Progressive Rock Focus

I decided to listen to this album with an open mind, because I'll be honest I've always disliked it. I've listened to it twice this morning and I'll try to be objective. In doing the research for this (yes! I do research!) I discovered that Eddy Orford left the project early on. And it sounds to me, frankly, like this album lacks anyone who knows what they are doing from a production side. On the first track, Future Times/Rejoice, the guitar, keyboard and vocal are all fighting each other for space in the mix, with the result that it sounds a complete mess. Yes did a similar thing with Going For The One, which is one of the most sonically busy songs I've ever heard, but there it works; here it doesn't. Steve Howe's guitar sounds like he's putting it through a bargain basement amp, Wakeman's keyboard sounds like a cheap Casio and Anderson's voice sounds thin and out of tune at times. In fact, the contrast with the Going For The One album couldn...

Recently (https://progressive-rock-focus.blogspot.com/2025/01/true-by-jon-anderson-featuring-band.html) I reviewed the new Jon Anderson album. Well, he and his Band Geeks (that's what they are called) dropped a live album consisting of original Yes songs. Interestingly, he has stuck with the longer songs, including my absolutely favourite Yes song Awaken, from Going For The One. Now Jon Anderson is, at the time of writing, 80 years old. You might expect an 80-year-old to be struggling somewhat with his vocal performance, but if anything he sounds better than ever. I'm listening to Yours Is No Disgrace, and it sounds like the singing on the record. That is remarkable. This isn't just a "doesn't he sound great for his age" review. This is a "he sounds great, full stop" review. Bear in mind I'm not the biggest Jon Anderson fan, but I have to hand it to him, this is top notch. And the band. They are superb. They sound exactly like Yes. So much like Y...

Take a deep breath. It's a new Jon Anderson album. My mate James (hi James!) really has a problem with Jon Anderson's lyrics, especially when he starts banging on about fairies and universal peace. I share his misgivings - his lyrics really can be insufferably twee at times. And because this is a Jon Anderson album, not a Yes album, there is clearly no-one there to reign in those tendencies. Having said that, if you can get over it, this sounds more like Yes than anything I've heard in the last thirty years. Anderson got involved with the Band Geeks when he heard a demo of 'Heart of the Sunrise' - which I hardly need remind you is from the classic 1971 Yes album Fragile. He thought the Band Geeks played like 1970s Yes and asked them to tour with him. I don't love everything Yes did in the 1970s. Parts of Tales from Topographic Oceans are self-indulgent nonsense. Some of Tormato is excruciatingly bad, especially what I call the effing whale song, which is about a...