Yes: Open Your Eyes (1997)

 After the fiasco that was 1996’s Keys To Ascension project, Yes found themselves without Rick Wakeman (yet again) and so they regrouped and co-opted a Chris Squire solo album, picking up veteran collaborator Billy Sherwood along the way. Featuring a more radio-friendly sound than Keys To Ascension, and less input from Anderson & Howe, this is one of the band’s most polarizing albums. It is also one of my all time favorite Yes albums. 

When this album came out, I really hated it, just like I hated Talk. A die-hard Yes fan, I realized that this was a me-problem and, to combat it, I made a tape with this album on one side, and Talk on the other. I then removed all music from my car, except for that tape, and listened to nothing but that tape until I finally got it. Once it clicked, I could never again understand why I ever hated those albums. 

Of the two, Open Your Eyes is the one that I have latched onto the most (love Rabin but prefer Howe), and it has gone on to become one of my favorite albums of all time. Every song is accessible, memorable, tuneful, well written, and expertly performed and produced (seriously, this album sounds incredible). 

Some of these songs, like the title track and the monumental “Universal Garden”, stand among my favorites of Yes’ entire run, but really every song from this album is fantastic (aside from the last song, ”The Solution” - that stinker should have remained in the vault). This is definitely “pop” Yes. This is a band trying to get played on the radio. Not a lot of prog here, except perhaps in the arrangements. But it still clearly sounds like Yes (in fact, this album is far Yessier than it ever gets credit for being). In a far better world, songs like “Love Shine”, “Fortune Seller”, and “Wonderlove” would have been smash hits. This album kinda reminds me of what Big Generator might have sounded like if Steve Howe was on it. 

As this began as a Squire/Sherwood project, and was very quickly recorded as a Yes album, there’s not a lot of Anderson or or Howe in the creative realm (they are both amazing throughout, but on material already written). To make up for it, they provide the acoustic/vocal duet “From The Balcony” which is one of their prettiest songs ever.  

With a sleeve that pays homage to Yes’ first album, Open Your Eyes itself marks a new beginning, the next phase of Yes. Their next album would be far more collaborative and a far greater success, but I will always love Open Your Eyes more.