MAGNIFICATION

Yes is a music band, as well as an institution. Which cares a lot for earning money. So in last few years they published a lot of concerts, remixes etc - probably enough to earn for bread and jam. The quality of all this stuff is a different thing... Yes I know they have managers, but the band really takes the responsibility for all that. If You want a new material from Yes, You have to go back 5 years... here it is - the last Yes album. Not very good. About the same quality as "Ladder" or "Keys...", far superior to "Open your eyes" (which is just a disgrace. shame on them!). Instead of keyboards we have an orchestra here. I think that most of art-rock bands never really managed to make a good ensembles with orchestra. Arrangements here are not good, in my opinion. These songs somehow retend to be serious woks, but what we have got here in fact are simple, rather nice, songs with rchestral arrangements, but it is arranged in a rather popish manner. Melodies are rather banal (take the title song or "soft as a dove") - solos good, but not surprising. Generally, nice, listenable album from an old dinosaur. Yes, dinosaur. Not dead, but heavy and weak from many years. I think that a selection of best tracks from all their 80-90ies albums could make 3 or 4 good albums. But I will not be very sad, when Yes will (in the end) cease to exist. Will it ever?