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██▌ Artist...: Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks ░▐██▌
░▐██ Album....: True ░██▌░
▓▐██ Year.....: 2024 ▓▐██▓
▓▐██ Rel. Date: 2024-12-22 ░▐██▓
▐██ Genre....: Progressive Rock ██▌░
░ ██▌ Label....: Frontiers Music SRL ██▌
▐██ Source...: CD ▐██
░▐██▌ Type.....: Retail ▐██▌░
▓▄████ Quality..: VBR, 44.1kHz, Joint Stereo ████▌░
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1. True Messenger 5:49
2. Shine On 4:17
3. Counties and Countries 9:50
4. Build Me an Ocean 3:19
5. Still a Friend 5:01
6. Make it Right 6:06
7. Realization Part Two 3:32
8. Once Upon a Dream 16:31
9. Thank God 3:48
58:13
ItÆs all true. Exactly what youÆve been hearing. This is the best Yes
album of the past two decades.
On the one hand, a review of Jon AndersonÆs True seems pointless. You
would think all the Yes fans, like me, would have pre-ordered the CD and
also listened to the singles as they were released.
I limited myself to only one listen of each advance song, so that I
could save the full context, full album experience until release day. Of
course, I was then blown away on August 23, 2024, just like so many
others for whom Yes is their favorite band.
I read the advance reviews. They said it was best Yes album since The
Ladder, or since Magnification. I was getting excited. Because those two
albums have not been surpassed by any others released under the ôYesö
name since.
But we all know a band doesnÆt have to be called ôYesö to really be Yes.
We learned that was true long ago, thanks to the eponymous album by a
little group called Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe.
ôAnderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howeö sounds like a law firm, doesnÆt it? I
guess the joke was: We could sue you to prove that this group should
really be called Yes, but why waste the time and energy, because we can
instead just make an album that is obviously a Yes album to anyone with
ears to hear.
WeÆve had a couple of really nice Yes albums from Arc of Life. And you
can insert your own favorite examples here. But my point is that it no
longer matters what is an official Yes album or not. What matters is if
it has surpassed The Ladder, or Magnification, or is on the same level.
What matters is that Yes has transcended being a band. Yes is really a
style of music. A good example would be hearing something really good
and having difficulty trying to identify the composer. For example, is
it Bach or Buxtehude? In one respect, it doesnÆt matter. ItÆs simply the
greatest kind of music. The greatest musicians become influencers. In
the same way, Yes has left their mark. Yes is classic. Yes is classical
music.
Enter the group of musicians known as the Band Geeks. They can play live
with Jon Anderson and sound just like Yes. They have clearly mastered
the classic idiom of Yes music. And they are brilliant musicians and
composers in their own right. They can work with Jon to compose new Yes
music of the highest calibre.
And the music on True is so much more than derivative homage. Take the
opening track, ôTrue Messenger.ö Andy Graziano surprises and amazes with
his beautifully realized Steve Howe-like guitar tone and fretboard
acrobatics. But by the end of the track, he has flipped into the 80s, by
flawlessly rendering a Trevor Rabin guitar tone and its concomitant dive
bombing attack.
So, on the one hand, a review of True seems pointless, since every track
is absolutely killer. They each rank up there with the great Yes
classics. ôCounties and Countriesö (9:51) and ôOnce Upon a Dreamö
(16:32), in particular, are the one-two knockout punch for anybody who
would dare to argue that this is not a Yes album. And it seems that
anyone who cares would have learned this by August 23, at the latest.
By the way, I read in one review a snarky comment about ôRealization
Part Twoö (3:33). Namely, that that is such a prog-like title. Because,
hey, whereÆs Part One? But it is clear when you listen to the album that
ôRealization Part Twoö (3:33) is the finale to ôMake It Rightö (6:07),
to which it is conjoined. So, really, there you have a third knockout
punch for all the disbelievers. ItÆs a bona fide Yes epic: ôMake It
Right / Realizationö (9:40).
Okay, now back to my thought that, on the one hand, anyone who cares
would have been known by August 23, at the latest. Three punches.
Knockout.
Yet, other the other hand, not everybody has heard the good news. I
myself was walking through my neighborhood this week, happily listening
to music off of my iPhone, when I saw a guy coming towards me. I already
knew that he was a Yes fan, since my wife had taught piano for years to
his stepdaughters and we had chatted about music many times before. So I
silenced my EarPods and opened the conversation by asking how he liked
the new Jon Anderson album.
Turns out, he had not heard of it! After I went on enthusiastically for
about a minute about why it was the best Yes album since The Ladder, or
since Magnification, he cut me short and said he was looking it up right
now, to summon it into his own EarPods. Well, I felt so happy that I was
able to bring the glad tidings and to spread a little joy into one more
corner of the neighborhood.
And that, dear reader, is why I am writing this seemingly pointless
review for you today. Do not miss out on True. If you havenÆt yet heard
about it, go get it now.
Because itÆs all true.
By the way, I donÆt want to spoil your fun, but be sure to notice that
the word ôtrueö is skillfully deployed in four songs, marking this as a
coherently satisfying concept album: ôTrue Messenger,ö ôShine On,ö
ôBuild Me an Ocean,ö and ôOnce Upon a Dream.ö
---
Jon Anderson û lead vocals, production, musical arrangement
Richie Castellano û bass, guitar, keyboards, vocals, production, musical
arrangement, engineering, mixing
Andy Ascolese û drums, percussion, keyboards, vocals, associate
production, musical arrangement, engineering
Andy Graziano û guitar, vocals
Christopher Clark û keyboards, musical arrangement
Robert Kipp û Hammond organ, vocals
Anne Marie Nacchio û additional vocals
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