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 35
th 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 40
th
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.
-
Peter Lindblad
Official Trailer from Frontier Records
