The Yes name and brand rolls on – we’re a long way now from the mid Seventies.

NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE

Stating the obvious probably but it’s quite amazing that some fifty plus years on from what most would see as their creative peak, Yes is still a going concern. The recent run of new music in the Quest/Mirror/Aurora trilogy confirms their validity as a recording and touring (albeit with mainly heritage shows) unit. At the time of writing we would have seen the 2026 Yes treading the UK board since more with the Fragile album tour and maybe even a taster of Aurora, but the postponement due to Steve Howe’s health was tempered by the prospect of this very album.

Initial reports are of their strongest work of the recent period. Roger Dean makes sure Aurora looks like a Yes album and it certainly sounds like a 2026 Yes album with Steve Howe has talked of carrying the spirit forward and turning it into something new. So maybe give up the almost inevitable comparison with CTTE and Tales – that literally was a different time, although remember it’s Yes…and although it might grate with some fans, references to the Yes legacy are inevitable.

AND SO THE MUSIC

By-passing any further discussion that includes the words ‘heritage’, ‘original members’ or the topics of longevity, Aurora, the album (and track) opens with the sort of pre-show fanfare typical of a Yesshow, saturated with a Disney sweetness (and stirred with a spoon). It kicks off an album which has been heralded as ticking a lot of Yes boxes. The general air of an uplifting quality and even the obscurity of the Anderson-esque opening lines “In a whisper psalms of light ever carry clear” hint at an acknowledgement of there’s going to be some yessifying going down.

Not the first of the fanfaring big arrangements – Ariadne opens in a similar orchestral fashion with nothing less than a regal medieval bent giving way to some sharp work from the long serving Downes and Howe – where thirteen minutes of Countermovement show that the extended epic is still on the menu. A vocal from Howe and a relaxed trip through a set of passages that have Howe opening the floodgates with his array of instruments. Howe’s acoustic work shines throughout the album, even the moment in the latter where he channels/threatens to break into the sort of melody of Your Move/Nine Voices.

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

Downes is oten to the fore, adding a confident combo of classic lines and quirkiness – shades of Arriving UFO abound in the aptly titled Outside The Box and join Howe’s dirty guitar with some raspy organ and synth fanfaring in All Hands On Deck. Unusual nautical lyric on the latter, some might suggest an inanity to the chorus, that might fit nicely into a sea shanty (but this is Yes ’26), despite the toes being dipped into Deep Purple territory. Signs that the direction in which Howe is nudging the current Yes might indeed show a sense of, for want of a betetr word, progression.

Strangely enough, just a personal opinion, the most immediate and striking moments come at the back end of the album. Not with the lengthy and more ambitious arrangements but in the simpler and off the cuff songs. Emotional Intelligence has Davison seemingly more relaxed and just singing without worrying about how any pressures or expectations of being the singer in Yes, and the general let your hair down fun in Jambustin’. The latter might echo the vibe of Lightning Strikes and The Messenger from The Ladder and again, the simplicity work. After his cosmic opening gambit, “don’t fear the dark, don’t swim with sharks” may not the sort of couplet you’d expect on a Yes album (though note the nod to “don’t kill the whale“). And in the prod of a shaky stick, serve to remind us that Yes 2026 is a different beast.

THE NEVERENDING STORY

Like the river that rolls on in the curtain call, Yes continues a universal course. Crossing fifty years in the blink of an eye, balancing the imminent release of a classic 1976 Roosevelt Stadium show, who’s to argue against the ongoing debate that there’s no sign yet of drying up.

Here’s the title track:

Yesworld

At The Barrier: Facebook / X / Instagram