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Rating: There is already a magnificent review of this magnificent album on the site, therefore this one of mine aims to further highlight the work to those group enthusiasts who remain skeptical about its listening, as well as to others who deep down think like me but have not yet fully realized it: I believe this to be, and by far, the best Yes album since "Going For The One".
That's not a small thing. . . in between these two works lies twenty-five years, during which Yes have done everything and more: musicians coming and going, quarrels and reconciliations, stage cram sessions, a good portion of official albums and a deluge of compilations, live concerts, unplugged, solo albums. . . all or almost all interesting enough, good enough, varied enough to provoke feelings of pleasant familiarity, affectionate reunion, renewed esteem but. . . nothing on the level of the glorious past.
This time, however, we're there. . . what happened? Changed the music? No, it's still the same (in the sense: the incisive one when the banalizer Trevor Rabin isn't involved). . . the orchestra instead of the wizard Wakeman's keyboards? Well, perhaps the advantage was "managerial," in the sense of one fewer rooster in the coop (easier and faster decisions) and then the orchestra works very well but even Wakeman doesn't joke when he's on a good day. . . Jon Anderson sings better? But how can anyone sing better than this man, who has always sung this way?!? What a voice eternally full, strong, unreachably high, so beautiful that it can be showcased even without reverbs, naked (it happens a couple of times on this album)!
Alan White also seems on his usual standard, clean and effective. . . and so are, for example, the two gentlemen who stand at the front stage with Anderson giving more this time? Yes!!! The now wizened Master Steve Howe is here in full form in his role as sublime carver, gracefully entering and exiting the stage, pressing the pedal only for a couple of lap steel rides, skillfully lingering to change sounds and instruments, bring riffs, arpeggios, and counterpoints while keeping a distance, just like the orchestra, from the sound's core to give it breath, dynamics, expectation, taste.
And here it is, the sound's core, the driving center of everything! Chris Squire's white Rickenbacker returns strikingly to shake the very fibers of the Yes animal. Majestically high in the mix as it should be for this group's music to work, it unfolds all its immense melodic and structural strength, as well as the incisive house repertoire of nuances (vibratos, octave jumps, harmonics. . . ). Inexhaustible and generous, it tirelessly feeds the "belly" of the most ambitious and successful pieces, giving them propulsion, unpredictability, direction! After several listens to fully absorb the work in its entirety, one truly loses oneself in focusing on his instrument, a real volcano of four-string expressiveness, and it is equally exciting to also hear this bassist's voice prominently, here often upfront to accompany and intertwine with Anderson's, because the blend of these two voices is one of prog's homes and if Anderson is its inimitable constant, the bassist's equally distinctive tone is the perfect complement for Yes.
The album contains in my opinion two masterpieces, two ample compositions worthy of henceforth being alternated with the group's old classics in all upcoming concerts. In position four is "Give Love Each Day", with a "cinematic" intro of only orchestra that then remains to bind the cuts and carvings of the instruments under the verses. When the choral refrain arrives. . . it is wonderful!
In the other peak of the album, the suite placed in the penultimate position "In The Presence Of", Anderson begins singing over a "pastoral" piano played by Alan White with beautiful inversions. Then Howe contributes to the piece with one of his textbook double-note solos; Anderson returns to sing the second movement and does so in a touching way, with researched harmonizations that flow into an fiery lap steel work, with well-placed instrumental and vocal breaks. It's on the levels of "Awaken" for sure. . . even in the atmospheric interlude, with Howe on the volume pedal and then cranking it up to the super highs and Squire's strong hands giving expression to every note of his bass. . . you end it with your heart in your hands!
As they say at Ferrari, it's the details that make performances great. . . For example, the brief closing ballad "Time To Time", comfortably dry and sunny, if proposed at the center of the line-up would have had the effect of a filler. . . placed at the disk's end, it constitutes a revitalizing signature, after the triumphant and unsettling entwining of choruses and lap steel at the end of the previous track. It is listened to relievedly and one relaxes, unwinding from the intense musical moments just experienced. . . meaning to say that a strength of this album, among many and not secondary, is the cleverly arranged sequence of tracks: they are positioned precisely to inspire the next and to be enhanced by the previous one.
You judge it, in my heart, this "Magnification" has nestled among the bridesmaids of the sacred trilogy "Yes Album/Fragile/Close To The Edge", to accompany "Relayer" and "Going. . . ". This is not the usual "survival" album of these veterans of good music, it is one of their peaks.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Magnification (07:18)
Days that we speak
I believe that you are right
Shouldn't chase the demons and the phantoms of the night
Some treat as lovers
Some treat as slaves
This fusion of insight is all that we imagine
Speak to me clearly
You're the magnet to my soul
I get so distracted to reason with it all
Like the faithful
I'm clinging to the edge of every world
Spinning in creation
So afraid to let my feelings really show
Teach me to teach me
How the keys unlock the door
As we open it we surrender, holding hands with many more
There's a feeling that's coming
There's a feeling so real
To justify, to magnify, to realize that everything is love
Now, after all the love you have
You can always get it back
Knowing how you really see
Knowing it will come to you
Knowing that it can really be
Magnificate, magnification
Magnificate, magnification
First you're smaller being alive
Growing taller learn to survive
Magnificate, magnification
Magnificate, magnification
First you're smaller being alive
Growing taller learn to survive
Perception of living
I realize I'm not alone
The rings that divide
Break again on solid ground
I will show you a necklace
Where the pearls would all be losr
Without the thread between together
This would be the golden thread of trust
Speak to me, teach me
Magnify the truth you are
Waiting for the rebeginning birth of every star
A symbol is planted
On the brow of every child
To justify, to magnify
To realize that everything is love
Now giving all the love you have
You will always get it back
Giving all the love you have
You can always get it back
Giving all the love you have
Giving all the love
Magnificate, magnification
Magnificate, magnification
First you're smaller being alive
Growing taller learn to survive
05 Can You Imagine? (03:01)
Anderson/Howe/Squire/White
September 11, 2001
Can you imagine what it’s like seeing life
From the other side
Do you imagine darkened light, starless night?
You might need a guide
And will the illusion confuse you, play with your thoughts
And alter your mind
Or become a delusion, include you
Change your existence
For another kind
See what you see for yourself, ’til your heart
Is open wide
Wish what you wish for yourself, and you find it there
And you believe it
And you believe it
Can you imagine what it’s like, seeing life
From the other side
Do you imagine light darkened, starless night
You might need a guide
And will the illusion confuse you, play with your thoughts
And alter your mind
Or become a delusion, excuse you
Change your existence
For another kind
See what you see for yourself, 'til your heart
Is open wide
Wish what you wish for yourself, and you find it here
And you believe it
And you believe it
08 Dreamtime (10:43)
Dreamtime begins
Where every song is the perfect place
Words never spoken
Are the strongest resounding
Life force is meant for us
To remember the stars, the earth
Still we forget
So asleep in this dreamtime
Lost in this dreamtime day
Take me up into that freedom place and justify
Electrify the senses sharpen than the soul intensify
Nominate that we can break out take, take, take, take together
Hesitate and you will dance on this earth to, to forever
You are the choice forever trying
Give you wings forever flying
You can fly, you can glide, you can dream
You can see through this interactive vision streaming
You have the faith
So busy trying
So let it go
Forever flying
To the sky, to the earth, to the moon, to the sea
To the sun, to the stars, to the dream you become
Nothing left to lose
Nothing more to prove
With wings of gold
You’ll fly away
Talk among the prophets
Give you something
Talk among the teachers
Tell you something
Talk among your one true self now
Forever, forever, forever, forever
Dreamtime begins
Where every song is the perfect place
Words never spoken
Are the strongest resounding
Life force is meant for us
To remember the stars, the earth
Still we forget
So asleep in this dreamtime
Lost in this dreamtime day
Take me up into that freedom place and justify
On the silent wings of gold my soul intensify
Nominate that we can take, take, take, take, take, together
Demonstrate that we can break it out and take it forever
Here’s what you know
Here’s what you’re asking
The soul is everlasting
Anderson/Howe/Squire/White
September 11, 2001
You can fly, you can glide, you can dream, you can see
Through this interactive vision streaming
You have the faith
So busy trying
So let it go
Fovever flying
To the sky, to the earth, to the moon, to the sea
To the sun, to the stars, to the dream you become
Nothing left to lose, nothing more to prove
When wings of gold will fly away
Talk among the prophets
Give you something
Talk among the teachers
Tell you something
Talk among your one true self now
Forever, forever, forever, forever
09 In the Presence Of (10:25)
AndersonHoweSquireWhite
September 11, 2001
Deeper than every ocean
Deeper than every river
That's what your presence brings to me
Revealing the words I listen
Seeing you in my silence
Learning I'm with you constantly
As I was before
If we were flowers
We would worship the sun
So why not now?
This high is shining brightly
Brighter than before
As the door was open wide
There inside was a diamond chair
Where I sat when I was young
I wrote down the words
Only when the young at heart
Can enter the real world
This chance I've waited for
For you to see
If I had chances I would spend them with you
To hold you close and let your love surround me
Deeper than before
(Deeper than every ocean)
And I know this love is real
(Deeper than every river)
Realize this is meant to be
That's what your eyes they say to me
You are listening to how I feel
So expectedly
(Brighter than every morning)
From the ocean to the sky
(Beautiful as the sunset)
Every river to the sea
Nature surrounds me constantly
We can hear love constantly
This is for you and me
Turn around and come deeper now
So what happens when I touch you there
You feel the words roll over you
Thinking of the better scenes
The memories
As everybody else just
Hasn't got the time
To help you anymore
'Cause if the reason for
The things that pleasure us
To please ourselves
Not pressure us
To give our ego
Some pleasure time
Can you imagine
Any reason
To know you're only fooling yourself
And then you'll unders
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Other reviews
By Joe Cavalli
An excellent four-star Yes production that gives a kick to the 90125-Talk period, reviving the career from where many hoped it would restart.
Perhaps the best track. Twelve well-spent minutes.
