It’s all true. Exactly what you’ve been hearing. This is the best Yes album of the past two decades.

On the one hand, a review of Jon Anderson’s True seems pointless. You would think all the Yes fans, like me, would have pre-ordered the CD and also listened to the singles as they were released.

I limited myself to only one listen of each advance song, so that I could save the full context, full album experience until release day. Of course, I was then blown away on August 23, 2024, just like so many others for whom Yes is their favorite band.

I read the advance reviews. They said it was best Yes album since The Ladder, or since Magnification. I was getting excited. Because those two albums have not been surpassed by any others released under the “Yes” name since.

But we all know a band doesn’t have to be called “Yes” to really be Yes. We learned that was true long ago, thanks to the eponymous album by a little group called Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe.

“Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe” sounds like a law firm, doesn’t it? I guess the joke was: We could sue you to prove that this group should really be called Yes, but why waste the time and energy, because we can instead just make an album that is obviously a Yes album to anyone with ears to hear.

We’ve had a couple of really nice Yes albums from Arc of Life. And you can insert your own favorite examples here. But my point is that it no longer matters what is an official Yes album or not. What matters is if it has surpassed The Ladder, or Magnification, or is on the same level.

What matters is that Yes has transcended being a band. Yes is really a style of music. A good example would be hearing something really good and having difficulty trying to identify the composer. For example, is it Bach or Buxtehude? In one respect, it doesn’t matter. It’s simply the greatest kind of music. The greatest musicians become influencers. In the same way, Yes has left their mark. Yes is classic. Yes is classical music.

Enter the group of musicians known as the Band Geeks. They can play live with Jon Anderson and sound just like Yes. They have clearly mastered the classic idiom of Yes music. And they are brilliant musicians and composers in their own right. They can work with Jon to compose new Yes music of the highest calibre.

And the music on True is so much more than derivative homage. Take the opening track, “True Messenger.” Andy Graziano surprises and amazes with his beautifully realized Steve Howe-like guitar tone and fretboard acrobatics. But by the end of the track, he has flipped into the 80s, by flawlessly rendering a Trevor Rabin guitar tone and its concomitant dive bombing attack.

So, on the one hand, a review of True seems pointless, since every track is absolutely killer. They each rank up there with the great Yes classics. “Counties and Countries” (9:51) and “Once Upon a Dream” (16:32), in particular, are the one-two knockout punch for anybody who would dare to argue that this is not a Yes album. And it seems that anyone who cares would have learned this by August 23, at the latest.

By the way, I read in one review a snarky comment about “Realization Part Two” (3:33). Namely, that that is such a prog-like title. Because, hey, where’s Part One? But it is clear when you listen to the album that “Realization Part Two” (3:33) is the finale to “Make It Right” (6:07), to which it is conjoined. So, really, there you have a third knockout punch for all the disbelievers. It’s a bona fide Yes epic: “Make It Right / Realization” (9:40).

Okay, now back to my thought that, on the one hand, anyone who cares would have been known by August 23, at the latest. Three punches. Knockout.

Yet, other the other hand, not everybody has heard the good news. I myself was walking through my neighborhood this week, happily listening to music off of my iPhone, when I saw a guy coming towards me. I already knew that he was a Yes fan, since my wife had taught piano for years to his stepdaughters and we had chatted about music many times before. So I silenced my EarPods and opened the conversation by asking how he liked the new Jon Anderson album.

Turns out, he had not heard of it! After I went on enthusiastically for about a minute about why it was the best Yes album since The Ladder, or since Magnification, he cut me short and said he was looking it up right now, to summon it into his own EarPods. Well, I felt so happy that I was able to bring the glad tidings and to spread a little joy into one more corner of the neighborhood.

And that, dear reader, is why I am writing this seemingly pointless review for you today. Do not miss out on True. If you haven’t yet heard about it, go get it now.

Because it’s all true.

By the way, I don’t want to spoil your fun, but be sure to notice that the word “true” is skillfully deployed in four songs, marking this as a coherently satisfying concept album: “True Messenger,” “Shine On,” “Build Me an Ocean,” and “Once Upon a Dream.”

Jon Anderson, True

★★★★★ A+ 10/10

Jon Anderson – lead vocals, production, musical arrangement

Richie Castellano – bass, guitar, keyboards, vocals, production, musical arrangement, engineering, mixing

Andy Ascolese – drums, percussion, keyboards, vocals, associate production, musical arrangement, engineering

Andy Graziano – guitar, vocals

Christopher Clark – keyboards, musical arrangement

Robert Kipp – Hammond organ, vocals

Anne Marie Nacchio – additional vocals