The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureMusicAlbum reviews

Yes – Heaven & Earth

Yes – Heaven & Earth | Album review
24 July 2014
Stuart Boyland
Avatar
Stuart Boyland
24 July 2014

Music review

Stuart Boyland

Heaven & Earth

★★★★★

Release date

21st July 2014

Highlights

Light of the Ages, Subway Walls

Links

Twitter Facebook Website

Heaven & Earth is the 21st studio album from Yes, a mark of an admirable durability that is especially impressive considering that half of those 21 releases have come since the punk tsunami that washed their brand of progressive rock clean out of fashion. Yes have survived the wave thanks to a revolving-door recruitment policy and the adaptability of the synthesizers that have always formed a hearty chunk of their sound (disco-pop anthem Owner of a Lonely Heart brought them their biggest international success in the 80s), but they haven’t threatened the charts since 1994s Talk. In 2014, with punk practically dead and Muse arguably the biggest band in the world, can a Yes album once again be a noteworthy event?

Opener Believe Again is, unashamedly, an old-school flares-and-perm prog rock song. Singer Jon Davison, appearing on his first album with the band, sounds a lot like original front man Jon Anderson (in high-pitched voice as well as in name). Here his yearning vocal blends with epic keyboards and a guitar solo that puts one in mind of Harold Faltemeyer’s theme from Top Gun.

When it targets the skies in this fashion, Heaven & Earth generally succeeds: Light of the Ages is a standout as an eight-minute swirl of multi-layered space guitar and piano, with Davison’s lyric telling of a “beacon shining across the cosmos”. Sadly though, there are as many duds as gems here. Misguided attempts at diversification fall flat when compared to the accomplished grandeur elsewhere. In a World of Our Own attempts a primal blues stomp, but falls unconvincing flat by paring back the trademark Yes range of sound. Similarly, the chirpy balladry of To Ascend makes it one to skip.

Thankfully the album closes big in every sense of the word. Subway Walls is what great chamber music would sound like if the chamber in question was on a UFO: a heady mix of off-kilter scales, pretty vocal harmonies, and virtuosic bursts from Steve Howe’s guitar.

Heaven & Earth shows that, when they stick to the epic sci-fi rock that’s been paying the bills for over 40 years now, Yes are still capable of making great music. But in its failed attempts at branching out, it also highlights why their 21st release is not likely to interest anyone who’s not already a committed fan.

★★★★★

Stuart Boyland

Heaven & Earth was released on 21st July 2014. For further information or to order the album visit Yes’s website here.

Watch a video for Light of the Ages here:

Related Itemsheaven & earthreviewyes

More in Album reviews

Paolo Nutini – Last Night in the Bittersweet

★★★★★
Christopher Connor
Read More

Viagra Boys – Cave World

★★★★★
Dan Meier
Read More

Hercules and Love Affair – In Amber

★★★★★
Laura Bit
Read More

George Ezra – Gold Rush Kid

★★★★★
Bev Lung
Read More

FKJ – Vincent

★★★★★
Ronan Fawsitt
Read More

Liam Gallagher – C’mon You Know

★★★★★
Mark Worgan
Read More

Lykke Li – EYEYE

★★★★★
Georgia Howlett
Read More

Florence and the Machine – Dance Fever

★★★★★
Ronan Fawsitt
Read More

Warpaint – Radiate Like This

★★★★★
Catherine Sedgwick
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Music review

Stuart Boyland

Heaven & Earth

★★★★★

Release date

21st July 2014

Highlights

Light of the Ages, Subway Walls

Links

Twitter Facebook Website

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Africa Fashion at the V&A
    ★★★★★
    Art
  • Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • St Vincent at the Hammersmith Apollo
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Netflix Walking Tour: From Bridgerton to The Crown, a free walking tour through the filming locations
    Cinema & Tv
  • Minions: The Rise of Gru
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Paolo Nutini – Last Night in the Bittersweet
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Viagra Boys – Cave World
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Ithaka
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Wayfinder
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Brian and Charles
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Paolo Nutini – Last Night in the Bittersweet
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Viagra Boys – Cave World
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • The Railway Children Return
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Adele lights up Hyde Park for BST Festival
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

MTVUK launches Relentless Ultra Presents Soundchain: Kasabian are back
Disobedient Objects at the V&A | Exhibition review