Label: InsideOut / Sony Music
Release date: May 19, 2023
Production: Steve Howe
Album length: 63.35 min
Genre: Progressive Rock
Rating: 7.0/10
Gallons of ink have been spilled over how much credibility a band has left once none of its original members remain, but the debate will never be settled. After the death of the last original member, Chris Squire, the tough-as-nails English prog veterans Yes carried on writing new music and playing live, which was reportedly the final wish of the cult bassist.
After Squire’s death, longtime guitarist Steve Howe established himself as the band’s new boss, and on top of steering the sound he also took over production. After the equally premature death of longtime drummer Alan White in 2022, who had been the only constant member since 1972 despite countless lineup changes, Yes lost yet another hefty dose of credibility and more or less ‘mutated’ into Howe’s backing band. Before the new album was recorded, White’s seat went to his friend Jay Schellen, who has drummed for Asia, Circa, World Trade, Hurricane and Unruly Child in the past, which means his musical range stretches from prog rock and AOR to hard rock and heavy metal.
Following the rather mediocre (by usual Yes standards) “The Quest” (2021, RockLine review), which, for that matter, goes for all their albums since original singer Jon Anderson’s last departure, the legendary prog heroes headed back into the studio and cut a new one called “Mirror to the Sky”. It’s dedicated to White’s memory and in many ways picks up right where its predecessor left off. Just like “The Quest”, this album is a kind of stew of good and bad ideas, plus one or two pleasant surprises. The songwriting results, run by the often dictatorial Howe and his ‘pet’ on lead vocals, Jon Davison, who tends to drift off into acoustic and almost pop waters, range from praiseworthy to subpar.
Especially baffling is the role of longtime keyboardist Geoff Downes, who is often completely unnoticeable, i.e. inaudible, on “Mirror to the Sky”. How much of that is down to Howe’s traditionally insatiable ego is a big question, but in the production the keyboards are mostly shoved into the ‘background’, while the often generic orchestral arrangements only rarely convince. Luckily, Downes has at least stopped torturing himself with the occasional imitation of his famous predecessor Rick Wakeman, which was doing him a disservice. Howe’s guitar approach in the autumn of his life stays conservatively rigid and predictable, which in a way is even a good thing, because, along with Davison’s trademark ‘angelic’ voice, it’s the only reason modern Yes still sound like Yes at all. Davison’s lyrics, sadly, still often come off ‘cheesy’, like a forced attempt to prove some higher inner spirituality and unearth metaphysics, which worked far more convincingly under Anderson.
Opener “Cut From the Stars”, reportedly inspired by Davison’s visit to America’s Joshua Tree National Park and also released as a single, is a pretty generic affair and something for the ‘meh’ pile, if not for complete oblivion – much like most of the material on the previous two studio albums. “All Connected” fares better, a somewhat more eclectic composition with solid vocal harmonies between Davison and bassist Billy Sherwood, even though the keyboards are barely audible once again and Howe’s guitar dominance is, once again, glaringly obvious.
For the so-so “Luminosity”, the band had to rebuild the central arrangement completely from scratch because Howe, who plays autoharp here, didn’t like the original version. It didn’t help: the central, vocal-driven part comes off pretty dull, and the song is saved from total disaster mainly by the closing instrumental section with Howe’s zither. Mind you, it’s a closely related old trick that the guitar maestro pulled in a similar way, but with pedal steel, on the “Relayer” (1974) classic “To Be Over”. The central arrangement on “Living Out Their Dream” sounds like it was made for Asia, which is no surprise since Downes, again almost completely unnoticeable on keys, had a hand in writing this quickly forgotten track. Right up until the title track, “Mirror to the Sky”, longtime Yes fans don’t have much to be happy about on the new album.
The title track, an almost 14-minute epic, is one of the rare moments on “Mirror to the Sky” where Yes actually pull off a really good composition with pleasing arrangements, clever tempo shifts and interesting instrumental sections, nearly on a par with the ‘good old days’, and one where Downes’ keyboards finally ‘wake up’ a bit too. Howe’s guitar passages once again steer the whole epic, especially in the instrumental sections, while the vocal harmonies turned out really well this time. For a change there’s no room for dull moments, and the band sounds like they briefly found the fountain of youth. Even the central orchestral section doesn’t come off badly, which is another nice surprise. The end result is maybe even the best thing the Davison era of Yes has done so far, and one of the few moments where Squire and White could have been proud of their bandmates, if they could come back to the land of the living.
“Circles of Time” is a typical Davison acoustic ballad, which means it doesn’t leave any deeper mark. Ironically, Davison and Howe are the authors of both the best and the worst bits on “Mirror to the Sky”. The middle road is obviously not for them, and they often swing from one extreme to the other. “Unknown Place” ranks among the best things on the album and is one of its very rare moments where the band even shows some innovation, which also goes for the at times slightly quirky vocal harmonies. From start to finish it’s another strictly guitar-driven piece, not even spoiled by the vocal duet between Davison and the traditionally ‘droning’ Howe. With lively passages on Hammond organ, Downes also ‘wakes up’ a bit and helps make the whole thing actually sound like the result of the entire band grafting. Sherwood’s bass lines often clearly channel the technique of his late ‘teacher’ Squire, while Shellen proves he’s settled in well as White’s successor.
Sadly, both closing pieces penned by Howe, “One Second Is Enough” and “Magic Potion”, rank among the (sub)par efforts by usual Yes standards, as if they ran out of inspiration again at the end. “One Second Is Enough” recalls the ‘forgotten’ section of the “Fly From Here” suite from the album of the same name, which means it’s a collage of ideas hastily thrown together with no rhyme or reason. “Magic Potion” could, without Davison’s vocals, pass for a Howe solo piece, since it’s completely saturated with his once fresh and innovative, but in 2023 already thoroughly ossified ‘Appalachian’ guitar technique. Without the instrumental input of the conservative guitar maestro, “Magic Potion” would come off as generic pop rock or at best art pop. On Howe’s solo albums both closers would sound perfectly decent, but as Yes songs they can’t possibly make this legendary band proud.
“Mirror to the Sky” is, for better and for worse, a kind of logical continuation of its predecessor “The Quest”, meaning it’s yet another album of average quality that will split the followers of the cult English prog heroes. Anyone who can’t stand Howe’s reign of often rigid guitar ‘masturbations’ over the last two decades can just forget about listening to the new album. Comparing “Mirror to the Sky” with the best Yes achievements of the seventies would be downright brutal, since in that respect it sits at least two classes lower. This is another Yes album that only the most devoted fans should pick up, especially those who don’t count lesser-loved Yes albums like “Union” (1991) and “Open Your Eyes” (1997) among the bad ones and weren’t disappointed by what came out after Anderson’s departure. Everyone else should just listen to the title track and “Unknown Place” and see for themselves that the otherwise grey-haired and already thoroughly ‘dismembered’ body of Yes, long since abandoned by its very last ‘founding cells’, still has some will to live left in it.
Author: Peter “Dr. ProgRock” Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Cut from the Stars (5:25)
2. All Connected (9:02)
3. Luminosity (9:04)
4. Living Out Their Dream (4:45)
5. Mirror to the Sky (13:53)
6. Circles of Time (4:49)
bonus tracks (bonus CD – limited edition):
1. Unknown Place (8:15)
2. One Second is Enough (4:04)
3. Magic Potion (4:08)
Lineup:
Jon Davison – vocals
Steve Howe – electric guitar (Fender Stratocaster through analog pedals)
Geoff Downes – Hammond
Billy Sherwood – bass guitar, backing vocals
Jay Schellen – drums, percussion
Guest musicians on the single Cut from the Stars:
FAME’s Studio Orchestra (intro, part of the song between 3.02 min and 3.15 min) conducted by Oleg Kondratenko
