THE LADDER

"The Ladder" is the sixteenth studio album of Yes and was released in 1999. In general it was seen as a conscious return of the group to the classic Yes' sound, while maintaining a more contemporary edge. For many of their fans, "The Ladder" is a kind of a synthesis of the best traits of the most experimental and progressive "Fragile" era and the more pop-oriented "90125" era. So, it was with some expectations that their most loyal fans received "The Ladder".

On "The Ladder", Igor Khoroshev had become the group's official keyboardist, with Billy Sherwood relegated only to the guitar duties along with Steve Howe. However, "The Ladder" became also the only Yes' studio album with Igor Khoroshev as a full time member. It became also the last Yes' studio album with Billy Sherwood as a band's member.

"The Ladder" has eleven tracks. All music was written by Yes and all lyrics were written by Jon Anderson. The first track "Homeworld (The Ladder)" is a great song and I even think that it can be considered a truly Yes' classic song. It's a song that features many changes, great bass lines, a remarkably good keyboard work by their new member Igor Khoroshev and wonderful Jon Anderson vocals. This is, for me, the best Yes' song since the 70's. The second track "It Will Be A Good Day (The River)" is a very simple, nice and pleasant song to hear. It isn't a very special song but only a very beautiful love ballad. However, it has all classic Yes' ingredients, such as great vocals, especially the combination with the backing vocals are very nice, and it has also Howe's sweeping guitar. The third track "Lightning Strikes" is a completely different song in relation with the two previous songs. This is a very strange song for Yes, a kind of a Caribbean track made on any Caribbean beach. It's a song with a cha-cha-cha rhythm and it includes also a brass section. In reality, this isn't a bad song but it sounds awful as a Yes' song, despite probably the band has had a lot of fun to make it. The fourth track "Can I?" is another very strange track with some ethnic sounds that reminds me the African or Australian tribal music supported by percussive sticks. It's a very short track that seems clearly idealized by Anderson with his mystical concepts. The fifth track "Face To Face" is also a very simple, good and interesting song to hear. At the first sight it doesn't seems to be a good song but soon we change our initial opinion. It's a song that starts with a funny electronic loop, has some musical breaks and has also a great bass riff. The sixth track "If Only You Knew" is another love ballad, in the same vein of "It Will Be A Good Day (The River)", with some good instrumentation and vocal harmonies. It's a very nice and pleasant song to hear where all instruments are very audible and it has also an excellent vocal performance. However, this isn't for sure the kind of songs that a Yes' fan expects to hear. The seventh track "To Be Alive (Hep Yadda)" is a song in the same line of the previous song in terms of quality, and once again it really doesn't move me. The lyrics, as many times, touch the mystical side of Jon Anderson and the music is to much conventional for my taste, despite includes in the beginning a nice sitar playing. The eighth track "Finally" is a song divided into two distinctive parts. The first part is a straightforward conventional rock song with everything you need on a rock song like riffs, breaks and solos. The second part changes to a very atmospheric part in the same vein of "Soon" or "Awaken". In my humble opinion, the second part saves the song and turns it from a vulgar rock song into a very good Yes' classic prog track. The ninth track "The Messenger" represents the tribute of Yes to Bob Marley with lyrical messages. This is another slower song, but different from the others. All the instrumentation is very good and the vocal harmonies are very strong. However, again we are in presence of an atypical Yes' song with some reggae influence. The tenth track "New Language" is with "Homeworld (The Ladder)" the other epic track on the album. Both represent the best tracks and the only two truly progressive tracks on it. It's almost as great as the other is. Finally, with this track the band returns to their traditional progressive roots making a long, progressive and heavy piece of music, showing that who knows never forget. But why they don't always do that? The eleventh and last track "Nine Voices (Longwalker)" is lyrically a song made about the injustice in Africa. It's mainly an acoustic nice and simple song performed basically by acoustic guitar and sitar that complements the vocals very well. It represents a nice and beautiful way to end the album.

Conclusion: "The Ladder" is a good album and for many it represents the return to the good old days of the 70's and to their more progressive roots. Still, let's face it. Despite "The Ladder" be a good and enjoyable album with some good musical moments, in which some of them are very progressive, it's far from be a great classic Yes' album. In reality, "The Ladder" has only two great progressive tracks, "Homeworld (The Ladder)" and "New Language". The rest of the songs are in general good, but some of them are only slightly progressive and others are even doubtful for a Yes' album. By the other hand, "The Ladder" isn't musically a cohesive and consistent musical effort. It has a mix of tracks that in some moments seems to be more a kind of a progressive sandwich full of Caribbean and African ingredients.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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