First thoughts on Mirror to the Sky

InsideOut kindly sent me the new Yes album. It’s a strong release. While recognisably the same band (almost) as on The Quest, Mirror to the Sky is a big step up. We have better drums, better vocals, better tempo, and no tracks you want to skip. The band sound more integrated; the long songs are more coherent. It’s an album I keep returning to with much pleasure.

This is a new incarnation of Yes. While it harks back to prior Yes output in places, they are doing their own thing. On one side, we have the propulsive Sherwood/Schellen rhythm section, on the other we have Howe’s steel guitar entwining with Joyce’s string arrangements. At the centre is Jon Davison, who is becoming more assured as a writer and arranger. We have big, twangy guitar sounds, frequently evoking the American West. We have lyrical themes about our connections with the stars.

It’s not a perfect album. I’d like to hear some more classic riffs and melodies from Howe; there’s a tendency towards simple ascending or descending motifs. Davison occasionally skirts cliché in the lyrics. Downes is rather absent, spending much of the album in the background.

I’m never certain what Yes fans want. Maybe we all want different things? But I think most fans wanted this: more rock, more oomph, more epic. Now, let’s go through the songs one by one.

 

CUT FROM THE STARS / ALL CONNECTED

You’ve all heard the two ‘singles’. I wrote about “Cut from theStars” here and “All Connected” here. I first heard the album as a whole before “Cut from the Stars” was released and it took me the longest to get into. I still feel it has a certain angular feel to it, but that works.

The two singles to date have prompted a few comparisons with Arc of Life. I think Sherwood and Schellen are shining in the Yes environment. I can hear similarities to Arc of Life, but there are multiple Sherwood-led albums since The Quest (via the Prog Collective and Arc of Life) and they all pale compared with the work he’s doing here. And while the singles have foregrounded Sherwood’s writing, it is Howe who is still the main composer on the album.

 

LUMINOSITY

This is an album that ebbs and flows, within songs and across songs. Compared to the tracks before and after, “Luminosity” begins in a statelier fashion. The opening with guitar, orchestra and drums, keeps things slow, before we move into a jauntier section. The main theme is then introduced instrumentally, before Davison sings mostly unaccompanied. It’s a strong vocal line, with a Celtic folk feel. Wasn’t Davison living in Ireland for a period? The lyrics return to the stellar theme: “Like the stars, we are luminous”. We also reference extraterrestrial life, a common Yes theme (compare “Arriving UFO”). Sherwood’s backing vocals are strong again.

This was one of the first two pieces the band worked on, before The Quest was even released, and in some ways it sounds most like the material on The Quest (compare “Dare to Know” maybe). Both this and “All Connected” contrast Davison/Sherwood with Howe/Joyce/orchestra, with Schellen’s drums providing the important linking element. Howe’s playing is slow and heartfelt, Joyce’s arrangements add colour and variation, leading to an uplifting conclusion. “Luminosity” also stands out as the first time Downes comes to the fore.

“All Connected” and “Luminosity” are rather alike. I wonder whether moving one of the pieces to elsewhere in the running order would work better?

 

LIVING OUT THEIR DREAM

This is the odd one out, which isn’t a criticism. I think its oddity fits well into the flow of the album, a break from the bigger pieces. At first, it’s quite a confusing listen. Structurally, it’s a straightforward tune, with a nice, plaintive Howe solo towards the end. It sounds almost like a Rolling Stones pastiche, with a hint of Americana. The vocals are much lower, with Howe and Davison in close harmony producing a “third voice”. It’s the lyrics that stand out. They are almost absurdist, shades of Zorbonauts, who Downes plays with. Davison has said the song is a critique of modern weddings, but I feel it goes further, lamenting the divisions of society caused by social media. There’s a line that reminds me of t.A.T.u.’s “Craving”. And then into a deliberately downbeat – musically and lyrically – ending.

I don’t think this is simply the short rocker on the album. I suggest the music is deliberately a pastiche to match the lyrics. It’s akin to “Money” or maybe “Countryside”. Possibly, the song needs just slightly more energy to pull off its message?

 

MIRROR TO THE SKY

This is the title track, the centrepiece of the album, the one garnering most attention in reviews. It’s a statement piece and it works. All the ingredients come together. We start with a big, phat riff from Howe, evoking the wide open skies of the American West. Other instruments come in, including some tasty piano from Downes. Then the drums kick things up a notch. Howe brings a dirty sound on the electric guitar. Sherwood gets to state the bass part unaccompanied. The music builds into a groove, Howe wailing away. The whole thing builds to an early climax less than three minutes in.

Then we’re stripped right back to an acoustic guitar motif, and Howe sings one of two key vocal motifs, “Dreams of a sky without fire”. Davison then takes over as vocalist. He sings of the “currents of chance”, somewhat obvious lyrics, but nicely accompanied by an orchestral part depicting the “leaves in a storm”. The energy builds back up and we repeat the vocal line: we’re rocking, but we’ve also got the horns in the orchestra adding colour.

Around four and a half minutes, we get the second key motif, “you are my mirror to the sky”, introduced instrumentally on electric guitar first, then Davison sings. We repeat this motif with variation.

A bit after five minutes, we get what I hear as the centre of the song as we contrast our two lines: “You are my mirror to the sky / Still I dream of a sky without fire”. It’s anthemic, evocative, beautiful, aided by a certain mystery as to what it all means! Davison’s “mirror to the sky” seems to be romantic in intent, the words coming from something his new wife said, more personal than much of the lyrical content that has come before. But Howe wrote the “dreams of a sky without fire” line and there’s a certain narrative tension between this and “mirror to the sky”. Do we want some fire in the sky; why are we dreaming of its absence?

The orchestra comes more to the fore, and we’re in another steel guitar and orchestra section, something of a recurring pattern for the album. We get slow but emotional playing from Howe against fast, lively orchestrations.

We move into one of Davison’s lyrical islands and a sudden flurry of words when before they were used sparsely. Davison sings of metaphysical mysteries, before we re-visit the opening guitar part, Howe building the tension. Another vocal highlight as Davison sings, “We are star fire”, tying us back to “Luminosity” and “Cut from the Stars”. It’s a great moment, yet the line only occurs once. The song deliberately holds back on these moments of emotion when the vocals break in.

We go back to that stripped down acoustic guitar part to introduce the slow movement, guitar and orchestra. The song is in a contemplative mood, bringing us back down carefully. The acoustic guitar motif again heralds a final change, with the orchestra taking over for a recapitulation of the main themes, with swells of strings and rhythmic horns. The band re-join for an energetic coda.

 

CIRCLES OF TIME

This is the comedown song after the epic, a chill out room for the ears. A pretty song, lyrically it’s another “Roundabout”, a song about missing one’s lover while on tour. It’s a ballad, but with subtle backing from strings, extra guitar parts and moments when Davison double tracks himself.

 

BONUS DISC

When I first heard the album, I thought the bonus disc was fine, but very bonus track-y, a bit disposable. With The Quest and Heaven & Earth, there were a few songs that people felt belonged on a Steve Howe solo album rather than a Yes album (“It was All We Knew”, “Damaged World”). With Mirror to the Sky, had Yes gathered all those songs and put them on the bonus disc?

However, over the weeks, I’ve found myself listening to the bonus tracks as much as the rest of the album, more than some of the main disc. I’m not saying “One Second is Enough” or “Magic Potion” are going to go down in history as classic Yes songs, but they’re fun, they’re very listenable. “Unknown Place” is very good for much of its runtime. I don’t think now that they are disposable. I think this is just another side of the current Yes.

 

UNKNOWN PLACE

The obvious comparison for “Unknown Place” is “Mirror to the Sky”. It feels like a spare: in case you lost “Mirror to the Sky” down the back of the sofa, you could substitute in “Unknown Place”, with similar sounds and grand design. There’s a lot to like about it. I love the introduction, the playing, and a luscious ending highlighting Downes’ organ playing, his standout moment on the album. But the basic song at the centre of it just doesn’t do much for me; we lack the anthemic lines of “Mirror to the Sky”.

The opening twangy guitar part brings us back to the American West, while vocals evoke Native American rituals, and then we’re into the main part of the song. Over the album as a whole, Howe is less prominent as a vocalist than he was on The Quest, but a middle section here uses Howe the singer more. The piece turns more instrumental and we then have two significant sections, both with Downes to the fore. The second leaves the American West for a baroque and Gothic horror feel led by Downes, while Howe is doing Bach-like guitar exercises, making for a great ending.

 

ONE SECOND IS ENOUGH

A simpler song. A nice intro from Downes leads into the main part, which bounces along. Howe’s message is about the fleeting nature of happiness.

The chorus vaguely reminds me of “I’ve Got a Theory” from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical “Once More with Feeling”, which was written by Joss Whedon, who is a Yes fan, so maybe his writing was influenced by Howe and whatever my brain is picking up on all makes sense?

A nice Howe solo at the end and into a clock ticking as the ending.

 

MAGIC POTION

“Love is a magic potion”, Howe tells us. We have similar lyrical themes to The Quest’s “Music to My Ears”. It’s all fine, if a bit forgettable. But it’s all worth it for a delightful, groovy bass line, written by Howe, played by Sherwood, and which Downes doubles on a couple of bars. Just extract that, I could listen to that on a loop all day.

 

To summarise, “Mirror to the Sky” is the best track, where the pieces all come together to make a substantial piece of music that can stand in the Yes canon. “Cut from the Stars” is a good single, a concise statement of what Yes can be. I enjoy listening to “Luminosity”, “All Connected” and “Unknown Place”: they’re close to capturing the Yes magic, but maybe they’re not quite there.

“Living Out Their Dream” and “Circles of Time” are songs to themselves, doing something specific on their own terms. “One Second is Enough” and “Magic Potion” are cute, simpler songs – very listenable.

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It flows well as an album, the lyrical themes draw the experience together. It’s an album to be savoured, headphones on.

The band are already working on a third album in quick succession. If they can keep up the momentum, who knows what they can achieve?

All Connected - a second single

The second single from Mirror to the Sky is now out (depending on what time zone you are in). The second track on the album, it was the choice we expected. It's a long track for a "single" at 9:03. Jon Davison said in a recent interview that they considered releasing a single edit, but Thomas Waber at InsideOut felt the song should come out in its full form. "All Connected" is the first of the longer pieces on the album, and the first of two co-written by Davison, Howe and Sherwood (a writing contribution we never got on The Quest). So, what is the song like?

The opening perhaps does not inspire: a simple ascending motif. We could have done with a more interesting riff here to keep the energy up. But the song warms up around 78 seconds with some tasty Sherwood backing vocals and then into a great, bouncy melody performed by Davison. I presume this core song element is by Davison. It's almost like a little indie pop tune, something you would expect from Belle and Sebastian. The lyrics, "How can we break down walls", reflect similar themes to "Walls" on Talk, which of course none of the current band played on (ignoring rumours of Sherwood's participation on the album), but are perhaps not very original. However, we get into the next section and "karma chromatic" is a good line. (Echoes of Culture Club's "Karma Chameleon"?)

We then get some Davison/Sherwood vocal interplay around the "all connected" motif, which seems to be Sherwood's composition, before the song shifts into a new section around 3:35, I'm guessing maybe by Howe, although with a nice Sherwood bass part. There's another vocal section, it's a song full of ideas, before we return to the "all connected" theme. There's some nice instrumental variation on the themes. Howe, Sherwood, Davison and Schellen are all in synch creatively. We return to the "How can we break down walls" vocal theme and the following "karma chromatic" part, and then again to Howe's slide guitar as a coda. It's a good song that takes us on a journey, although it's not always clear it knows the way.

The lyrics are Apollonian, relating to universal humanist themes, perhaps particularly ideas we've heard from Sherwood before. Davison has talked about Sherwood's original lyrics focusing on the literal, technological sense of being "all connected", which he expanded to cover a more metaphysical take. The word "collective" jumped out at me, a word also appearing in "Cut from the Stars". While nowhere near to being a concept album, there is a certain continuity of lyrical themes across Mirror to the Sky.

In all, "All Connected" represents a more united and ambitious band than we sometimes heard on The Quest, full of ideas and good playing, but perhaps not quite there yet in terms of hitting everything fans want from a longer Yes piece. (But wait for the rest of the album!)

Poll: What was the best Yes-related release of the second half of 2022? Round one

There were 20 Yes-related albums released in the second half of 2022, so instead of a single poll, we're going through them in three rounds, with the top 2 from each round going through to the final. Round 1 covered releases by or with Rick Wakeman or Trevor Rabin (but excluding releases also involving other Yes men).

We had 28 votes. I could have let the poll run for longer, but the result was clear!

1. Rick Wakeman: A Gallery of the Imagination - 13 votes, 46%

2. Carly Rae Jepsen: The Loneliest Time (w/ Rabin) - 11 votes, 39%

3. Rick Wakeman: The Missing Hammersmith Recording 1985 - 2 votes, 7%

4= Rick Wakeman and Valentina Blanca: Live from Elche - 1 vote, 4%

4= Rick Wakeman: Unreleased Demos Volume 1 (w/ Rabin) - 1 vote, 4%

6. Rick Wakeman: Rehearsals and Demos (w/ Rabin) - 0 votes, 0%

On to Round 2, which are releases by or with Howe, Davison and Sherwood. You can vote on the news website front page.

What was the best Yes-related album of 1992?

 What was the best Yes-related album of 1992? I asked, you answered, 227 of you. Thanks everyone for voting.

1. Asia: Aqua (w/ Howe, Downes): 135 votes (59%)

2. King Crimson: The Great Deceiver (Live 1973-1974) (w/ Bruford): 30 votes (13%)

3. Kitaro: Dream (w/ Anderson): 22 votes (10%)

4. Rick Wakeman: The Classical Connection II (w/ Bruford, Howe, Squire): 20 votes (9%)

5. Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells II (w/ Horn): 10 votes (4%)

6. Geoff Downes: Vox Humana: 7 votes (3%)

7. Regulators: The Regulators (w/ Sherwood): 1 vote (0%)

8. Betsy Cook: The Girl Who Ate Herself (w/ Horn): 0 votes (0%)

There were 2 ineligible other votes.

A big win for Aqua, which took me by surprise. The first John Payne album and also Steve Howe's return to Asia featured a somewhat different style to the Wetton era. A second place for the first big King Crimson box set to feature Bruford. I didn't vote for it either, but The Girl Who Are Herself is worth checking out.

Cut from the Stars - a first listen

Yes introduce their new album, Mirror to the Sky, with “Cut from the Stars”, a paean to the night sky and how it can ground us. The song is released 10 March 2023, but as it's already 10 March somewhere in the world...

After orchestral strings start us off (shades of the intro to “Rhythm of Love” on Big Generator), we go into a driving bass line that I feel Chris Squire would approve of, and then into an energetic chorus. “International dark star” – is that a reference to the International Space Station? [Edit: I misheard Davison's vocals. The lyrics have this as "International dark sky park". A dark sky park is an area with reduced light pollution to facilitate views of the night sky.]

Most of the instruments drop out and the tempo slows so that the vocals can take centre stage for the first verse. “When I’m in need of some perspective / I find my place in the jewelled collective / Daylight glare blinding me / Only after dark may I clearly see”, which I think is some of Davison’s best work. Notice the subtle arrangements going on with the backing vocals. The vocal section continues, with the anthemic line “We have transmission after dark” standing out.

Then around 2:50, Howe comes in with a solo for contrast, Sherwood’s bass burbling along underneath. The middle 8 has some more nice Davison/Sherwood vocal interplay. The song builds towards a vocal climax, and we could just finish around 4:30, but there’s an instrumental coda akin to the “Interaction” section of “The Ice Bridge” with trading solos from Howe and Downes.

The lyrics match the album cover, and possible lyrical themes may return in “Luminosity” and “Mirror to the Sky”. Yes’s lyrics when Jon Anderson was in the band often focused on the Sun. Here, we switch to the stars (although of course the stars are just distant suns). Yes have referenced stars before, notably in the cover of Tales from Topographic Oceans, and Anderson references the Pleiades constellation in his recent work.

“Cut from the Stars” is a song led by Sherwood’s bass and Davison’s vocals. (Dare I say, this is what Arc of Life should be sounding like, but doesn’t?) It’s a somewhat more modern sounding song than The Quest’s opener and one not blighted by the mix up over who wrote it!

In all, a rousing and focused introduction to the new Yes album. One can hear why it was chosen as an album opener and single. Of course, everyone is wondering what comes next, particular with the longer songs, up to nearly 14 minutes for the title track.

2022 in review and the Prog Readers’ Poll

Obviously, overshadowing everything, 2022 is the year that Alan White died. We will all remember him and the streamed Seattle tribute concert was a lovely memorial.

2022 marked a return to touring after the pandemic, with live shows by Yes, Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, and the Trevor Horn Band, as well as the Jazz Sabbath tour with Adam Wakeman and Dylan Howe, and Dave Kerzner's All Star Prog Band with Sherwood. 2022 was perhaps a quieter year for Yes-related releases. But we did get albums from the Prog Collective and Arc of Life, from Rick Wakeman, and from Virgil & Steve Howe, plus some notable guest appearances including Sherwood and Davison on Dave Kerzner's The Traveler, both also on Lobate Scarp's You Have It All, and Wakeman and Downes on Fernando Perdomo's Frost soundtrack. There was the usual array of Cleopatra tribute records and Zorbonauts releases. I think there are two guest appearances that I feel deserved a bit more attention: David Paich's Forgotten Toys, which has a song with the late Michael Sherwood and a brief appearance by Billy; and Clint Bahr's Puzzlebox, including a piece posthumously incorporating a Pete Banks solo.

I think it can be interesting to try to step outside of our Yes fan perspective and consider how the broader world sees the music we love. In terms of audience reach, the most successful Yes-related music of 2022 must be Carly Rae Jepsen's album The Loneliest Time, which made the top 20 in the UK, Canada & US. Trevor Rabin plays guitar on the track "Talking to Yourself" (#91 on the UK iTunes chart by itself), presumably invited in by his son, who co-wrote/produced it. Or maybe it's Rabin's music for the Disney+ show National Treasure: Edge of History?

Yes-related music rarely challenges for the big awards, but Brad Mehldau's Jacob's Ladder, including a re-interpretation of "Starship Trooper", has been nominated in the Best Contemporary Instrumental Album category for the 2023 Grammys. (This is slightly confusing as it is not entirely instrumental, with significant vocals in places.)

One interesting measure of success is Prog magazines Readers' Poll, which Yes members have done well in before. The results for 2022 are perhaps disappointing.

In the Band, Male Vocalist, Guitarist, Album and Drummer categories, nothing Yes related. (Apart from Yes remixer Steve Wilson, who did very well, with Porcupine Tree winning Best Band and 2nd in Best Album, while Wilson is 8th in Best Male Vocalist.) Lobate Scarp were 9th in Best Unsigned Band. Adam Wakeman came 7th in Best Keyboardist.

Best Bassist has Tony Levin at #2 and Lee Pomeroy at #8. In the Best Reissue category, Bruford does well, with King Crimson's Discipline/Beat/Three of a Perfect Pair coming 8th and his compilation Making a Song and Dance at #9.

Cruise to the Edge came 5th in Best Event, but this was the first cruise without Yes themselves and Billy Sherwood was the only Yes member performing. Cropredy, at which the Trevor Horn Band headlined one night, was 7th.

So, no Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, Steve Howe or Geoff Downes. No specific mention of Billy Sherwood or Jon Davison, although perhaps they can take a little credit for helping Lobate Scarp to 9th best Unsigned Band. The long-retired Bill Bruford is the only Yes member who comes out of that seeming relevant. Congrats to the do-we-count-them-as-alumni Levin and Pomeroy. Compare someone like Steve Hackett, of the same generation as Yes, who has often collaborated with Yes members: he won best Guitarist and best Event (for his Foxtrot at 50 tour).

I wonder whether the Poll has a UK bias. The magazine is available outside the UK, but I think the readership is mainly British. Maybe the more US-based acts (Sherwood, Kerzner, Perdomo, Glass Hammer) suffer accordingly.

Will the 2023 Readers' Poll look different? Between probable Yes, Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, Trevor Rabin, and DBA albums, hopefully so.

Looking ahead to 2023

Steve Howe likes to run a tight ship with Yes: no leaks. But enough has come out to say we expect a new Yes album in 2023, with Howe, Downes, Sherwood and Davison, with White maybe having recorded drum parts before he passed away, with Joyce and the FAMES orchestra back. Rumour has it out in the first half of the year. Presumably they will want it out before or not too long after touring begins on 7 May 2023. This will be the long-awaited, many-times-delayed Relayer tour. European dates from Portugal through to the UK have been announced and the tour is then expected to move to North America and maybe Japan.

Meanwhile, Jon Anderson also has a new album and tour due in 2023. Producer Michael Franklin was planning to finish recording for 1000 Hands: Chapter Two in December 2022; they’re aiming for an April 2023 release in time for Jon’s US tour with the Band Geeks in April/May 2023 playing Yes classics. Album guests are expected to include Rick Wakeman and Trevor Rabin.

Also due is the new Downes Braide Association album, Celestial Songs. This was finished back in April 2022; a release date of March 2023 is rumoured. Downes also leads Asia, who had a tour planned in late 2022 with Carl Palmer, Billy Sherwood and Marc Bonilla. This was to be with the Alan Parsons Project, but Parsons has had health problems, causing delays. What happens next is unclear, but it appears Asia are keen to tour some time in 2023.

There’s a pattern here. Yes will have a new album, but the tour will focus on an old one, Relayer (1974). Anderson will have a new solo album, but tour focusing on old Yes songs. Promo hasn’t mentioned anything from later than 1977. Downes has a new album with Chris Braide, but plans to tour with Asia, focusing on Asia (1982) and possibly Alpha (1983). That’s the world we live in. Ageing rock musicians make more money touring the old songs than they do from recording new ones. Yes will probably play a song or two from their new album and Anderson might include something new, but audiences want the classic tunes. Rick Wakeman’s new album, A Gallery of the Imagination, has already been on sale on his Christmas tour dates; it receives a full release in 2023. But, likewise, his sets focus on the 1970s.

In just the last few days, we’ve had news about Trevor Rabin’s new solo album, expected some time in 2023 and entitled Rio. He’s talked of a rock album with vocals, so something more in the style of Can’t Look Away than Jacaranda. In terms of former band members releasing solo albums, we also have Oliver Wakeman saying Anam Cara is due this year.

I expect those to be the big events of the year. Most of those are expected earlier rather than later in the year; we will have to wait and see what late 2023 brings. I’m sure there will be plenty more Yes-related releases, but what is less clear.

Trevor Horn has a body of material, strange covers done in collaboration with musicians from Tori Amos to Toyah Willcox, from Rick Astley to Robert Fripp, but it is unclear if he has a record deal or a release date.

Billy Sherwood is always busy. I’m sure we’ll get plenty from him. Both he and ARW’s Lee Pomeroy may be on Dave Kerzner and Fernando Perdomo’s multi-disc Genesis tribute. Jon Davison may be guesting on United Progressive Fraternity’s Planetary Overload Part 2: Hope. Steve Howe will probably give us Homebrew 8.

Schellen has mentioned a possible archival Badfinger release with him and Kaye. Michael Franklin has mentioned a possible archival live Patrick Moraz release. There may be a Jazz Sabbath live release from the 2022 tour, with Adam Wakeman and Dylan Howe in the line-up, plus dad Rick guesting. We should get more archival releases from Rick Wakeman’s Caped Crusader Collector Club.

Cleopatra Records will undoubtedly have some all-star tribute with a couple of Yes members. There should be one or more Zorbonauts releases with Downes. Downes has also produced an album by Gareth Ainsworth and The Cold Blooded Hearts that might be out in 2023.

In the less certain but possible category, we could have a third In Continuum studio album with Davison. Maybe a John Lodge project with Davison and Downes? Maybe the Rick Wakeman/Tim Rice/Alfie Boe project?

What are you looking forward to in 2023?