Age sentimentality of Yes occasionally goes too far, snuffing out the enigmatic whimsy that made the Yes of the early 1970s more likable. But when they shake off their torpor and find that spark of uninhibited creativity that's served them so well lo these many years, as they do on the ever-evolving, wildly original "Light of Ages" and "It Was All We Knew," Yes shows it's still capable of blending accessible songwriting and instrumental complexity in ways nobody – not King Crimson and certainly not Emerson, Lake & Palmer – else can, somehow managing to match the effusive color and alien imagery of Roger Dean's cover art with visionary, dynamic keyboards, crisp drumming, motoring bass and Howe's bottomless bag of guitar tricks.
Were they rushed in completing this record? It feels as if they were. Heaven isn't too far away for Yes here, but then again, neither is hell.
– Peter Lindblad
CD Review: Yes - In The Present – Live From Lyon Frontier All Access Review: B-
The last few years or so have been some of the most
dysfunctional in the long, storied history of progressive-rock institution and
psychedelic chameleons Yes, and that’s saying something. Seemingly forever
beset by internal strife, whether over creative differences, legal battles over
the band’s name, personality conflicts, or even debilitating health problems,
Yes’s instability has, at various times, threatened to tear the very hull of
the band apart and cause it to sink down into the deep of a Technicolor, Roger
Dean-imagined lake of lava on some distant, undiscovered planet. Through it
all, bass wizard Chris Squire, the only remaining original member, has managed
to guide Yes through the choppiest of waters and still keep the good ship
seaworthy with an ever-evolving crew. He’s still at the helm and shows no signs
of giving up the wheel.
Though he’s been in and out of the band more often than a
hopeless addict shuffles through rehab, Jon Anderson, a founding member no
less, is, without question, the one true voice of Yes. But, respiratory issues
have, on occasion, caused him to excuse himself from a number of possible Yes
tours as the loud cheering died down after the 35th anniversary
excursion in 2004. And while Squire and the rest of Yes entertained the notion
of recording new music, Anderson, perhaps still stinging from the disappointing
commercial results of 2001’s orchestral Magnification,
was intractable in his opposition to the idea, certainly skeptical that Yes
still had it in them to chart new musical territory. Here’s where things get
sticky. In 2008, Yes again was set to tour the world, this time for its 40th
anniversary. However, the “Close to the Edge and Back” jaunt crashed before it
left the launching pad, as Anderson was diagnosed with acute respiratory
failure. On doctor’s orders, he opted to rest the pipes. Not willing to wait
around for Anderson to recover, Squire, Steve Howe, and Alan White – along with
Oliver Wakeman, son of the veteran Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman – shanghaied a
new singer, Benoit David. And wouldn’t you know it? David was Anderson’s vocal
doppelganger.
Leaving Anderson behind to fume over this breach of loyalty
– even though he’d left the band plenty of times before, including that
well-publicized first split in 1980 – the rest of Yes embarked on what would
become known as the “In the Present” North American tour, while Anderson
twisted in the wind, not knowing if he was still a part of Yes or not.
Interrupted by Squire’s leg surgery, “In the Present” was delayed, but in 2009,
Yes went back out and on December 1 of that year, the reconstituted Yes played
Lyon, France. In late 2011, Frontiers Records released a double-CD set that
documented the beaming, if somewhat spotty, performance and paired it with a
55-minute DVD in a package titled In the
Present – Live from Lyon. And it feels like the dawning of a new era for
the band, with its mix of elder statesmen and hungry young lions.
Still, from sound of things on In the Present – Live at Lyon, this version of Yes has yet to reach
its full potential. Despite some imaginative and diverse guitar soloing from
Howe, “Owner of a Lonely Heart” drags its feet, the playing sluggish and sapped
of Yes’s usual vitality, as is the hum-drum version of “I’ve Seen All Good
People” that follows it on Disc 1. When it’s supposed to pick up steam and
drive ahead, at that precise moment when the song shifts from a psychedelic-folk
meditation on living unselfishly into a muscular, triumphant jam of spiritual
uplift, it lazily, almost reluctantly, comes to its feet and tiredly walks to
its destination.
Not everything on In
the Present – Live in Lyon comes off seeming so distracted and
disinterested. “Machine Messiah,” boasting Oliver’s beguiling keyboard runs and
the twirling spirals of notes rising from Howe’s guitar that answer them,
offers exuberance and haunting beauty, while “Heart of the Sunrise” dazzles
with its complex musicianship and shape-shifting movements, as do the jazzy
interludes of “Astral Traveler,” showcasing the head-spinning interplay of Howe
and Wakeman and the controlled chaos of White’s drum solo.
Maddeningly inconsistent, the sometimes uninspired and
masturbatory Disc 1 gives way to a more confident and wide-ranging Yes in the
second CD. Lush and extravagant, “Siberian Kathru” is an epic flight over some
of the more mountainous terrain Yes traverses, and the fan favorite “Southside
of the Sky” explores the many moods of Yes, from dark, sloping sonic valleys to
lofty peaks of emotion. “Tempus Fugit” is more expansive and radiant, a blast
of light and balled-up energy that explodes all over the quietly reflective and
romantic “Onward,” which features David’s most stirring vocals of these
recordings.
Though it contains fewer hits from Yes’s catalog, Disc 2
surpasses Disc 1 in vim and vigor, with a rugged, captivatingly bright
“Roundabout” leading the charge. Overall, the sound is clean and vibrant, and
while David’s vocals aren’t quite as warm or as nuanced as Anderson’s, he handles
the material with grace and power. Historically, a bone of contention between
Anderson and others in Yes was how he always pushed for an increased dosage of
pop sensibilities into the band’s otherwise classically influenced
arrangements, where others argued for a heavier, more daring direction. Those
tensions apparently have been resolved, and though Anderson’s up-in-the-air status
with Yes remains controversial – Squire of late hasn’t ruled out future
collaborations with Anderson, who’s been playing out as a solo artist in recent
years – it appears they are capable of carrying on without him.
