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Rating: Criticizing Yes is a daunting task: it's a bit like shooting at your mother, and even more, aiming carefully. At the time, buying this CD was quite reckless for me: and if I have to be 100% honest… well yes, I regret it! Because when we buy a product with a label, we always think we know what it will contain, we go on a sure bet (and we brag about it a little too...). Because if you have a certain name, with that artistic past made of masterpiece records, unfortunately, the public expects something more from you, that something which too often pushes people to buy blindly and trust completely: because you don't expect to be swindled, because your heart guides you.
Four years after the flop of "Big Generator" and eight years after the very successful "90125", this work arrives to interrupt the legal "war" between Yeswest, a group formed by Chris Squire, Alan White, Trevor Rabin, and Tony Kaye, and ABWH (an acronym for Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and Howe) and to establish an armed peace between the old companions. The result is 75% the product of ABWH's production and the remainder of the others: they hold ready material, which they reassemble and adapt for the needs of the moment. No choice was more daring.
By conducting a generalized and quick analysis of the album, the inconsistency of the work is immediately noticeable, along with too many references, especially in the first part, to the album that saw them climb the charts eight years earlier: this is true particularly for "I Would Have Waited Forever" and "Shock To The System". There are still too many choruses evoking "90125" and the dominant and overwhelming sound of the guitars presented in every tone, type, and distortion becomes cloying. To confirm this, just arrive at the third track, where, without apparent reason, we find a couple of minutes of solo by the otherwise excellent Howe in "Masquerade" thrown there, as if it were a consolation for someone. "Lift Me Up" is the single chosen for the American market, and upon listening, we understand why it never went beyond the eighty-sixth position (Americans may be uncouth, but perhaps they certainly listen to more rock than us…). Once again, Howe, as usual, tries to patch things up at the end: but the result does not change. "Without Hope You Cannot Start The Day" is a timid attempt to give something more; but at the height, when you expect a change of rhythm or an invention, it fades and ends. Even "Saving My Heart" begins and ends wearily, as if it were the sequel to "We Are The World": if Hall & Oates had written it, it would have been a hit. For "Miracle Of Life" you're already with popcorn in hand, ready to enjoy the show, after Kaye's opening with a bed of furious keyboards: false alarm, you languish in the usual soup with a final choir. With "Silent Talking" you hope that, at least at the end, the fate of the record will lift, given its good architecture. But the repetitive "The More We Live - Let Go" and the gloomy "Dangerous" bring us back down to earth with a bump. For the rest, I refer you to the judgment expressed on the first tracks, we don't drift much from those sounds. Except for the concluding "Take The Water To The Mountain", which truly leaves you bewildered and amazed because it's truly a UFO.
After this commercial cut-and-paste operation, metaphorically speaking, one has the feeling of observing a mosaic where, besides having the wrong colors, we also struggle to decipher the underlying design on which it is built. A bit too much abstractism, in short.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
04 Lift Me Up (06:30)
(Rabin)
Look around - Got no place to stay.
God I hate this town, depending on the day.
You look me up, you look me down - Alright, OK.
While I got no life, I got no hope;
I'm falling in love.
Help me through the fight;
Help me win tonight - I'm calling.
What to do I find it hard to know;
The road I walk is not the one I chose
Lift me up and turn me over;
Lead me on into the dawn.
Take me to the highest mountain;
Tie me up, love in a storm.
Have you decided on my fortune?
Facing the future in your eyes,
With your imperial behaviour
We fight amidst the battle cries.
Open doors - They may be closed to me;
The fire's still burning in my heart...
What to do I find it hard to know;
I want to turn my life around...
14 Take the Water to the Mountain (03:12)
Take the water to the mountain;
Take the river to the sea.
Let the forest be salvation
Long before it needs to be.
Take the water to the mountain;
Let your body flow upstream.
Let it cascade off your shoulders;
Be the body of your dreams.
Take the water to the mountain;
Let the sun shine on your ground.
You decide your every movement;
Let the water to the land.
Take the water to the mountain;
Cross the Great Divide of Love.
Give to Nature all you can give;
Let the Mother know your heart.
Take the water to the mountain;
Let's become alive again.
Holy water, holy mountain,
Holy river, holy tree.
Pica!
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