FLY FROM HERE

First let me start with a few comments. I've been a Yes fan since hearing "Every Little Thing" back in 1970. While the "best Yes" may be Jon, Steve, Rick, Chris & Bill in my humble opinion, all versions have been better than 97% of all other bands. As for this album Beniot David has a great voice, and having listened to Jon Anderson's two newest releases I am not sure his voice is powerful enough to lead a band like Yes any longer, but I do miss Jon's lyrics. Rick is missed in the orchestrating aspect of the music, the bridges between the different sections of the suite "Fly from Here" might blend better and more coherently with Rick at keyboards. That said this is still a beautiful piece of music when looked at objectively. If compatred to " Awaken" then yes it lacks a little, but so does 99.99% of all other music. Steve plays beautiful throughout although a little subdued, Chris and Alan are very tasteful as well, it is clear that age, maturity has mellowed their music but there is nothing wrong with that. I wonder about Horn/Downes writing credits for 60% of the album since Yes were recording a full album before the contacted either, and had finished a full albums worth of recording with Oliver Wakeman before Downes came on board, what happened to all of that music? The album doesn't have the aggressive drive of the "Classic" Yes or the jazz influence but still a beautiful work. "Hour of Need" is a beautiful song, why does only Japan get a six plus minute version and the rest of us get about four minutes. Only "Life on a Film Set" leaves me a little wanting, the rest will be in regular rotation for a long while. All in all a tremendous work and better by far to me than anything I've heard from any of their original 70s prog contemporaries. If you need aggression & heavier music, well thats what Porcupine Tree and Riverside et al are for, but for shere beauty it hard to find one better.