YES- Heaven & Earth - Reviews and More!

[Interstellar]

On H&E the drums sounded better, to me at least.

I don't have a big problem with the drum sound on H&E either, even if I don't find it great. It is the playing that perplexes me. I fully understand that Alan White is not the power drummer he used to be, and I know he's had back problems, but maybe a decent producer could have (gently) pushed him toward a more inspiring performance in the studio. Oh well.

[ronmac]

Hell, if anyone out there knows them, tell them I'll donate a logo to them.

[infandous]

I never picked up H&E, but listened to the pre-release tracks and later listened to a few tracks that people said were "highlights" (like Subway Walls) on YouTube. I found it all insufferably boring. Since I never heard the actual CD, I can't say much about the sound, since all I heard were compressed versions. That said, I thought it sounded, musically, like an unfinished album. I agree with Jacob's assessment that it needed further mixing or something. I thought Davison sounded good, as usual. I wondered what happened to Squire, as it seemed his bass was no longer a feature of Yes music on that album. The album cover is not good, and the logo is horrendous (better than the ARW logo? hard to say which is worse.....I guess the H&E logo wins because at least it's the classic Yes style logo, just with the extremely terrible idea of putting jagged zebra stripes in it).

It's funny, because I though Fly From Here was "geriatric prog", i.e. old men playing prog with little energy or enthusiasm, but H&E took that concept even further. Hearing those song from H&E did give me a higher opinion of Fly From Here in retrospect though.

[Kcrimso]

To my ears, the drums on FFH are slightly over processed and don't "breathe" as much as they do on H & E.

Bill

I agree. H&E is quite awful album but I prefer the drum sound compared to FFH.

[yamishogun]

and I know he's had back problems, but maybe a decent producer could have (gently) pushed him toward a more inspiring performance in the studio. Oh well.

I thought that's what Trevor horn did back in 2011.

[profusion]

I don't have a big problem with the drum sound on H&E either, even if I don't find it great. It is the playing that perplexes me. I fully understand that Alan White is not the power drummer he used to be, and I know he's had back problems, but maybe a decent producer could have (gently) pushed him toward a more inspiring performance in the studio. Oh well.

The drums are the biggest problem on H&E. Not the sound, but the performances. Alan was playing just the most basic parts and hardly inserting any fills. It honestly sounded a beginner who'd been playing for a year or so.

More energetic, intricate drum parts could probably make all of these songs a lot better, but they still seem unfinished. I'd love to be able to get the multitrack files and replace the drums using JamStix.

I don't think the overall mix or recording quality is that bad. I would love to hear the original Roy Thomas Baker mixes, for a comparison. His mixes for Queen, Foreigner and The Cars all have a certain unified sound. Very upfront and not a lot of sonic depth.

[bondegezou]

I don't think the overall mix or recording quality is that bad. I would love to hear the original Roy Thomas Baker mixes, for a comparison.

It's not clear that he finished mixes. I don't know if there is or is not a complete version of the album mixed by Baker.

Henry

[BravadoNJ]

i think i played it 4 or 5 times....... it just didn't click with me.
the writing just didn't seem to fit the Yes cycle of songs...

but as for Fly From Here- i still play it and enjoy it.
i guess because i already loved and excepted Drama as Yes, this slipped in material wise....