FLY FROM HERE

Yes

Symphonic Prog

3.42 | 1279 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

First-- I like the album. So while this review will contain plenty of ranting, go ahead and give the CD a whirl-- Any Yes is better than no Yes, no?

While I agree that's pretty much the case for me (except for the "Open your Eyes" album), I find that "Fly from Here" has already lost its appeal to me after 10 listens. It's not that it's bad. It's not that there's no Jon. It's just-- yawn. When I heard Trevor Horn / Geoff Downs were brought in to resurrect some unfinished Drama material, I was very excited (a huge Drama fan). I learned that the title track was culled from those 1980 sessions, but now that I'm hearing the material finally fleshed out, well-- I can understand why it didn't make it onto Drama even. This is comparitiively "B" material.

Even Steve Howe seems to be coasting on this CD. It may very well be that his solo offering, aptly named "Solitaire", is the freshest piece of the project. I feel if it wasn't for Chris' counter-punch bass work, and signature harmonies, we'd all be hard pressed to call this a Yes album at all (or maybe even 'progressive' at that). I still think they should have taken Rick W's advice and not released this under the Yes monicker -- MistyriYes would have done nicely.

Speaking of Benoit-- I *like* his voice, and all he's done to help keep Yes music out front and active. I attended three Yes shows with Benoit at the helm, and had to admit he did a fine job. (In fact, the last show late winter of 2011, he pretty much saved it from being a disaster, I thought...) But WHERE IS BENOIT on here??? Where are all the wonderful, epiphanal, soaring vocal moments I heard him perform live on Heart of the Sunrise and Parallels??? Did they keep him at bay on purpose? it's not that he is studio-incapable-- check out his work on last year's "One Among the Living" Mystery release.

Oh well-- i hear that another Trevor is teaming up with Jon & Rick-- This Endless Dreamer can only hope for better.

EnderEd | 3/5 | 2011-6-28

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