DRAMA

Machine Messiah Wow. What a way to open up an album. Who would have thought that perhaps one of the best Yes songs of all time- and maybe even one of the best songs period- would have come from a non-Anderson Yes group. The drums on this track are phenomenally theatrical, the guitar playing is masterful, and the soundwalls created by the keyboards really adds a lot of depth to this song. A true masterpiece: 10/10

Man in a White Car Putting this song after Machine Messiah was a smart decision, as it isn't very good. Its lacking in the same dimensionality as Machine Messiah, and somehow the vocals just don't work for me on this track. Not very good, but it doesn't overstay its welcome: 5/10

Does it Really Happen? The first of my two guilty pleasure tracks on this album. I know this song isn't THAT good, but I just cant get enough of it. Perhaps its the guitar playing? A solid 8/10

Into the Lens The second guilty pleasure track on this album. God the lyrics are almost comical at points: "I am a camera, camera camera...". But, oh man, the guitar on this track is probably some of the best on any Yes song. The music overall is very good, and the vocals are as well, its just that the lyrics are... baffling. A solid 8/10

Run Through The Light Following up that pretty great one two punch of Does it Really Happen? and Into the Lens comes Run Through The Light. I am just going to say this: this song is pretty bad! Its riddled with loads of goofy licks and keyboard diddles, and it REAKS of the 80s. Its just a really bad attempt at a radio friendly pop song. This ended up being an excusable 4/10 for me

Tempest Fugit A really interesting song as it resembles more of the previous iterations of Yes (as if The Yes Album was played like Tormato). The music itself was very, very great and the vocals are back to being really strong. This was a terrific song to round out the album. There's something about Yes songs that have the word "yes" in the lyrics, they always seem to be really great songs. A solid 9/10

Overall Thoughts: A really solid album in the wake of Anderson's departure. Machine Messiah was a bonified masterpiece, and Tempest Fugit was a really great call back to prior Yes sounds. Does it Really Happen and Into the Lens, as flawed as they are, do a really terrific job at blending the 80s sounds they were bringing into the band as well as the prog of former years. Man in a White Car and Run Through The Light are a combined 6 minutes which is very forgivable considering how great the rest of the album was.

Weighted song average: 8.09/10, however, this could easily be an 8.5/10 if I cave in and gave Does it Really Happen? and Into the Lens both 9s.

A solid 8/10 in my books, could be a 9/10 depending on my mood.