OPEN YOUR EYES

For more than fifteen years, classic YesFans have been suffering like hell with the Yes production (last great album IMO was "Going For The One" in 77. There were some hopes after what Yes delivered in both Keys albums (a total of approximately seventy-five minutes of new studio works, with long epic songs like in the good old days). Line-up is also quite bizarre : a guitar duo (???) and half a keyboardist (exit Wakeman again). The offical Yes website mentions though that Igor Khoroshev plays on "New State Of Mind", "No Way We Can Lose" and "Fortune Seller". What is obvious before listening to this album, is that there is no talk about epics : the longest track peaks at 6'16". So, shall we have another nightware (like "Big Generator", "Union" or "Talk") as we were used to ?

The answer is more yes than no. Yes, because this album is far from being brilliant. But no, because at times one has the illusion to listen to the GoodYes (not very often though). "New State Of Mind" opens this effort. This is quite a good overview of what to expect : vocals sound horrible (!) at times, nice at others. The sound is rather AOR oriented during most of it. During brief moments, it seems that we are listening to the Yes of the seventies. What happened again ? "Open Your Eyes" is a poppy and catchy song. The best here (I really cannot talk about highlight). "Universal Garden" is a melodious song. Starts with acoustic work and turns into a nice YesTune. Not complex in structure. At times AOR but still Ok. "No Way To Lose" is a weak track. Most of the times awful, at time not bad ! How is this possible ? "Fortune Teller" and "Man In The Moon" are really poor. The weakest tracks so far. "Wonderlove" is a nice YesBallad in its first part, then rocks quite a bit. Vocals are great (finally) ! "From The Balcony" is an acoustic insipid song. Real bad. They should have made this one all instrumental. At least we could have listen to Steve good acoustic guitar part. "Love Shine" is dreadful. Boring AOR. We go on with the crappy stuff with "Somehow, Someday". The last track of this release (I survived the effort to listen to it from start to finish !) "The Solution" is on par. Very poor.

The first thing that comes to my mind is that without Trevor the AOR influence is still there. So, he was not the only one to push for this (maybe Jon, since "Talk" is mostly a combined effort between them) ? Or Chris ? What's for sure is that it is not Steve's fault. I can't tell whether or not Alan had enough influence in the band to influence their music to such an extend (but my guess is no). So, Chris or Jon ?

The second one is that Yes NEVER produced such crap with Rick (although he is not always brilliant in his solo career).

There is even a limited edition with surround sound that will coincidate with the launch of the tour (also using surround technology).

Regarding the "Open Your Eyes" tour, the band had severe problems to come up with the setlist for it. Figure out : Anderson is opposed to "Drama" material but in favour of "Mind Drive" together with Steve (but others don't). "Yours Is No Disgrace will be a common choice for replacement ! Squire is against any ABHW tracks although Jon is in favour ! etc. It will be their most intensive tour (with 147 shows) since the supporting tour for ... "The Yes Album" in 1970 - 1971 (with 164 dates). As a "teaser" for the audience, an "Open Your Eyes Ambiance Track" will be played before the show : it is a compilation of about twenty-five minutes of the album "Open Your Eyes". What a great start ! I'm afraid we are back with the lowest rating. One star.