Yes Open Your Eyes released

Open Your Eyes Yes

Released: November 25, 1997 Peak: 151 US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- Genre: progressive rock

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. New State of Mind [6:00] (single, --) Open Your Eyes [5:14] (9/22/97, 33 AR) Universal Garden [6:16] No Way We Can Lose [4:56] Fortune Seller [5:00] Man in the Moon [4:41] Wonderlove [6:06] From the Balcony [2:43] Love Shine [4:37] Somehow, Someday [4:47] The Solution [5:25] The Source [16:21] All songs written by Anderson, Howe, White, Squire, and Sherwood. Total Running Time: 72:06 The Players: Jon Anderson (vocals) Steve Howe (guitar, backing vocals, mandolin, banjo) Chris Squire (bass, backing vocals, harmonica) Alan White (drumers, percussion, backing vocals) Billy Sherwood (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, recording, mixing)

Rating: 1.885 out of 5.00 (average of 5 ratings)

About the Album: In 1996 and 1997, Yes released a pair of albums known as Keys to Ascension and Keys to Ascension 2. Both were double albums which included live material from 1996 along with new material. The lineup featured Anderson, Squire, Howe, White, and keyboardist Rick Wakeman. The albums were produced by Billy Sherwood. Sherwood met Chris Squire in 1989. The Yes lineup at that time featured Squire, Anderson, White, Tony Kaye, and Trevor Rabin. Anderson reunited with Yes bandmates’ Howe, Wakeman, and Bill Bruford while Rabin focused on solo work. Squire, White, and Kaye recruited Sherwood as a possible Yes member, but he was uneasy about replacing Anderson as a frontman. He did, however, contribute to Yes’ 1991 Union album and played guitar and keyboards on the band’s 1994 tour in support of Talk. Sherwood and Squire formed a strong writing partnership and toured as the Chris Squire Experiment in 1992. They were developing songs for an album to be called Chemistry when Sherwood was enlisted for Yes, becoming an official member in 1997 after Wakeman left the group. Two of the songs the pair had developed for that project, Open Your Eyes (originally called “I Wish I Knew”) and Man in the Moon, were re-worked for Yes. Sherwood then sent tapes of early versions of Wonderlove, Love Shine, New State of Mind, and Universal Garden to Anderson, who liked the songs, recorded vocals for them, and sent them back to Sherwood. White then recorded new drum tracks and, as Sherwood said, “all of a sudden it had that [Yes] flavor.” WK Howe, who came in toward the album’s completion, has said he and Anderson had little input on the songs, WK although they did contribute From the Balcony. While Sherwood served as the band’s primary keyboardist, the album also included work from Russian keyboardist Igor Khoroshev as a guest on a few songs. He was brought on board at the request of Anderson and Howe, who’d heard tapes of him. He then joined the band on their 30th anniversary 12-month world tour and became a full member after the tour. The album was poorly received, becoming one of their least successful commercially. Entertainment Weekly’s Chuck Eddy criticized Yes as “neither as self-indulgent nor as magnificent as they’re capable of being.” WK Stereogum was even harsher, saying it was “written at a child’s level of musical sophistication.” WK

Resources and Related Links: WK Wikipedia First posted 7/25/2021.

Yes Keys to Ascension released

Keys to Ascension Yes

Released: October 28, 1996 Recorded: March 4-6, 1996 (live cuts) Peak: 99 US, -- UK, -- CN, 22 AU Sales (in millions): -- Genre: progressive rock

Tracks – Disc 1 (live): Song Title (Writers) [time] Siberian Khatru (Anderson, Howe, Wakeman) [10:16] The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn) (Anderson, Squire, Howe, Wakeman, White) [20:32] America (Paul Simon) [10:28] Onward (Squire) [5:48] Awaken (Anderson, Howe) [18:33] Tracks – Disc 2 (live/studio): Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Roundabout (live) (Anderson, Howe) [8:30] Starship Trooper (live) (Anderson, Squire, Howe) [13:05] Be the One (studio) [9:49] i. The One (Anderson, Squire) ii. Humankind(Anderson, Squire) iii. Skate (Howe) That, That Is (studio) [19:11] i. Togetherness ( Howe) ii. Crossfire (Anderson, Squire) iii. The Giving Things (Anderson, Howe) iv. That Is (Anderson) v. All in All (Anderson, White) vi. How Did Heaven Begin? (Anderson, Howe, White) vii. Agree to Agree (Anderson, Squire) Total Running Time: 116:16

Rating: 2.822 out of 5.00 (average of 9 ratings)

Keys to Ascension 2 Yes

Released: November 3, 1997 Recorded: March 4-6, 1996 (live cuts) Peak: -- US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- Genre: progressive rock

Tracks – Disc 1 (live): Song Title (Writers) [time] I’ve Seen All Good People (Anderson, Squire) [7:16] Going for the One (Anderson) [4:58] Time and a Word (Anderson, David Foster) [6:23] Close to the Edge (Anderson, Howe) [19:40] Turn of the Century Anderson, Howe, White) [7:55] And You and I (Anderson, Bruford, Howe, Squire) [10:48] Tracks – Disc 2 (studio): Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Mind Drive (Anderson, Squire, White, Howe, Wakeman) [18:37] Foot Prints (Anderson, Squire, Howe, White) [9:04] Bring Me to the Power (Anderson, Howe) [7:20] Children of Light [6:02] i. Children of Light (Anderson, Squire, Vangelis) ii. Lifeline (Howe, Wakeman) Sign Language (Howe, Wakeman) [3:26] Total Running Time: 101:42

Rating: 2.821 out of 5.00 (average of 4 ratings)

Keystudio Yes

Released: May 21, 2001 Peak: -- US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- Genre: progressive rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] Foot Prints (Anderson, Squire, Howe, White) [9:04] Be the One [9:49] i. The One (Anderson, Squire) ii. Humankind(Anderson, Squire) iii. Skate (Howe) Mind Drive (Anderson, Squire, White, Howe, Wakeman) [18:34] Bring Me to the Power (Anderson, Howe) [7:20] Sign Language (Howe, Wakeman) [3:26] That, That Is [19:11] i. Togetherness ( Howe) ii. Crossfire (Anderson, Squire) iii. The Giving Things (Anderson, Howe) iv. That Is (Anderson) v. All in All (Anderson, White) vi. How Did Heaven Begin? (Anderson, Howe, White) vii. Agree to Agree (Anderson, Squire) Children of the Light [6:31] i. Lightning (Howe) ii. Children of Light (Anderson, Squire, Vangelis) iii. Lifeline (Howe, Wakeman) Total Running Time: 74:21

Rating: 3.850 out of 5.00 (average of 3 ratings)

The Players on All 3 Albums: Jon Anderson (vocals, synth guitar, harp, percussion) Steve Howe (guitar, bass, backing vocals) Chris Squire (bass, backing vocals) Rick Wakeman (keyboards) Alan White (drums, backing vocals) Billy Sherwood (producer) About All 3 Albums: Anderson, Howe, Wakeman, Squire, and White were all featured on the 1991 “Union ‘mega-Yes’ album,” BE but hadn’t really recorded an album together since 1978’s Tormato. When they came together for 1996’s Keys to Ascension, they produced a double album of live cuts and new studio recordings. The live material was recorded at the Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo, California over three nights in March 1996. WK-K1 The two new songs are “superior to anything on…Union…with soaring harmonies and very spacious song construction.” BE A companion set, Keys to Ascension 2, followed in 1997. It also paired live material and new studio songs on a double CD. The live material, which is drawn from the same March 1996 live dates as the first album, WK-K2 is really a rehash of “material adequately covered in Yessongs and Yesshows” PC since this “is nothing that you haven’t heard before.” PC In 2001, the “seven superb studio tracks” BA from the two collections were repackaged as the awkwardly-named Keystudio, effectively serving as a studio album which could have been released between 1994’s Talk and 1997’s Open Your Eyes. The studio material is “a welcome return to form for the band.” PC “These songs retain Yes’ trademark instrumental prowess, but there's a maturity to the cohesive arrangements and the melodies. Most tracks push either ten or 20 minutes, ensuring the adoration of Yes diehards who yearn for 1970s-style experimentation.” BA Mind Drive is a “multi-movement suite strongly reminiscent of early Yes;” PC it was their eighth song to exceed the 18-minute mark. WK-K2 The song originated in 1981 when Squire and White were tentatively forming a band with Jimmy Page called XYZ. WK-K2 “The song’s closing instrumental sounds straight out of Tales from Topographic Oceans.” PC The song “stretches out with both soothing, dreamy passages and tough, full-band bombast.” BA “Wakeman’s parts were overdubbed last here, and it shows: the keyboards are solely for atmospheric effect, ceding the melodic drive to the bass and guitar.” PC “Not that Wakeman’s presence goes to waste; structured around a ‘Heart of the Sunrise’-like bass riff, Bring Me to the Power gallops through muscular Moog solos and equally slick harmonies. Like the rest of the studio tracks, it's a perfect blend of vintage art rock craftsmanship and gleaming modern production.” PC “Foot Prints relies largely on the rhythm section drive of Squire and White and Howe’s economical guitar lines. The terrifically tasteful instrumental Sign Language is basically a duet by co-writers Howe and Wakeman.” BA “Prior to this album's release, it was reported that it would have a track called ‘The Second Time Around’. This would have been a version of ‘Sign Language’ that incorporated Jon Anderson’s vocals. However, the track was not included on this disc.” WK-KS “That, That Is resembles Yes’ 1970s work the most, with the exception of Anderson’s lyrics, which address drug and violence problems in inner cities, not his usual mystical topics.” BA “Children of Light was originally written by Jon and Vangelis in 1986 as ‘Distant Thunder’”. WK-K2 It “was later demoed by Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe during the recording of their self-titled album. The lyrics…ended up in Yes’ Union tourbook. In 1994, Jon Anderson performed the song on the Tommy Vance show. During a Mother’s Day concert in 1996, Jon Anderson performed ‘Children of Light’ and said he hoped it would appear on a Yes album.” WK-K2 “Lightning, Rick Wakeman’s introduction to ‘Children Of Light’, was mixed out” WK-K2 of the Keys to Ascension 2 version, but was restored on the Keystudio release. WK-K2 The Keystudio version also “omits the opening lyrics found on the Keys to Ascension 2 version.” WK-KS “Keystudio would have been a smash had it been released 25-30 years earlier. Even casual Yes fans from both the 1970s and 1980s should enjoy Keystudio. Highly recommended.” BA

Resources and Related Links: BA Bret Adams, All Music Guide KS PC Paul Collins, All Music Guide K2 BE Bruce Eder, All Music Guide K1 WK-K1 Wikipedia K1 WK-K2 Wikipedia K2 WK-KS Wikipedia KS First posted 6/7/2011; updated 7/25/2021.