OPEN YOUR EYES

Note that there were hardly any keyboards on Open Your Eyes? That does tell a story about the final result even if there was a bit thrown in for good measure here and there. The live version of this where Igor Khoroshev played the keyboards is much more accessible. They followed up some great live shows after this 97 studio album in 1998. I was fortunate to see them in 1998 in Edinburgh, Scotland.Billy Sherwood and Chris Squire had great energy together on stage and as some may feel that even though this could have been a Squire solo release I am glad that the finished product ended up as Open Your Eyes. So I may well be in the minority but this is not a bad album especially listening to it today. It has dated better than Union for example even without the legions of Yes membership participants. " Music from The Balcony" a lovely dedication to Jon Anderson's " Janey" and the title track showing some interesting twists and turns. Billy Sherwood was a great ingredient to the Yes sound in those days and it does hold up because of this. And perhaps my opinions, because they were brilliant live at this time, are slightly biased. Three stars.