INVENTION OF KNOWLEDGE

I think my ears got cavities listening to this over the past week. Jon Anderson and Roine Stolt certainly seem like a match made in Heaven when it comes to their philosophies on life and so I wasn't too surprised to hear that this is a wordy album. I'm not sure if it's a concept album but it comes across that way to me with the focus on the lyrics over the instrumental work and compositions. They need to get the story across at any costs which is why I usually am not into the concept record. This at the very least is a themed album where Jon and Roine spread their flowers and love upon us in the YES/THE FLOWER KINGS tradition.

Jon's voice is in great form on here which was my biggest take away. I admit to having nothing to do with YES or Anderson post 80's and for good reason but he clearly was into singing these words. Instrumentally it's the bass that impressed me not surprisingly with Michael Stolt doing that and taurus bass pedals but Jonas Reingold is also here and he's a beast man. Roine comes to the fore with his familiar sounding guitar but again this is a vocal driven album where everything else takes a back seat. I do like how some songs blend into the next one over the 65 minutes and nine tracks.

The fourth track "Knowledge" is where we first get some instrumental authority with the organ helping out and it's interesting that less than half way through this track it becomes calm and stays that way to the end. There is a fair amount of piano on this record leading the way and they do contrast and repeat themes a lot. Jon says this is not progressive rock but progressive music. The closer "Know" is the longest at over 11 minutes and during the first half I kept thinking they had a guest female singer but nope that's Jon. The album ends with those piano melodies.

I liked this more than I thought I would but without question in my music world this is not close to a 4 star record.