#fly from here

[universalgarden]

Yes - Fly From Here - Return Trip

[mrwilliewonka]

Scored this for half off at an FYE yesterday. $12 for this masterpiece 😎

[elfleccy]

Out Today: Yes - Fly From Here - Return Trip (Instrumental)

[librarychair]

Ok, I know I've posted this way too often recently but over the past week it literally is playing at max volume in the inside of my skull at any moment I'm not paying attention to something else. And I'm happy about that

Yes - Fly From Here

[sunflowerrockfrog]

Mixed Feelings - Fly From Here by Yes

Fly From Here is a 2011 album by long-time progressive rock group Yes. This album is one that I feel somewhat mixed about which I feel comes from the album's atypical song breakdown. What I am here referring to is the fact that the first half of the album is made up of one segmented song while the second half is formed by a further 5 songs. I personally find the first half of the album to be of a thusly higher quality to the second which leaves me questioning if I do truly like the album

Yes - Fly From Here

In order to properly understand thus assessment I feel it is quite important to look at the album in its two halves and to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each. As stated earlier the first half is constituted by the Fly From Here suite, which is itself made up of six parts, an overture and then five movements. The overture does a great job of introducing the listener to the musical themes that they will be hearing over the course of the larger piece and leads well into the first movement, We Can Fly. For me movements 1, 2, 3, and 5 do great job of building on the sound established in the overture and carry a consistent grand and somewhat foreboding tone. However I do not feel that movement 4 is as successful in this endeavor as to me at least it feels somewhat too upbeat and in a sense cartoony. This is not to say that movement 4 is bad, more that for me it does not feel that it properly fits into the musical landscape established over the rest of the suite. Despite this dip in the 4th movement I feel that the Fly From Here suite is an overall very well crafted piece and one of my all time favorite works by Yes.

By contrast the second half of the album feels much weaker to me then it probably actually is. My favorite song from this half of the album is the song Life On A Film Set which is a perfectly good song that in most contexts I would feel quite positively about which I think is something I could say for most songs on the second half. On any other album they would feel to me as a couple of standard decent songs but because the album is structured the way that it is, I feel more inclined to judge the group of songs as a whole rather than as individual pieces. For me this means viewing the second half of the album as somewhat lackluster and may unfairly lower my opinion of the album overall.

I think one important thing to acknowledge in my analysis and thought on this album is a personal bias I have established for the first half of the album. In my listenings to this album over the years I have quite often listened to the Fly From Here suite both in full and as its individual parts and have found a deep appreciation for it. In contrast I have rarely strayed past movement 5's ending in order to listen to what the rest of the album has to offer. This has lead to me having much higher expectations for the songs on the album's second half as I am holding them up against apiece that I have developed a history with. I do not feel that this comparison is wholly my fault however, as the album is split almost exactly in half length-wise by Fly From Here and thus it feels almost natural to compare how the two sections feel next to each other. I do however know that my opinions on this are not shared by all who listened to the album as Matt Wardlaw from Classic Rock and Culture (linked below) had much to praise the album and its songs for. He comments upon how the songs on the album harken back to earlier eras of the bands music and mark a graceful transition of members for the band during the time. While I may not share Wardlaw's enthusiasm for all of the album's songs I must heartily agree with him that the album does mark a good return for the band. While I may not be able to look past the contrast between the album's two halves I will admit that both halves represent strengths of the band in their song writing and while my feelings may still be somewhat mixed, I do think they trend mostly positive.

Yes, 'Fly From Here' – Album Review

[loss-laboratory]

[loss-laboratory]

[loss-laboratory]