Monday 1 February 2010

Poll: Best new Yes song of the '00s

I asked you to vote on the best new Yes song of last decade and, after 150 votes, the results were very clear:

In the Presence of: 67 votes (45%)
Magnification: 22 votes (15%)
Give Love Each Day: 21 votes (14%)
Dreamtime: 15 votes (10%)
We Agree: 7 votes (5%)
Can You Imagine: 6 votes (4%)
Time is Time: 4 votes (3%)
Aliens are Only Us from the Future: 3 votes (2%)
Show Me: 3 votes (2%)
Spirit of Survival: 1 vote (1%)
Other answer (Homeworld, which was from the previous decade): 1 vote (1%)

So, with a band setting out to write a new album without Jon Anderson, it is perhaps reassuring that by far the most popular piece of the last decade originated from Alan White. On the other hand, in the next two places are "Magnification" and "Give Love Each Day", both of which seem to have been from Anderson originally. Only two Magnification tracks got no votes at all (Howe's "Soft as a Dove"; and the shot at airplay, "Don't Go").

As remarked previously, the tragedy of the noughties is that there was just the one new Yes album. However, a smattering of further '00s Yes songs did emerge. Not that these were very popular! "Show Me" (on the US version of The Ultimate Yes) and the 2008 live piece "Aliens are Only Us from the Future" (now destined for the Squackett project) got 3 votes apiece, and I suspect some of those for "Aliens…" were joke responses judging by the online reaction to the song.

While the '00s didn't bring much in the way of new Yes material, the archives were flung open by a series of released on Rhino: In a Word: Yes, The Word is Live and the expanded and remastered re-releases. I count about 23 Yes pieces that were not previously officially available that came out last decade, and several of these hadn't even been bootlegged before. So, that's our next poll: which was your favourite?

No comments:

Post a Comment