Yes
The Quest

Well, I was wrong, better this way!

When I reviewed, now 7 years ago, "Heaven & Earth", I had celebrated the de profundis of the great prog group, at least from the creative point of view, but no: here I am writing about Yes again, a good 52 years after their debut (one could indeed say a lifetime) and their twenty-second studio album. Of course, no one from the original lineup is around anymore; in fact, even Steve Howe, the producer of this album, only debuts with the group on the third album: the legendary "Yes Album" of 1971; however, the current lineup also has elements of undeniable value: Davison himself, who has the ungrateful task of "replacing" Jon Anderson, does an excellent job and has a tone that closely resembles Anderson and therefore doesn't excessively alter the band's sound. Not to mention the veteran Alan White, who has been a stable part of the Yes lineup since the monumental "Yessongs".

"The Quest" comes out as a double vinyl and as a bonus in two CDs, but why two if the second contains only 3 tracks that could easily have been included on the first one? There is a suspicion that to "commercially reward" the effort of Howe and company, this strange release was necessary, an aspect which inevitably also penalizes the judgment, exacerbated even more by the astronomical cost of the blu ray version, certainly the most fashionable and able to better highlight the technical quality of the musical product.

Specifically, the debut of "The Quest" is indeed very encouraging, despite the thinly veiled debt to the late Keith Emerson and his rendition of Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man"; "The Ice Bridge" is indeed very compelling and can easily stand alongside the best prog production of the golden years! And the best part is that it is not just a flash in the pan because the following "Dare to Know" follows it worthily. After that, the level drops, slipping between the pleasing and the boring, often due to the excessive lyricism of the good Jon Davison, perhaps galvanized by being the heir of such a predecessor; fortunately, towards the end, there is the redemption of "A Living Island", embellished by the classic embroidery of the seventy-four-year-old Howe. For the rest, the latest effort by Yes, a product of the pandemic biennium, does not suffer at all from the dark period in which it was conceived and is permeated by a constant serenity and lightness of execution for which we also credit the good Geoff Downes, an honest keyboardist, certainly not able to emulate Rick Wakeman, but capable of keeping the ship afloat along with Billy Sherwood, the "substitute", so to speak, of the dear Chris Squire.

I’ll conclude with the inevitable praise for Roger Dean's graphics (but how old is he?), a true trademark of Yes since the legendary "Fragile", thereby rightfully part of the History of Music. It’s difficult to rate "The Quest"; I should not be influenced by the history of Yes, which is almost impossible for me, considering I was born and musically raised during their peak success, which wouldn't let me go beyond three stars, also considering what’s been mentioned above as its drawbacks. However, the album probably has somewhat more value musically; it's certainly a clear step forward compared to the band's latest production.