Review by: Jonathan Moss
Assigned by: Irfan Hidayatullah
This is without a doubt one of the best
albums Yes have ever done. Easily top five, perhaps top three.
Definitely in the pantheon of top prog albums in general. God, its
such a fucking good album. Why? The whole package man, its got almost
everything that makes Yes good (it is missing one rather crucial
element, which should be obvious to Yes fans). Jon Anderson's
esoteric religious lyrics, his bizarrely high pitched but melodically
pleasing and strangely friendly vocals, Chris Squire's thick, busy
and catchy bass lines, Steve Howe's acidic, hooky guitar playing,
Rick Wakeman's ear grabbing, rich keyboard textures and symphonic
playing (though at points he does seem to cross into cheesy sci-fi
territory, but that gives the album a goofy charm rather than
diminishing it in any serious way), and last but certainly not least,
co-producer Eddie Offord, who manages to get a nice, clear separation
between the instruments. Oh, and Alan White's competent drumming.
Of course, this album does have a
reputation for pretension, and at eighty minutes with four songs, I
can't really argue with that. However, I will argue that there's
nothing entirely wrong with being pretentious. Obviously it can
result in a lot of pretty crappy music, but so can music that's
lacking in pretension, like most modern indie bands. So I guess I
would call this album an example of successful pretentious music.
Besides, the album manages not to be
monotonous through a variety of ways. For one, the four songs all
have a different mood from each other, and within those songs there
are different moods, and different sections, like an experimental
novel written by multiple people, but with a similar vision. It
helps, that as Mark Prindle pointed out, the album is not
particularly bombastic. All the songs are pretty, and they generally
sound too mystical and withdrawn to get extroverted, as bombastic
music requires. I swear, if he'd been born later, Jon Anderson would
have been a great neofolk artist. And Rick Wakeman would be a
synthpop legend!
The way the instruments intertwine is
amazing as well, it shows something of a lack of ego in the band,
because although the instruments all get their own moments and in
general sound fantastic, they work together beautifully at all times,
never fighting for supremacy. In this regard they are like a good
team of improvisatory comedians (this comparison will definitely be
used sardonically).
On to the songs now! It starts off with
“The Revealing Science of God”, which is definitely my favourite
song on the album. It starts off with these mysterious ambient
sounds, then starts to build in intensity, as Jon chants his lyrics,
before the bass joins in and launches into a fantastic melody along
with a majestic mellotron line from Wakeman. The song just has such a
sense of joy to it, it sounds like celebration music for some
esoteric religious party. Steve's guitar playing is clean and
melodic, almost byrdsy, but with a jazzy edge. It's amazing how much
the band can get out the beginning, just Jon's angelic “what
happened to wonders we once knew so well” bit, the bouncy guitar,
catchy as fuck guitar and heavenly synth. This launches on to a
tenser, more hard rocking bit, with aggressive but tuneful guitar
playing and an uncertain vocal melody from Jon. And then! A very
pretty synth bit, the song can't stay tense, its just too jolly! It
does become more chilled out though, kind of back to the
proto-ambient vibe. For a prog epic its not that similar to something
like Supper's Ready, its more like “Close to the Edge”, it has
different sections, but it always returns to the same themes. Of
course, each times with variations, like a different riff or a
frantic piano bit. Layer it more and keep it interesting and
multifaceted while following the same melody, which is good, because
what a fucking melody it is. Steve gets a very weird guitar solo as
well, it becomes more pretty and conventional, but at the beginning
it sounds almost like something that could be used in an artsier new
wave song as a goofy sound effect. This leads to the “young
christians see it” bit, which has an epic and of course, religious
vibe, with some mellow synth playing. The song ends on a bouncy,
joyous note, with spastic keyboard and bass, before getting more
mellow, with dramatic singing from Jon, before returning triumphantly
to the central melody.
The next song, “The Remembering”,
opens with pretty swirly keyboards. The atmosphere of the song is
mellow and lush, this is aided by Steve Howe's hypnotic guitar line.
This gives the song a sleepy energy, like animals napping in a humid
jungle. This is followed by an ominous keyboard line and a more
energetic bit. The guitar line is poppy and the bass is smooth. Then
there is what I regard as the best bit in the song, because during it
the percussion is actually punchy! Alan White temporarily stops being
shite. Of course, the chiming acoustic guitar helps as well. It
reminds me of The Wicker Man, only
if it hadn't been a horror film. The song ends on a cool celestial
section, with beautiful guitar and choir like mellotron. The song can
get repetitive within its structure but, along no Revealing Science,
it is still a very strong song, though not quite a classic.
Admittedly,
“The Ancient” is pretty bad. The song has its moments, like a
pretty folk pop bit near the end, which could almost pass as its own
song, and some interesting noises. But outside of this it has some of
the ugliest guitar playing Steve Howe has done on record, just a kind
of squealing atonal mess. The percussion doesn't work either, it is
overly busy. It's just a very formless, confused song. It's like they
tried to go from prog to outright avant-garde. Leave that to Crimson,
guys. The noises, for me make me conceptualise it as a kind of
proto-Gates of Delirium, even if they don't actually sound much
alike. Ultimately it just sounds like video game music for some
forgettable 90s game.
Luckily
the song ends with an absolute classic, and the second best song on
the album. This is of course “Ritual”. The best bit of the song
is the “nous somme du soleil” chant. This occurs twice,
relatively early in the song, featuring the beautiful chant of that
title from Jon, under carefree, sweeping guitar and catchy bass. It
creates this religious atmosphere, but one of joy, like a charismatic
Church, but not at all! It's reprised again at the end, but this time
it's more mellow, with otherworldly tinkling piano. These sections
are for me definitely the highlight of the song, they convey
something I cannot put to words, a spectral beauty. Something life
affirming. However, if the rest of the song was junk, it would still
be filler, so luckily the rest of the song is pretty great.
Throughout it features various pretty vocal performances from Jon,
pretty guitar leads and riffs (including at one point a nice punchy
riff) from Steve and Squire's catchy bass playing. There is also a
good hard rocking bit, though it still retains the fundamental
optimism of the tune. The song is a beautiful epic mantra, just not
as quite as realised as revealing science.
Jesus,
look how long this review is. Now I understand why critics hated prog
so much, it is hard to review succinctly, unlike a punk song where
you can just say “catchy aggressive guitar riff and sneering
vocals”. Well, that doesn't change that this album is great, even
if one of the songs blows and it does suffer from padding. The
classics make up for it!
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