OPEN YOUR EYES

In the same year as the amazing Keys to Ascension 2 was released, Yes released another studio album. 1997 saw Yes release a five-star masterpiece and also the worst album of their career. The latter was called Open Your Eyes and you certainly will when listening to this. However, you won't be opening your eyes to enlightenment or even some good music, you'll be opening them in absolute horror as you see a mutated Yes monster spewing forth some of the most atrocious sounds this side of the galaxy. Well... that is an exaggeration. It really is bad though and is probably worst than 90125 and Big Generator, and even Union in some regards. The reason I say that is because there is at least one or two decent enough songs on those albums I can make it all the way through. Open Your Eyes is a CD player skip-fest. Every single song on this album leaves a bad taste in my mouth and a bad sound reverberating around in my brain resulting in headaches every time I try to give it a chance.

You might ask, really? Yes, really. The production is overdone, for a lack of a better word. The vocals and harmonies are mixed too loudly. The guitar mix is so overwhelmed by everything else that I cannot even tell if Steve Howe is on this album sometimes. The keys are horrible. What were they thinking when they let Billy Sherwood perform keyboard duty? Yes isn't Yes without a good keyboard player. The song format is all radio-friendly style, which isn't bad if done correctly. The problem is these are terrible songs, lyrically and musically. One star. Completionists will even cringe at this.