Monday, June 20, 2011

Yes-Fly from here

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Frontiers
2011

Yes have returned with their first studio album in ten years. This band has had a long career complete with some peaks and valleys. Their earliest works were undoubtedly their best and since then the albums have retained some of their previous trademark sound, but they have certain gone for a lighter sound with varying degrees of success. The title track occupies the first six tracks and it's an overture plus parts number I-V. A multi-part song made me slightly hesitant, but once I got into it I was pleasantly surprised. This song comprises parts of the band's earlier sound (pre-1983) mixed with the sound they have gone by over the last almost thirty years. It's light and easy, but the melodies are smooth and the direction works to the band's strengths. I wasn't expecting great things from this album and the title isn't great, but it's quite likable. As the song came to close my thoughts were that all the rest of the album had to do was 80% as good as the multi-part song and this would be their best album in a while. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. The rest of the album left me feeling somewhat dry. The bouncing, textured sound that dominated the first half of the album was gone in favor of a much more pedestrian approach. I tried several times to give them multiple chances. Even skipping the title track and going straight to the second half to avoid a possible drop-off, but even then the later songs failed to make an impact on me. They are not bad, but just rather dull. Diehard Yes fans will find enough to enjoy, but in the end it's an album of halves with one being very decent and the other being rather forgettable.

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