Now I’ve been a bit lax in reviewing this album for a number of reasons I won’t bore you with now, however it’s one that has been haunting me, and making me decide the best way to tackle the review, and anyone who usually knows me, knows I am not usually lost for words.
A bit of context, I know Liz, a multi instrumentalist and singer now based in Bristol, from many years ago in a different life and different world, when Liz was studying music at York University and I was an advertising salesman we shared a house in York for a year or so, and as these things do, our paths diverged and we only met again by chance on Whiteladies Rd in Bristol, where we both found ourselves.
My 2016 prog exposure has been quite limited because I’ve been spending so much of it with these chaps. They’re a recent find for me, and while I am hugely sad that I’ll never see them live, I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to hear them now. Much money has been spent on their back catalogue!
Yes, a Marmite band, but the genius of Mr Tim Smith and the creative chops of his band is absolutely undeniable. Something we should celebrate!
Revitalised as a trio of Hugh Banton, Guy Evans & Peter Hammill since 2008’s Trisector, this is the latest (and maybe last) album from one of the most innovative, exciting and original bands from progs first wave.
This was released back in September and it has taken me a while to get round to writing this review, due to as previously mentioned life getting in the way, and of course I needed time to live with and digest this album.
With the added shadow of this potentially being their last album, the mood of regret, or closure and a sense of finality hang over the record, which for my money is one of the finest they have produced in this latter period of their mighty career.
One of our beloved friends and progarchists, Russell Clarke, posted this as a comment, but it deserves to be its own post, separate but equal! Nothing RC writes is unimportant.–ed.
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From our friends at PROG
The funding campaign has now passed the UKP60,000 mark. The community is pulling together for something that they believe in.
In the immortal words of Joni Mitchell, you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone, and that may have been the wake-up call for a lot of people (myself included.) There are others that have been long-time supporters and subscribers. I haven’t been so I fall into the former camp, but I am still happy to donate to the people who put in the hard yards to make this a vibrant community. Regardless of the reasons it’s still great to see people rallying around those who put themselves out there to create such an amazing bunch of people.
Having said that, there’s currently plenty of “How dare you donate to this cause when my pet cause is more important?” on display.
Also, there’s the even more ridiculous “How dare you donate to this cause when I need the money more?”
In response to both, I have two words, neither of which are printable here.
Nobody tells me what causes I must support. The moment they do, it’s called a tax, and I pay enough of that already.
And I’m pretty sure the prog scene wouldn’t be what it is without the contribution of people like Jerry Ewing. Kudos to you mate!
We need to rock on, make our own mark, and ensure that us, as Progarchists and readers thereof, are constantly spreading the word about our amazing genre. If Prog Mag is to be absent I will redouble my albeit paltry efforts to publicise our muse.
A huge, ginormous progarchy congratulations to YES for *finally* making into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!!!
Over our five years of existence, we’ve been huge YES fans. Here are just a few selections of the many thousands of words we’ve written on YES over nearly half a decade.
One of the only (well, probably the ONLY!) good things about PROG being shut down is seeing the amount of support being shown for our beloved friends. On Facebook, everyone from Greg Spawton to Matt Cohen to Mike Portnoy and beyond has offered great words for Jerry and everyone at Prog.
Mike Morton of The Gift has taken this to the next level. He’s set up a link to help donate to all of those who just lost their jobs. Remember, they had no idea this was coming at work. Not only were they let go this afternoon, they were denied pay for the previous three weeks as well.
This just appeared on Jerry’s wall at FB (late afternoon, December 19, 2016). I post it not for reasons of gossip, but simply as news and information.
Of course, I’m totally on Jerry’s side. . . . Sounds like Dickensian nightmare.
Well you’ve heard the rumours. You’ve read the news. It would be remiss of me too say much on a public forum, but they walked in, told us TeamRock had gone into liquidation, no one was getting paid in December, and to vacate the premises there and then. I could rage now about some people, but that will come later. For now, almost 100 good people exit into the cold December night, unaware of whether they can afford a Christmas dinner, or a roof over their head in January. Good people who have slaved over great magazines for great musical causes for many years. Brilliantly talented people: [removed names Jerry lists]. The best of the best. We’ll be back folks. Watch this space…
Only moments ago, I learned that Teamrock (parent company of PROG and CLASSIC ROCK magazines) has gone under. Lots of really talented folks are out of work as of today. For what it’s worth, I am so terribly sorry to know this. Jerry has been a solid and kind friend to us, and he and his team have brought me (and I’m sorry all of us) hours and hours of entertainment and news. I was always struck by how professional the layout, the writing, and the art at PROG was. Perfectionists, all. They deserve better than this.
Seeing that I haven’t been absorbing a lot of new prog (Oh! The Horror!), I’ve spent most of 2016 happily revisiting my favorite prog (and proggy pop) from the past. As I’ve written before, I’m at that age where 40 years’ worth of my favorite music is such that anything new really has to fight for a place among my listening. However, with a community as great as this one, I’ve all the faith in the world that really good prog will find me, not the other way around.
2016 treated us not only to the further touring adventures of Yes, but also to the touring wonder that is Anderson Rabin Wakeman, which by most accounts was a wonderful tour, and I do hope that 2017 will see some original music from the lineup.
Inspired by Sir Thaddeus of Wert’s Top 10 Yes albums list, I just couldn’t resist compiling my own list of favorites from the boys. I thought it’d be easy to name 10, but I quickly found that I just can’t; I would only be trying to round out the list by including some albums of theirs I like for maybe one or two songs at best, so why not list my true favorites?
Ahem…
8. Talk
Like many who salivated at the news of a YesWest reunion in the early 90’s, I bought “Talk” as quickly as possible on release day. The album’s bookend tracks – “The Calling” and “Endless Dream” – make this a top 10 record for me. Throw in the well-written “Walls,” and it’s a solid effort, despite a few tracks I can live without.
Progarchy 