You want a good new Yes album with Jon Anderson on vocals, you say? Well, here you go! This is as close to classic Yes as you can get these days.
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Jon Anderson was, after a long period of illness, forced out of Yes in 2008 and since then Yes have released five albums. The last three have been under the leadership of guitarist Steve Howe. He is adamant about the fact that Jon cannot come back. While Jon has in the past been open to returning, he has said in several promotional interviews for this album that he has no interest in returning to Yes. And now that he has now found a band that sounds like classic Yes, I can see why.
Everything about this album screams Yes music. The album would have been the perfect follow-up to the very good Yes album The Ladder from 1999. Because this is a nice mix of 90s Yes (Keys to Ascension and The Ladder), sprinkled with echoes from the 70s.
Bassist Richie Castellano sounds exactly like Chris Squire when he plays bass, drummer Andy Ascolese keeps the beat and percussion lines just like Alan White would, Andy Graziano plays like Steve Howe at times and keyboardists Christopher Clark and Robert Kipp are the perfect combination of Rick Wakeman and Tony Kaye. The vocal harmonies sound like Chris Squire is with them, although Ann Marie Nacchio occasionally makes it sound a bit different.
If I put this album on without telling you anything about it, you’d say, «Oh, did Yes put out a new record?»
This album’s origins started when Jon Anderson heard a recording of Richie Castellano (also in Blue Oyster Cült) and The Band Geeks performing the Yes classic The Heart of the Sunrise. Blown away by how good it was, Jon contacted Castellano and asked if they were interested in going on tour and playing Yes songs. They did this in 2023, and the fans were overjoyed with excitement. And now they have released an entire album, co-produced by Jon and Castellano. The latter has also written much of the music together with Jon.
Jon Anderson, of course, needs no introduction. He is one of the most important creative forces behind Yes and when I hear this album it dawns on me how important he must have been to Yes, because we are very close to old greatness here. His voice is one of the most distinctive in rock, and even as he approaches his eightieth year, he still sings brilliantly, even live.
But let’s also praise The Band Geeks, because we’re talking about musicality of the finest kind. Just listen to the sixteen-minute epic, Once Upon A Dream. Here they evoke the good old-fashioned prog feeling and everything sounds as if Yes and Jon never parted ways (which they have done three times). It starts with Tales from Topographic-Ocean-like chant vocals and a little over halfway into the song there is an absolutely lovely ambient sequence where guitarist Graziano plays guitar that sounds like the way Steve Howe played the Soon section of The Gates of Delerium. And when Jon sings on top… goosebumps!
Counties and Countries is also strongly influenced by Yes and the album opener, True Messenger, sounds like an outtake from the aforementioned The Ladder. It’s one of the best songs Yes never recorded and surpasses most of what the Yes of today are doing (and for the record, I actually like the Howe version of Yes). Build Me An Ocean also makes me wonder if Jon had a little more musical influence in Jon & Vangelis than many, including Vangelis himself, have claimed.
Still A Friend is like the sequel to The Messenger from The Ladder and Make It Right and Dear God are something you would expect to hear on a solo album from Jon. There are also a couple of weak moments here, like Realization Part Two (where’s part 1?). But overall this is the kind of album you are hoping the current Yes will deliver, every time they announce a new release.
It seems that Jon and Richie Castellano have gotten the best out of each other, and out of The Band Geeks. But isn’t it a bit ironic that Jon Anderson was replaced in Yes by a singer from a Yes tribute band when he himself has now got hold of a band that sounds like a Yes tribute band? I doesn’t matter. When the result is this good, I honestly don’t care!
Grade: 8/10
