Symphonic Music of Yes

1) Roundabout 2) Close To The Edge 3) Wonderous Stories 4) I've Seen All Good People 5) Mood For a Day 6) Owner Of A Lonely Heart 7) Survival 8) Heart Of The Sunrise 9) Soon 10) Starship Tropper

(This and Jonathan Moss's review is dedicated to Chris Squire, bassist of Yes. His style was innovative and inventive, and he was a lot more influential than many give him credit for. May he rest in peace.)

This was a difficult album to review, because it took me a while to form my final opinion on it. First off, unlike most tribute albums, some of the members of Yes were actually involved in this album, with Steve Howe contributing to the guitar, Bill Bruford playing the drums, and Jon Anderson singing lead vocals on a few of the tracks. Second off, this album strikes me as a great idea that misses the mark of being well executed.

See, I don’t hate it, as I found the orchestra to sound gorgeous, and I can tell that sizable amount of effort was put into it. However, I can’t really like this much either, because it’s not like David Palmer really does anything different to the songs. For almost all the tracks, all that Palmer seems to do is replace certain parts of the song with orchestration, with the original rock instrumentation still remains intact. This bothers me, because if the idea was to make Yes sound like symphonic music, then this album to me was a failure, because the mixture of the rock instrumentation and the orchestra just doesn’t seem to blend in at all. It’s like there are two different styles going on at the same time, and they don’t seem to be interacting or supporting each other at all.


For example, let me focus on Close To The Edge. They don't anything to ruin this masterpiece, but it's difficult for me to think of a reason why I would listen to this version as opposed to the original. The orchestra doesn't add or take away anything from the piece, it's just there. The moment when the song gets into the mellowed down, soft atmospheric section in the middle, the orchestration suddenly slips right in perfectly, and it becomes absolutely beautiful, but aside from that, nothing really stands out.

That's more or less the entire album. Some interesting moments here and there, but overall nothing really grabs my attention. I like how Owner Of A Lonely Heart incorporates those quirky samples from the original into orchestration, and the first section of Survival does a good job at making the melody fit well into the symphony,  but the female harmonies in the chorus don't fit in and sound right. I could go on and on about how each song is done, but the style is so similar from one another that I can't really think of anything else to say. I mean, I could talk about Jon Andedsons appearances, but is there to say? Yeah, he does take the lead vocals on Roundabout, but other than the orchestration, it's not like the song is any different from the original, so it's really no big deal. I also find myself questioning the decision to use the second section of "I've Seen All Good People" instead of the first. I feels weird to hear a symphonic arrangement of the rocking section of the song, and the first section seem like it would have been much better suited for a symphonic arrangement, but whatever, their decision I guess. I also don't like how they added rock drums to Wondrous Stories, since first off, this piece never had any to begin with, and second off, without them, this could have easily been a highlight, since I always felt that Wondrous Stories always sounded dreamily symphonic to begin with.

There is an exception though to all of this though. Of these ten tracks, I would say the one that sticks out the most for me is Mood For A Day. I just LOVE how the orchestra plays along and interacts with the guitar, making it sound completely natural and comfortably fit in. It adds quite a bit to the piece, and I would recommend that every Yes fan hear this.

But, really, aside from that, the only other piece that sticks out is Soon…ugh, what do that I say about that one? You'd think that this piece would be MADE for a beautiful orchestral arrangement, since it already had a lush and symphonic atmosphere to begin with, but this version has so little cohesion that I feel no one really knew what they doing with this. I’m not able to tell whether they wanted it to be a straightforward rendition, or if they wanted to make it sound like a soundtrack written by John Williams. The strings at moments just sound REALLY over the top and sentimental, and ahhh, I just don’t like the acoustic guitar that takes over the lead melody. It sounds too plucky and feels out of place of everything else. Gosh darn it guys, this could have easily been a great rendition, how could you have messed it up so badly? Ah, damn it.

So, in conclusion, I have finally decided my opinion on this, and I believe that this is simply not a very good album. I actually really want to recommend this to at least someone, since there seemed to have been hard work put into it, and the band themselves are pretty involved in this...but it's a challenge for me to figure who I would recommend this to. Guitars, bass, and drums are STILL very present, so it's not really a full scale symphonic tribute, and the arrangements stick too much to the original to really make an impact towards anyone. The end result is a mixture of ingredients that don't blend well together, and that's too bad because I could have seen this working quite well if maybe the album was done slightly differently. Like, for example, maybe they should have just done a straight up symphonic album, with no rock instrumentation. I personally think that would have sounded COOL. But, anyways, if you really want an album that blends orchestration with the music of Yes, and does it well, go get Symphonic Live. On the other hand, I still highly recommend you check out the wonderful version of "Mood For A Day", and Jonathan DID like this album more than me...so I guess it wouldn't hurt for you to check this out if you are a Yes fan. Who knows, maybe you'll like this album.

When all is said and done, it could be MUCH worse. Go read Jonathan's review.