KEYSTUDIO

If you don't want to invest money in two live albums containing almost the same material of Yessongs, Yesshows, and another bunch of lives just to grab the few previously unreleased studio albums, you can save some money with this Keystudio.

Of course, if you have the two "Keys of Ascension" (4 CDs in total) you don't need this one.

The good thing is the classic lineup with Anderson, White, Wakeman, Howe and Squire, the same of Going for the One.

"Foot Prints" sounds strangely as the YES of Big Generator. It's the composition of course. If we concentrate on the single instruments the style is the good old one. It's only the song that has an 80s flavor, except for the instrumental part in the middle that has a lot of ABWH. Thinking better, this is the correct reference. It's possible that this song was ready for another ABWH album, who knows?

"Be The One" is a classic (for this period) song enriched by the good arrangement. The touch of Anderson and Howe in the songwriting is very clear. I think it's an Anderson's song with Howe's "inclusions". Not bad.

The whole band is credited on "Mind Drive". Squire and Howe start over a keyboard chord. Spanish guitar and Spanish bass (if something like this exists). After a two minutes intro we are back to the end of the 70s. This epic is something unexpected in the XXI century. The bad is that we soon discover that it's a patchwork of parts written by the five old guys and tied together. All good enough but it's not Awaken. It has some great parts, anyway, specially the instrumental part at minute 11 with Wakeman and Howe dueling on an uptime odd signature.

"Bring Me to The Power" starts with guitar harmonics like "And You And I" but suddenly starts moving across most of the classics: there are things reminding to Cose to the Edge, Starship Trooper and so on.

"Sign, Language" is a short nice instrumental, a classical Howe thing.

"That, That is" is the second epic of the album. Also this seems to be reprising ideas from the old goodies and this is not a bad thing. Also the reminds to Stravinskij's Rites which was the intro to Yessongs have probably a meaning. After the crescendo, when Jon sings, it's very close to ABWH. The rhythm has that South American influence typical of Anderson's solo works with the significan difference of having Squire and Howe. Wakeman's effort is here limited to some "brasses". There are some good moments but it's not at the same level of the other long track.

"Children Of Light" sees Vangelis credited as author. He appeared on ABWH and I think it's the first time that he's credited on an official YES release. Even with the Greek genius this is just a good track but his touch is more than evident in the second half of the track.

So this is just a good album, without highlights and lowlights. 3 stars are appropriate also because it can't be a collectors item. Collectors surely have the two Keys to Ascension already.