Yes: Heaven and Earth

Thea

Progression and Maturity

 

Review

By Steve Blomerth

 

Released July 16, 2014

http://www.yesworld.com/

Format: CD

HEAVEN AND EARTH is also available in Europe on 180g 12″ Vinyl.

Limited Edition Gatefold Blue Vinyl – Amazon Germany.

Limited Edition Gatefold Black Vinyl – Amazon Germany.

Heaven and Earth is the 21st studio album for Yes and sounds considerably different than the first Yes album of 1968. Yet many of those initial musical attributes continue, developed by knowledge gained by long years of recording experience, and refined by the maturity of playing live often and well.

The composition and recording of Heaven and Earth occurred between January and March of 2014 in order to be ready for release on July 16th 2014. It is significant that the recording was made during an interval between two Yes tours both of which featured playing full albums of classic Yes, such as Close to The Edge, The Yes Album, and Fragile. Rehearsal sessions and live playing of these albums placed a demand on each band member to thoroughly know the earlier material; so that the classic material and forms would be very much on their minds at the time of recording Heaven and Earth. It would have been easy and natural for that earlier music to seep in and influence the writing and recording of the new album. While Heaven and Earth still has all the strong, singing and playing that Yes is noted for, it keeps its instrumental development passages more concise than classic Yes epics. I believe this represents a conscious choice to do something a little different and not fall back on classic devices that would have readily been “under their fingertips”.

Yet the songs on Heaven and Earth retain the key changes, complex meters, statement and recapitulation of theme and multiple vocal lines which push the song’s melody and introduce counter melodies. Yes in 2014 accomplishes these signature musical moves in 6 minute songs rather than the 20 minute epics of 1973. The instrumental passages are shorter, but the guitar playing is still strong, the singing is clear and keen with emotion, the bass and drums drive the songs and the keyboards provide rich harmonic color. An example of a conscious choice to explore new territory in this more concise format is the tune “In A World of Our Own”. This song by Chris Squire and Jon Davison is based on a shuffle rhythm with a ‘film noir’ tonality. This musical groove hangs in the air and gives a mysterious framework for glimpses of a couple’s spat; alternating bitterness with a yearning for a simpler time in a relationship. Between the rhythm, tone, ‘noir’ anger and longing this is a more Earth-bound than Yes’ past cosmic territory. It is an example of mature musicians choosing to explore different rhythmic, tonal and thematic territories even while employing their signature high standard of playing and arranging. This ethos runs through out Heaven and Earth, mature musicians writing material that keeps the essence of their past musicality while playing shorter songs.

What is most different about Yes is that Jon Davison is the lead singer and had a hand in writing seven out of eight tunes on Heaven and Earth. Jon Davison’s voice is good and in a similar range to founding Yes vocalist Jon Anderson, and Davison’s lyric writing is both accessible and musical. He uses his words to give a rhythmic push that adds to the melody and gives the songs both poignancy and emotional lift. The one song that Jon Davison wrote by himself, “Light of the Ages” shows the most interesting tonality, riding that line between major and minor keys; and his outro is one of the most powerful musical sections on the album. As the youngest member of Yes, Jon Davison also shows himself to be most flexible in his ability to write with each of the other four other band members as well as to produce his own compositions.

The downside of Heaven and Earth is a technical issue that unfortunately can color many listener’s musical perceptions. The albums lacks signal gain. Gain is what makes music on an LP or CD louder and it seems as if it would be an issue of no musical importance. However, Yes albums from Fragile onward have usually had more gain than other contemporary albums. Yes fans have historically been treated to not only more volume but also more musical detail which is important, because Yes often employs subtle shifts in time signature and key areas. It is important to accurately reproduce all this musical information to make this detail audible to best understand the music. This requires accuracy as well as a large amount of the play back system’s energy to reproduce the low bass as well as the keyboard frequencies. When the source CD or LP lacks gain it does not fully utilize the available accuracy and potential energy of the playback system; and the full spectrum of frequencies is essential to hearing all the music on a Yes album. Unfortunately many people are not aware of this; the average listener usually has a certain setting that they use to play all their music. They seldom think, “This recording lacks gain and I must turn the volume up a bit to hear it properly”. Instead they perceive weakness, they don’t hear all the parts, and they end up not hearing all the music that was recorded and intended for their ears.

Unfortunately this is a problem with listening to Heaven and Earth. Older Yes fans will be used to the gain and sonic qualities of past albums like Close To The Edge which had greater gain than any other album of it’s day. In this fashion, they may miss hearing the musical details that are present on Heaven and Earth. This is further exacerbated by the common use of the car stereo and the mp3 player as the most frequent listening format. Both car stereos and mp3 players lack the capacity to transmit true low frequencies at the best of times. When you combine a CD with low gain with the car stereo and the mp3 as the standard listening platforms a good deal of the musical impact of Heaven and Earth will be missed.

The good news for Yes fans is that Yes is still writing and playing. Yes still has the ears and the maturity to write music that brings their unique approach of highly skilled musicianship to new songs. The more concise compositions, the exploration of different rhythms and tones and the energy of a new singer/composer/collaborator bodes well for Yes for future albums. On a good home sound system with real hi-fi speakers Heaven and Earth sounds good. It is still Yes and still has the musical attributes that fans have enjoyed in the past while exploring new areas. It will get your foot and spirit moving if you listen and turn it up.

Samples: https://soundcloud.com/yesofficial/yes-believe-again?in=yesofficial/sets/yes-heaven-earth

Cover Art: Roger Dean

Yes – Line up:

Production