Well, it finally arrived.
I pretty much echo the other comments here. It's nice this was released and the cover has a cool new Dean on it. "To The Moment" is the standout track for sure and ranks up alongside other recent Yes tunes like "Fly From Here" or even some of the stuff on The Ladder and Magnification. More of that pop Yes with some proggy window dressing. It's darn catchy. It's nice to hear some new Yes music with Wakeman style Moog all over it. The single edit did it no favors. The version here makes more sense and offers up more cool instrumental bits.
"From A Page" is a pleasant ballad with a nice steel solo from Steve. Some of it reminds me of stuff like "Light of Ages" from Heaven and Earth. It's in that ballpark.
What's up with "Turn of a Card"? That does not sound like Benoit singing. Who is it? The lyrics are pretty bad on this one. If they were going to add a tune that just had Oliver and a singer on it I think they could have come up with something better.
The longer tune "The Gift of Love" looked like it could be another Yes mini-epic, but once you listen to it it's more like one long ballad. There's really nothing to push it into "epic" territory. It's about on par with something like "Be The One" from Keys. Some nice playing on it though, especially from Steve and Oliver. Benoit really sounds like Jon Anderson on this one. Even his little "yeppy" background vocals sound like something JA would do.
In hindsight I think they were wise to abandon this and do Fly From Here with Downes and Horn. This album seems like it would have been more in the ballpark of Heaven and Earth, though a bit better. I'm glad it got released though, for Oliver's sake. Now there's an actual studio release that has more input from him than just a Moog solo.
PS Can you point out where Squire did background vocals on these tunes? The only time I think I hear him is singing "the gift of love" but his voice is so low it's hard to be sure. And how about Howe?
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