New YES album "The Quest" out 1 Oct

[bondegezou]

http://yesworld.com/2021/07/yes-anno...lbum-the-quest

YES, who are Steve Howe, Alan White, Geoff Downes, Jon Davison and Billy Sherwood, release their new studio album The Quest on InsideOutMusic/Sony Music on 1st October 2021.
Pre-orders will start from 23rd July.

“It is simply an honour for me to have the opportunity to bring together the band members in the development of a well-refined set of songs that capture the band’s true potential,” said Steve Howe, who produced the album. He added “Much of the music was written in late 2019 with the rest in 2020. We commissioned several orchestrations to augment and enhance the overall sound of these fresh new recordings, hoping that our emphasis on melody, coupled with some expansive instrumental solo breaks, keeps up the momentum for our listeners.”

Additional percussion was provided by guest Jay Schellen who supplements YES’ live performances.

Label Manager Thomas Waber said “I am delighted to welcome YES to the label and am looking forward to seeing the reaction of the band’s fans to the new album. Being a long-time fan myself, I am really excited by the new material. Steve Howe managed to capture many of the important elements that we all love about YES!”

Containing 11 songs, 8 on the main CD with 3 extra tracks on a bonus CD, The Quest will be available on Vinyl and 5.1 Blu-ray and CD, all on the day of release.

The Quest – 2CD Digipak tracklisting:
CD1:
The Ice Bridge 7.01
Dare To Know 6.00
Minus The Man 5.35
Leave Well Alone 8.06
The Western Edge 4.26
Future Memories 5.08
Music To My Ears 4.41
A Living Island 6.52
CD2:
Sister Sleeping Soul 4.51
Mystery Tour 3.33
Damaged World 5.20
The Quest is released on 1st October 2021.

Formats are:

Limited Edition Deluxe 2LP & 2CD plus Blu-ray Box-set
Limited Edition 2CD & Blu-ray Artbook
Gatefold 2LP & 2CD plus LP and booklet
2CD Digipak
Digital Album
Cover artwork designed and created by the band’s long term collaborator Roger Dean.

Pre-orders will start from 23rd July.

[Crawford Glissadevil]

Yes...no...let's hope for a miracle.

[Steve F.]

With Steve Hackett and now Steve Howe signed to Inside Out, I smell a GTR reunion!

[bondegezou]

With Steve Hackett and now Steve Howe signed to Inside Out, I smell a GTR reunion!

In all seriousness, I think they should do a joint tour, Hackett's band doing Genesis Revisited and Yes, with a GTR mini-set. It would sell fantastically!

Hackett and Howe do seem to have been in touch in recent years and it's rumoured a GTR reunion of sorts was mooted, but Howe said no. Howe did release some post-GTR sessions on Anthology 2 and Hackett, of course, did his new version of "When the Heart Rules the Mind".

Henry

[MudShark22]

re: GTR reunion

Take a page from Dream Theater and make a concept album out of the s/t 's best tune

GTR - The Hunter II: The Tiger & The Swan

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

[Scott Bails]

In all seriousness, I think they should do a joint tour, Hackett's band doing Genesis Revisited and Yes, with a GTR mini-set. It would sell fantastically!

Hackett and Howe do seem to have been in touch in recent years and it's rumoured a GTR reunion of sorts was mooted, but Howe said no. Howe did release some post-GTR sessions on Anthology 2 and Hackett, of course, did his new version of "When the Heart Rules the Mind".

Henry

I think this is a great idea.


Re: The Quest, the album cover is a major step above Heaven & Earth. Hopefully the music is, too.

Yes The Quest.jpg

[Wil]

Well, here we go and despite being a little lukewarm on some recent projects I'm happy to let myself be excited for this.
In the absence of some samples to comment on, I will say that I quite like the cover even if it is another landscape (the recent Flower Kings' Islands image is, for me, more striking) but I'm still not a fan of 'Dean-ifying' album titles and letting them clash with the band logo. For me, it looks clumsy but hey-ho, not a deal-breaker. Looking forward to hearing some tracks.

[Brad 2 the Bone]

The Quest – 2CD Digipak tracklisting:
CD1:
The Ice Bridge 7.01
Dare To Know 6.00
Minus The Man 5.35
Leave Well Alone 8.06
The Western Edge 4.26
Future Memories 5.08
Music To My Ears 4.41
A Living Island 6.52
CD2:
Sister Sleeping Soul 4.51
Mystery Tour 3.33
Damaged World 5.20

So that's about an hour. My big pet peeve of modern vinyl is "LP-length" albums issued as double LPs, and now we're getting "CD-length" albums issued as double CDs.

[Scott Bails]

I'm still not a fan of 'Dean-ifying' album titles and letting them clash with the band logo. For me, it looks clumsy but hey-ho, not a deal-breaker.

Most of their Dean covers have his lettering for the album title.

[Wil]

Most of their Dean covers have his lettering for the album title.

Yep, and I'm not a fan of any of them. I guess it's a consistent style, though.

[Scrotum Scissor]

With Steve Hackett and now Steve Howe signed to Inside Out, I smell a GTR reunion!

B...B-but will YOU be releasing that GTR progressive reunion album, Steve?

Since it's all steves and, and, y'know.

[Dan Roth]

So that's about an hour. My big pet peeve of modern vinyl is "LP-length" albums issued as double LPs, and now we're getting "CD-length" albums issued as double CDs.

Well, they are marketing it as "8 on the main CD with 3 extra tracks on a bonus CD". Maybe Howe or the label wanted those three tracks separated from the other 8 for some reason.

[popeyebonaparte]

A proper GTR reunion with a new album would be brilliant. Now that both the Steves have fully embraced their progressive style again it could result in some really special music.

[Kcrimso]

A proper GTR reunion with a new album would be brilliant. Now that both the Steves have fully embraced their progressive style again it could result in some really special music.

Steve Howe has fully embraced his progressive style again? Where? What album I have missed?

[Dan Roth]

Interesting to note that this is being released via Inside Out/Sony. The Royal Affair album was on BGU/BMG Rights Management, whose releases come out through Warner Music's Alternative Distribution Alliance. I wonder if that supposed 3-year deal they had signed with BMG is just for the live stuff.

[Impman]

Let the 97 page thread commence!

[bondegezou]

Interesting to note that this is being released via Inside Out/Sony. The Royal Affair album was on BGU/BMG Rights Management, whose releases come out through Warner Music's Alternative Distribution Alliance. I wonder if that supposed 3-year deal they had signed with BMG is just for the live stuff.

Sony owns BMG and InsideOut, so I'm guessing it's all been done under the same deal.

Henry

[miamiscot]

Inside Out is definitely where YES belongs.

But what's with a 14 minute bonus disc? 14 minutes?

I am mildly enthused about this.

[Dan Roth]

Sony owns BMG and InsideOut, so I'm guessing it's all been done under the same deal.

Henry

Maybe. But the Royal Affair was definitely not released through Sony. The BGU/BMG Rights Management releases come out through Warner/ADA, as that is a separate company from the BMG that merged with Sony some time ago.

[Guitarplyrjvb]

That's weird. The whole thing would fit on one CD. Orchestrations? Oh no. Have very low expectations for this, but I'll at least listen to it.

[bondegezou]

Maybe. But the Royal Affair was definitely not released through Sony. The BGU/BMG Rights Management releases come out through Warner/ADA, as that is a separate company from the BMG that merged with Sony some time ago.

Ah! Good point.

Henry

[Sunlight Caller]

I can’t get too excited about this, but I do hope it’s way better than the last one. I like the artwork, but then I always enjoy Roger Dean’s paintings. I am a bit perplexed by the myriad special releases, they all seem to have the same amount of music, so quite why you would want a vinyl plus CD plus Blu-Ray is a little beyond me. Of course selling physical media is the only way they’ll really make cash, so more power to them, and I hope the fan base has deep pockets.

I’m also a little hesitant about the added orchestrations. This will be the third time we have been there, after TAAW and Magnification, and both are albums I like a lot. It just strikes a note of caution, in that they felt the need to improve what was initially recorded. I may be wrong, only time will tell.

[malgeo]

I'll at least listen to it.

I am mildly enthused about this.

Good blurbs for the promotional material!

[LeFrog]

So that's about an hour. My big pet peeve of modern vinyl is "LP-length" albums issued as double LPs, and now we're getting "CD-length" albums issued as double CDs.

Inside Out's policy regarding bonus tracks has always been baffling to say the least. Originally, things were clear: albums were released in 2 formats, a standard jewel case edition with no bonus tracks and a limited deluxe edition in a digipak with bonus tracks as an extra incentive. The special edition was definitely a limited release, becoming out of print after 1 or 2 years depending on how fast it sold.
In the last 7-8 years, the so-called limited special edition with bonus tracks became the only version released. They keep calling it "limited" even though it obviously isn't, remaining in print years after release. As for the so-called bonus tracks, they are not actually bonus since they are included on every version of the album (CD, digital and in most cases vinyl as well). I fail to see the point as these tracks usually don't fit in with the artists's original vision of the album, and are no longer an incentive for fans to buy one version of the album over another.
To make things more complicated, in the last few years they have started to separate the bonus tracks on a second disc. The intention is surely to mark a clear separation between the main album and the bonus tracks but this often results in a very short second disc with very little substance.

[Wil]

Does the Japanese release get an extra, extra disc with one more track on it?