ANDERSON, WAKEMAN, HOWE (ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF YES)

I'll go ahead and point out the obvious: Neither Rick Wakeman nor Steve Howe are original members of Yes. Otherwise, this would be Kaye, Anderson, and Banks, and even then I can't imagine a worse compilation. I simply cannot fathom the mental workings of the person in charge to putting this compilation together. It just makes no sense.

"Roundabout" The album kicks off solidly enough with a version of a Yes classic. The instrumentation though is boring and at times, grating (the electric guitar doesn't belong at all, even in parts where it's supposed to play). There are frightening harmonies in the middle section that make me wonder if whoever arranged the vocal parts was just trying to do something fresh to a song that's been heard thousands and thousands of times. If sung properly (and not throughout the entire part), they might have worked, but here, they don't. The organ solo is okay, but since this was Rick Wakeman in charge of covering this song, one would expect him to add more keyboard work to the track. This he does not do. There simply isn't anything new added to this rendition, and what is isn't that good. One good thing going for this cover is the tone of the bass, which is unlike Squire's trademark chunky tone, but is still punchy enough to cut through the mix.

"Magic Love" This is embarrassing on a grand scale. It's the first song off of Jon Anderson's 1998 album The More You Know. It's astonishing that the mind from whence majestic epics like Tales from Topographic Oceans came, so came this. I can only imagine Anderson singing this onboard a cruise ship at one in the morning.

"Going, Going, Gone" This is the first of two tracks from Steve Howe's Portraits of Bob Dylan album. The vocals are too clean and polished, overpowering the somber guitar work from Howe. It's a fair listen, but boring after a couple of minutes.

"And You and I" The vocalist this time sounds like he can't decide if he wants to sing opera or country and western. Halfway through, it sounds like they're trying to achieve a power ballad sound, but again, it just doesn't work. The omission of the final verse is insanely ridiculous- the singer and the band want to achieve the height of magic that "And You and I" is known for near the end, but because there's no build up, the attempt falls flat. The falsetto ending the song makes me think this is a parody, not a legitimate cover. This song is interesting only in a way that a car accident is interesting- it's horrible, but you can't stop observing.

"Long Distance Runaround" Although not as bad as the previous track, this one is still awful. It sounds like Dennis DeYoung's less talented sibling straining to hit the notes properly. The music is a faithful rendition of the original, and sounds decent, if that's any consolation.

"Gimmie Love" Firstly, the title of the second song from Anderson's The More You Know is misspelled (it's actually "Gimme Love"). Either way, it doesn't matter: You can call a turd a rose, but it still stinks. Here we have what sounds like one of those one-man acts who uses the MIDI accompaniment from his keyboard to sing to.

"Oriental Iceman" This one is like the offspring of progressive electronic and video game music. It could have been used in a Japanese title involving ninjas and scantily-clad female warriors. There isn't much of anything in this track to justify almost twelve minutes of music. "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" Annie Haslam takes to the microphone on this one, and while that might seem refreshing, the music itself gives this a Linda Rondstadt feel.

"Merlin the Magician" The final song on this Wakeman-dominated album is another Wakeman piece. There's some strange slap bass going on that seems out of place. Other than that, it's still video game music, Mega Man this time.