FLY FROM HERE

YES are acutely aware of their audience and the expectations that accompany the release of any new album. Even before the release of FFH, the commentary was already abuzz with hopes, and in some cases demands, that the band deliver 'Close to the Edge II'. It was never going to happen as YES are not 'that' band anymore but what YES have delivered is a kind of compromise that should make just about everyone happy. There's no doubt that the audacious compositional style the band developed in the 70s is absent but FFH offers hints of that 'broad canvas' past we all so fondly remember. I like some of the moods on FFH and the tonal colors we've come to expect from YES are still evident; gentle acoustic passages, clever syncopation and the use of non-conventional time signatures, majestic and commanding sonic landscapes and, at times, even some attractive songwriting. If this is all that YES set out to achieve then we should roundly applaud them for they have achieved that with room to spare. On the other hand, if YES set out to record 'Close to the Edge II' (and I don't think they did) then they fell well short of the mark. Prog purists will have to be content with this latest offering from YES. It's a good but certainly not great album from a band we have come to expect (perhaps unreasonably) considerably more from. Perhaps it's because YES were so truly fabulous in their youth, before the money became so important, that we cling to the hope that one day they will return to form. My advice is to let it go and look elsewhere.