Yes - Fly From Here (2011)

 

So it came to be that Yes returned from a four year hiatus in 2008 with two new members. Oliver Wakeman filled his dad’s shoes while Mystery’s Benoit David assumed the lead vocal spot, and this new lineup hit the road on a tour they dubbed “In The Present”. Soon after, they hit the studio to begin work on the next Yes album. They got down a number of songs (including several by Oliver Wakeman, which now make up From A Page) before deciding to contact Trevor Horn about producing a new version of “We Can Fly From Here”, a song that dated from his time in Yes, which they never recorded. 

With the arrival of Horn, also came several related pieces of music that date from right after his time in Yes, which expanded that song into a suite. Being that most of this music dated from their time as Buggles, it made most sense to bring Geoff Downes back into the band. Unfortunately, as a result, Wakeman was shown the door, along with most of his contributions to the band’s next album (aside from the closing track, “Into The Storm”, which is one of the best latter-day Yes tracks). 

The resulting album, Fly From Here, appeared in 2011 and was a relative triumph, detractors aside. The title suite took up the entirely of side one and, with few exceptions, was all killer, as was the rest of the album, really. 

Side two features shorter songs, and a lead-vocal-by-committee situation, as Chris Squire lakes the lead on “The Man You Always Wanted Me To Be”, which is a song that does not get enough attention. “Life On A Film Set” is another one that is derived from an old Buggles demo and is performed, to great effect. Steve Howe offers up “Hour Of Need” which is a nice, simple, straightforward song that he sings in tandem with Benoit, marking his first lead vocal on a Yes album (we will later find that this is only part of the actual song). Howe gets in a solo guitar piece, with the lovely “Solitaire”, before “Into The Storm” blows everything wide open. This is expertly crafted and performed. One of the top performances by the core of Howe/Squire/White, in the entire time they played together. An absolutely killer way to close out a fantastic album. 

There are those who dismiss any Yes that does not include Jon Anderson but I do not buy into that. Yes has always been more than just the sum of its parts (one listen to Jon’s solo discography will support that theory) and every version of Yes has something to offer. 

The band sounds incredible here, everyone playing at the top of their game, while also being careful to always serve the song. It is especially nice to hear Squire’s voice in the mix, as well as his bass. He is so sorely missed, as is Alan White, who also sounds great. While Geoff Downes might not possess the skills of either Wakeman, he still plays tastefully and never gets in the way of the songs. 

Benoit David does a hell of a job here. While he always sounded great singing the classics on stage, he was always at his best when he didn’t have to try and mimic Anderson. Of course, much of this album finds him emulating Trevor Horn, so…

Before the band could hit the road to support this album, in a cruel ironic twist, Benoit was sidelined by a respiratory illness and was forced to leave the band. It was a pretty raw deal, but it was nothing compared to him being retconned out of this very album, six years later. We’ll get to that…