Recent Reviews

December 2024

November 2024

October 2024

September 2024

August 2024

[ More Music Reviews ]


Yes: The Quest
Yes - The Quest Album Art

Yes: The Quest

Melodic Progressive Rock
5.0/5.0

Website Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
InsideOut Music
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 23.09.2021 | Released: 01.10.2021

Seminal and iconic progressive rock band Yes returns with their 22nd studio album, The Quest, in their long established career, now entering their six decade. It's their first album since the death of founding member and guitarist Christ Squire (who named Billy Sherwood as his replacement prior to his death). This in turn means that Yes no longer has any original members in the band. But it does have consistent and recognizable players from their early, most well-know years and recordings: guitarist Steve Howe and drummer Alan White. The former has been successfully steering the band since their latest resurrection around 2008.

Yes - Click For Larger Image

Yes

With little doubt The Quest is typical and quintessential Yes. Always a collaborative project between the players you can expect many of the band's trademark musical elements supplied the individual talented players. You can start with Steve Howe' notable and creative guitar work which combines liberal amounts acoustic and electric guitar, and tones from straight rock to psychedelic. The former you'll hear within a song like Leave Well Alone, the latter within Dare To Know. But, mostly, you'll hear the guitar work that made Yes the standard bearer of progressive rock and influencing countless successors to this day. Geoff Downes offers some fine acoustic piano throughout, but also some synths that remind of his work with Asia (The Ice Bridge, for instance) and some Hammond organ that reminds of early Tony Kaye. Additionally, I was intrigued with how well the bass lines rose within every song, particularly within The Western Edge and Minus The Man. The latter is another fine display of Howe's guitar work. Other essential Yes elements are the vocal harmonies and Jon Davison sounding a bit like Jon Anderson since joining the band in 2012. All said, The Quest finds Yes in fine form, both indefatigable and creative in their ongoing pursuit of stylish melodic progressive rock. Quite recommended. Get it. You will not be disappointed.




CraigHartranft.net - New fiction, crime fiction by Craig Hartranft

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

The Take Away

All said, The Quest finds Yes in fine form, both indefatigable and creative in their ongoing pursuit of stylish melodic progressive rock. Quite recommended. Get it. You will not be disappointed.

Find A Review

Alphabetical Index

a b c d e f g h i j
k l m n o p q r s t
u v w x y z #
New & Notable
Read the Powell-Payne: Voilá Album Review

The Powell Payne project, created in 2022 is the collaboration of Mark "Penfold Powell (ex-drummer of Psycho Kiss) and Adam Payne (former vocalist of Airrace). With guitarist Adam Davies and keyboard player ... [ Read More ]

November 2024 Stats
  • Views: 16K
  • Active Users: 4.2K
  • New Users: 3.5K
  • Event Count: 45K

    • Source: Google Analytics