Yes - Heaven and Earth (2014)

Nothing I like about Yes appears to be evident on this album.

great review, frogbs! totally agree. really curious that they managed to deliver the goods on 'fly from here' without that experience seeming to impact this lethargic performance one bit

an interview with the new guy, how he got involved, what his role was in writing/recording, etc

http://music.allaccess.com/yes-singer-jon-juano-davison-jon-d-interview-talks-about-heaven-earth/

hah, didnt know it was up already! I have no clue when this thing actually releases. I've heard 3 different dates. I think that's the first real negative review I've posted up there, but I hope I got the point across that the songwriting is mostly fine; it's the incredibly slow tempos and lifeless performances that tank it. Sadly they edited a few bits out of it, my conclusion was supposed to be "buy a Glass Hammer album instead"

An incisive review, Nick. Shame about your being edited as it was good advice. Certainly the Glass Hammer comparison is inescapable with Jon Davison fronting this album. To that end, GH's 2010 album, IF, readily walks all over this one. I was less smitten by the other Glass Hammer releases with JD... or otherwise, I suppose.

Re. the speed, I'd heard it was Howe slowing the pace, rather than White. Their live sets have apparently improved somewhat but Heaven and Earth still falls victim to arthritic tempos.

'it was all we knew' is out and out unbearable. Subway walls is the only one with any life in it. Bummer

yeah I can pretty much recommend any Glass Hammer album from Lex Rex on (I like Chronometree a lot too, but I feel like you need to be really familiar with ELP's work to really get it), plus the two Druckfarben albums. there's really a lot of good prog still being released, it's kind of a shame that none of it gets even a quarter of the press that this lukewarm Yes album does.

hell the new morrissey album has better proggy moments on it than the new yes. besides glass hammer, motorpsycho has been on fire lately. having the dungen guy in the band hasn't hurt. 'the death defying unicorn' is better than most "classic" 70s symph prog i've heard, and is on par with the best yes, crimson, rush, camel, tull, etc. it is too bad not more people pay attention but i'm glad enough do to keep this stuff coming

I need to check out some more recent prog offerings, but this year's Gazpacho record is a good one. https://soundcloud.com/kscopemusic/sets/gazpacho-demon

I like the concept behind it a lot:

Demon is inspired by a conversation Thomas had with his father a few years ago where he spoke of a dark force moving through history. During the conversation his father recalled a business visit to Prague in the seventies where he visited the family of some of his hosts.

The family lived in an old apartment, recently renovated after a fire. In the debris, an old manuscript was found. The manuscript was written by a previous resident, for which no records existed other than that his rent had been pre-paid for many years.

Written over two years, the band have described Demon as the ‘most complicated and strange album Gazpacho has ever made’ and whether the manuscript is truly the work of an obsessed madman or an urban legend it has certainly provided the basis for an interesting twist on a concept album.

The manuscript contained various ramblings and diagrams which formed the basis of a diary, of sorts, of the man. He claimed to have discovered the source of what he called an evil presence in the world. This presence, ‘The Demon’, was an actual intelligent will, with no mercy and a desire for bad things to happen. The author wrote as if he had lived for thousands of years stalking this presence and the manuscript contains references to outdated branches of mathematics, pagan religions unknown to the present world and an eyewitness account of the bubonic plague. So crazed were the writings that the document was donated to the Strahov Library in Prague, where it was thought it would be of interest to students of psychiatry.

The thought of this mysterious figure that had lived through the ages, hunting the ‘Demon’, seemed like too good an idea not to write about. Thomas presented the idea to the band who were just as inspired by the story, and with Jan Henrik, he started writing the lyrics based on what they thought the manuscript would reveal, drawing inspiration from previously ‘discovered’ diaries and manifests.

The story is told in four parts, ending with ‘Death Room’ which are the last words of the unfinished manuscript written just before the disappearance of the unknown writer.

xp - you should link some good Motorpsycho here, that definitely sounds intriguing

'the death defying unicorn' is better than most "classic" 70s symph prog i've heard

This is something I've found myself more and more in agreement with, not so much this album (which I haven't heard) but that newer bands could pump out material of that quality. It sucks that this kind of music doesn't really have any money behind it anymore; I don't know how many groups could do something on the level of Close to the Edge, which apparently took hundreds of hours worth of takes and edits and rewrites to get as you hear it on the album (which I believe is what motivated Bruford to jump ship), but the talent is there. That said I've been shocked at how intricate and well-made a lot of post-80's prog is even though such bands are basically unknown.

not saying this is the best song on the album, but to keep this kind of relevant to the thread, around four minutes into this they bite "changes" from '90125'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXydZtoHq0E

(wobbler is another recent band that does this all pretty well, by the way. and again to stick to the thread -- 'sound mirror,' the latest album by syd arthur, the band opening for yes this tour, has some great stuff on it)

(sorry! the passage i'm talking about is around 2:45 into it, through a little past the three minute point)

sounds like they do it twice! definitely will be checking this band, I've always loved that style of drumming but have trouble getting into all-out metal.

I had heard the first Wobbler album a while back and my impression was that it was good but very much reminded me of "Tarkus". I think I was hung up at the time on how unoriginal it sounded but strangely nowadays this doesn't bother me at all about Glass Hammer (who sound unoriginal at first listen but once you get to know them, they really do have their own distinct style)

I think the majority of newer prog bands have a problem in that they are too reverent to their heroes, as if they place themselves beneath Yes and dislike the idea of a new band surpassing Close To The Edge.
The thing I like about metal is that they have a great deal of respect for the past but place no limits on their ambitions, not content to live in the shadows of other bands.
For me early Emperor, Immortal, Wolves In The Throne Room, Deathspell Omega and some Death (I'm sure I'll find much more eventually) pushes my symphonic prog buttons very satisfyingly, even if they aren't regarded as part of that tradition all the time.

Relatively mainstream bands like Mew, Battles, White Denim and Field Music have made some excellent prog but I feel the prog community hasn't embraced them because there hasn't been enough explicit pledging of allegiance to the older bands (despite the occasional favourable mention of these bands in interviews). But then Ruins are pure prog fanboys yet they never got the kind of coverage they deserve. But I confess I haven't bought Prog magazine in a couple of years and rarely visit Prog Archives.

I think Devil Doll's 90s albums Sacrilegium and Dies Irae are as good as any prog classics, but the vocals are likely to put off most(?) people. That guy somehow had incredible resources with orchestras, choirs and opera singers. Some of my all-time favourite music. A truly fascinating mixture of ingredients.

I've heard that Diagonal are excellent.

I saw Yes on the recent 3 album tour in Southend (can't believe I saw Yes in Southend, it's not 1969) and I have to admit I was surprised, and then blown away, by how good Jon Davison was.

last time i saw (1998? 99?) it was so vegas i've been afraid to go back. how was everyone else compared to davison?

diagonal has the right sounds and the right idea but nothing on either of their two albums i've heard has totally blown me away

they were really good last year with davison. won't be going this year though, too much of the same set and tix were almost twice as much (plus they aren't playing in SF, would have to go down to san jose).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_njJRAB9HGw

this was news to me, i found a nine year old thread about it but i think the statute has passed and now is a good time to imagine a world in which robert downey jr is the lead singer of yes

wow an opportunity to admit I have watched this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1crxmBTxRlM

Out today. On Spotify now.