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!)