HEAVEN & EARTH

Horribly disappointing, even though I didn't think much of their last album anyway. It's pretty much bland, repetitive AOR for the most part, with most of the tracks plodding along. There's nothing much above mid-tempo and they seem to think they can get away with simply repeating the chorus for the second half of the song. There's no energy in the songs, it's almost as if they're playing at a tempo that suits their age. The only exception is the final track (in 17/8 time, apparently), which is the only one that really deserves the 'prog' category and that stretches them musically but even that is only mid-tempo. Most of the songs were actually quite dreary, to be honest. I found myself wanting to jump to the next track at about the three-quarter stage of each song (because I knew that the rest of the song was simply going to be more of the same).

To put this into context, I have been a fan of Yes since they started, seen them live on several occasions and enjoyed each gig immensely and, until lately, I've looked forward to each album release, even though I've long since given up on them releasing anything approaching CTTE. But this album is profoundly dispiriting, a pale shadow of a once great band.