MIRROR TO THE SKY

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An early title to "Magic Potion" was "It's a Good Day to Be Had by All", but Howe changed it as it sounded too similar to "It Will Be a Good Day" from The Ladder (1999). This one is by no means able to foreshadow the band's all-time classics from the 70s and the 80s, but is a great exercise in trying to recapture that joyful and affirming spark of creativity that has always been associated with the name of Yes.

I guess that “All Connected” strikes me the same way: it’s inspired by the best Yes music of ages past, in the same way that Arc of Life is inspired, but not quite there yet in the upper echelon of Yes achievements. Limited Deluxe Edition Box-Set featuring Electric Blue 2LP, 2CD, Blu-ray, 36-page 12 inch hardcover book and poster by Roger Dean. Like for its predecessor, guitarist Steve Howe resumed his role as producer, and the FAMES Orchestra in North Macedonia provided orchestral arrangements by Paul K. By the way, I can’t get enough of Sherwood singing lead: he has the ability to sound like Peter Gabriel, which Arc of Life takes advantage of on many an occasion. Howe said the group were in a strong "creative zone" at the time, and approached Mirror to the Sky in a similar way to The Quest, but wanted the new album not to be a mere repeat of the last.Davison’s voice is, as elsewhere on this album, too soft, but the instrumental parts are pretty good. The title track comes next, and it’s the longest song they’ve written since “Mind Drive” and “That, That Is” in the mid-90s. It takes you on a journey in every bit the same way Close to the Edge, Awaken, Mind Drive, and other revered Yes epics do. A better equality of balance between guitar and keyboards throughout the album would have been good. Okay, just going to say up front, I am going to digress for a while before I say a word about this album.

I think its the best work since Fly From Here and has the best long form track since Fly from Here, even better than the long form track on FFH. It is a Yes album by members of Yes and featuring only one of the original (post The Yes Album) members in Steve Howe but this current version of the group has produced music that should satisfy any Yes fan. It's not completely the Yes of the past, but there are still some spiritual connections with some eras of the band.Chris Squire was the last remaining of the original members in the band, and he passed away in 2015. But what makes The Ladder great is an outside ear, and Bruce Fairbairn gave that disc a unique flavor—a fact which Steve Howe agrees with me on, since we discussed this very point at the Yes VIP Meet and Greet in Vancouver, Canada, which was where the album was recorded.

Sure, their albums are amazing, but that’s because they can actually play all that crazy shit live too. Band members Billy Sherwood, Geoff Downes, Jay Schellen, and Jon Davison, who has co-written most of the record all contribute and play gracefully, adding a pretty fine album to the majestic Yes universe. I’m just insisting that “Cut from the Stars” and “All Connected” are the lesser tracks, and they do not reach the highest levels of Yes achievement, which “Mirror to the Sky,” “Luminosity,” and “Circles of Time” all do. Just like the good old days, when there was no demand on your time—just a copy of The Yes Album or Fragile or Close to the Edge on the turntable. The group produced two versions of "Luminosity", having felt a new arrangement was needed after recording the first.

During instrumental passages, I was silently thrilled to read in the liner notes about exactly which guitars Steve Howe used on each track! Fly from Here has a top-notch title track, just like Mirror to the Sky, but it also has some lesser material too, just like Mirror to the Sky. An update about the album came in January 2023, when Dean unveiled sketches for the cover of a new Yes album on his Facebook page. They started with two ideas for songs that they wanted to turn into longer pieces, which became the 13-minute track "Mirror to the Sky" and the 9-minute "Luminosity".