Fly From Here - Yes

Fly From Here (Yes, 2011)

Fly From Here

1. Overture - 1:53

2. Pt. 1: We Can Fly - 6:00

3. Pt. 2: Sad Night at the Airfield - 6:41

4. Pt. 3: Madman at the Screens - 5:16

5. Pt. 4: Bumpy Ride - 2:15

6. Pt. 5: We Can Fly (Reprise) - 1:44

7. The Man You Always Wanted Me to Be - 5:07
8. Life on a Film Set - 5:01
9. Hour of Need - 3:07
10. Solitaire - 3:30
11. Into the Storm - 6:54

Ten years after their last studio album, Yes have made a triumphant homecoming. With Geoff Downes and Trevor Horn from the Drama era back in the fold, and new vocalist Benoit David, the remaining core of Yes (Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Alan White) are invigorated, and, while Downes and Horn dominate the writing credits, Fly From Here is truly a Yes album, a group opus in which everyone shines in the context of adventurous new music.

The opening song suite, which uses an abandoned airport as a metaphor for death and the afterlife, starts with a classical flourish in the "Overture" which calms to silence for Pt 1, "We Can Fly." A mysterious, lonely vocal accompanied by wistful piano chords slowly builds over long bass tones and palm-muted guitar into a dramatic prechorus:  "Every day that you wait is one more that you've lost / When you wake up, I see you there on display / Like some final point of no return." The chords climb steadily underneath, releasing in a sunburst of chorus: "And we can fly from here / into a sky that's clearing / Look back we'll dry the tears / for loved ones held so nearly / Our love will never disappear." Chris Squire's bass is loud and proud, Steve Howe's guitar work is ascendant, and even Alan White has a little fun as the song transforms into a soaring rock anthem.

"Sad Night..." starts with gentle acoustic guitar picking and Benoit David's calm, tender voice. The music accentuates emotions of loneliness and change, leading up to a simply gorgeous slide guitar solo from Howe, quite possibly one of the best uses of the instrument. "Madman" is a very adventurous, progressive number, the musical source of the "Overture," with orchestral counterpoints and a bewitching 5/8 melody overlaying five measures of 4/4. "Bumpy Ride" continues the adventure with a bouncy, semi-Latin rhythm and some psychedelic, neo-classical riffing - perhaps not to everyone's taste, but it's impressive these old codgers still have it in them. Finally, "We Can Fly" makes an epic reprise and brings the whole to a satisfying conclusion.

The shorter songs deliver as well. Chris' Squire's contribution "The Man You Always Wanted Me to Be" is a fairly straightforward rock song, with a little time signature monkey business and some nice harmonized instrumental leads from Howe and Downes. "Life on a Film Set," another from Horn and Downes, starts very quiet and moody with playful tuned percussion, then ramps up into a rollicking 11/8 jam with angular guitar, nimble bass, and catchy harmonies.  Howe provides the two short tracks: "Hour of Need" features folk singing over acoustic guitar (or is it vachalia?), and "Solitaire" features Howe alone, another excellent solo acoustic piece in the tradition of "Mood for a Day." It all winds up with the 7-minute "Into the Storm," an up-tempo slab of prog where Squire's bass takes center stage.

If I have any complaint, it's the editing of the pieces of the "Fly From Here" suite.  Each part gets really quiet at the end, then the next part fades in (except, thankfully, for the last two).  It's most noticeable between "Madman" and "Bumpy Ride" and it's really unnecessary.  Maybe Horn was trying to make a statement about how an extended piece is really indebted to the individual songs within it, or maybe he was just being lazy - either way, a little more work would have made a seamless progressive rock epic. As it is, it's still pretty amazing.

Arbritrary rating: 5 out of 5 loved ones held so nearly

Asia

Asia (1982)

1. Heat of the Moment - 3:54

2. Only Time Will Tell - 4:48

3. Sole Survivor - 4:52
4. One Step Closer - 4:18
5. Time Again - 4:47
6. Wildest Dreams - 5:11
7. Without You - 5:07
8. Cutting It Fine - 5:40
9. Here Comes the Feeling - 5:43

After acquainting myself with Phoenix, I figured I needed to check out the original Asia album.  I had heard it once before a long time ago, and at the time I decided I would buy it if I saw it in a bargain bin, but it wasn't essential. I might be wrong... Sure, the songs are pretty straightforward, with lyrics mostly about love and relationships, but they are played with excitement, and there are creative twists that remind us of these players' impressive talents.

Probably the high point of the album is the song written by all four band members. "Time Again" starts with a menacing minor key stomp, accelerates into a Gothic arpeggio with haunting vocals, then launches into a galloping rock song in 12/8 with fun guitar/bass unison riffs and climbing harmonies. Other highlights include the Beethoven-esque drama of "Wildest Dreams," the sunny "One Step Closer" and the adventurous "Here Comes the Feeling".  Throughout the album, John Wetton's bass is lean and muscular (that's the bass player we know and love), Steve Howe's guitar work is impeccable, Geoff Downes's synthesizers are surprisingly tasteful, and Carl Palmer's drumming is dutifully propulsive. Very fun stuff.

Surprisingly, there are no power ballads here.  "Only Time Will Tell" and "Without You" come the closest, but the first includes an aggressive Baroque intro/bridge (think "Final Countdown," only better), and the second has way too much epic guitar riffing from Mr. Howe to be considered a ballad.  The pop is never simple pop.  Even the catchy verses on the big hit "Heat of the Moment" are a little subversive - you can't tell they are in 5/4 time unless you count. 

Overall, this is a very creative rock album with solid songs from top to bottom. This might be attributable to the new band's first rush of creativity, or it might be that the stars aligned.  Either way, when the band got back together in 2007, their concerts included every song from this album. The band must enjoy these songs as much as the fans!

Arbitrary rating: 4 out of 5 lean, muscular bass riffs

Phoenix - Asia

Phoenix (Asia, 2008)

1. Never Again - 4:54

2. Nothing's Forever - 5:46

3. Heroine - 4:54

4. Sleeping Giant / No Way Back / Reprise - 8:10

5. Alibis - 5:40

6. I Will Remember You - 5:12
7. Shadow of a Doubt - 4:18
8. Parallel Worlds / Vortex / Déyà - 8:12
9. Wish I'd Known All Along - 4:06
10. Orchard of Mines - 5:12
11. Over and Over - 3:33
12. An Extraordinary Life - 4:59

In a swirl of excitement over the new Yes album coming out, I got curious about Asia.  I've known of them for awhile, but I never thought they would be worth my time. They sound good on paper: Steve Howe (guitarist from Yes), John Wetton (bassist from King Crimson & UK), and Carl Palmer (drummer from Emerson, Lake, and Palmer) join forces with Buggles (and one-time Yes) keyboardist Geoff Downes for the 80s hit "Heat of the Moment" and short-lived arena rock fame.  All four musicians are outstanding, but the boilerplate says they sold out their standards for success. However, when I heard they got back together in 2008, I was very curious.  Surely these older, wiser musicians wouldn't release a new album without having something truly inspired to offer, and not just one last desperate attempt at radio success.

What I heard was quite interesting - yes, there are some inspired musical passages, and some of the lyrics are pretty decent as well, but the overall sound is very 80s, very arena rock, and very poppy.  The fact that nothing on this is going to come within sniping distance of radio gives the songs a sort of artistic relevance - big rock music for the sake of big rock music, even if no one is listening.

My favorite part of this album is Steve Howe's guitar work.  The man is a true original, bringing inventive solos, emotive slide work, tasteful licks, and an overall exuberance that elevates every song, even rescuing the duds.  John Wetton's bass guitar is much less exciting, unfortunately - I think he sees himself more as a lead singer now.  Geoff Downes' keyboards are as 80s as it gets, though he pulls in more eclectic sounds with Hammond organ, faux orchestra, even harpsichord on the outro to "Alibis." Carl Palmer is solid as ever - he gets a tuned percussion feature in "Vortex", but other than that, he doesn't stand out.

In the midst of dangerously saccharine ballands and feel-good arena rock, the band sneaks in some geniunely creative music.  "Sleeping Giant / No Way Out / Reprise" sandwiches a standard Asia song inside a moody, mysterious instrumental, where the keyboards and guitar play a swelling 6/8 underpinned by Wetton's fretless bass and multi-layered vocals in some other time signature (haven't figured out what yet). The aforementioned "Alibis" is a sprightly rock number with a neo-classical instrumental at the end featuring Downes' ever-building keyboard orchestra. The Howe-penned "Wish I'd Known All Along" boasts a chorus in 7/8, though the groove is natural enough you don't notice it. It also has a refreshing classical bridge, along with some great guitar work.  Finally, "Parallel Worlds / Vortex / Déyà" is a great extended piece, mostly instrumental, with dramatic harmonized lead instruments in the "Vortex" section transitioning into the stately grandeur of "Déyà", a tune reminiscent of Genesis in their heyday, particularly "After the Ordeal".

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this reunion album. Surprised enough to check out their debut...

Arbitrary rating: 4 out of 5 sleeping giants

The Napoleon of Notting Hill - G. K. Chesterton

The Napoleon of Notting Hill (G. K. Chesterton, 1904)

In the London of the future, democracy has been replaced by equal opportunity monarchy. When a new king is needed, a random citizen is chosen to fill the slot. The system works because no one cares about England anymore anyway – people are cosmopolitan citizens of the world, patriots of reason and moderation, not of place. However, when a supreme jokester gets the kingship and, to avoid boredom, splits the London neighborhoods into medieval city-states, one man takes the joke seriously and revives a bloody, glorious patriotism.

The Napoleon of Notting Hill is tough to categorize. It is set in the future, but it is not science fiction; though it has knights and battles, it is not an historical romance. It deals with politics, but it is not political; it is hilarious, yet it is violently tragic. All the wonder and poetry of the beginning of a new world can be found next to the poignant sadness of that world's end. It is a very serious joke.

While there is plenty of fun along the way examining modern life through the medieval lens, and there is even some stirring action, Chesterton raises a lot of questions. He attempts to answer some in the dream-like last chapter, but we are left with a paradox: Is it better for people to live and die for something noble, or to avoid the potentially catastrophic effects? What if that something noble is completely arbitrary and even a little silly?

Two quotes from the book perhaps best explain what it is about.

“Is it altogether impossible to make a thing good without it immediately insisting on being wicked?”

“He had that rational and deliberate preference which will always to the end trouble the peace of the world, that rational and deliberate preference for a short life and a merry one.”

Arbitrary rating: 4.5 out of 5 serious jokes

The Club of Queer Trades - G. K. Chesterton

The Club of Queer Trades (G. K. Chesterton, 1905)

This collection of six related short stories was a refreshing read. Retired judge-turned-mystic Basil Grant, his amateur detective brother Rupert, and his friend the narrator encounter several bizarre events that start to look awfully criminal, or at the very least inconsiderate, but each turns out to be a run-in with a member or potential member of the Club of Queer Trades. The only requirement for membership is that the person invented the means by which they earn their living. In the words of the narrator, “The discovery of this strange society was a curiously refreshing thing; to realise that there were ten new trades in the world was like looking at the first ship or the first plough. It made a man feel what he should feel, that he was still in the childhood of the world.”

Though each story has its own little twist to recommend it, the common thread is the character of Basil Grant, sort of an anti-Holmes in his emphasis on intuition and impression over what seem to be the facts. He'll be perfectly confident that the men launching attacks on a friend are not criminal; then, seeing an innocent stranger in the crowd on a busy street, he will declare the man the most evil person in London and follow him relentlessly. His friends play along, convinced he's finally gone all the way mad, but he turns out to be more wise than they care to admit.

Of course, since this is Chesterton, there are occasional philosophic and paradoxical gems tucked into each story, as well as plenty of humor. Though there is certainly a debt to Arthur Conan Doyle, these stories have enough spice and absurdity to make them wholly original. My only regret is that they are finished too soon.

Arbitrary rating: 4.5 out of 5 judges-turned-mystics

The Children of Men - P. D. James

The Children of Men (P. D. James, 1992)

I have to admit, I saw the movie before I read this. And - though it pains me to write this - the movie is better than the book. It takes the best element of the book, namely the premise, and grafts on memorable characters and a more powerful plot.

So let's start with the premise. It's the year 2021, and all men have been sterile since around 1995. Scientists have worked furiously to determine a cause for the universal sterility of sperm to no avail, and the aging population of the earth is trying to adjust itself to a world without children or a future.

The strongest part of this book is how it fleshes out the likely consequences of universal sterility. The government starts sponsoring mandatory fertility tests and porn shops as human interest in sex dwindles. Some women think they are pregnant, even going into psychosomatic labor. Others treat dolls or kittens like their children, having them baptized and wheeling them around in strollers. The young people of the last generation, dubbed Omegas, are coddled and feared; the Omegas themselves are slightly psychotic, antisocial, and adrift. The utter inevitability of the human race's extinction casts a unique atmosphere over the whole book.

Unfortunately, the plot and characters are not as strong as they could be. England is ruled by the all-powerful Warden. His cousin, Theo Faron, becomes involved with an unlikely group of revolutionaries who carry hope for a new generation. When they go on the run from the Warden, things just start happening for no reason. The ending especially seems forced, hurried, and somewhat pointless. It's unfortunate, because the book could have been very powerful if things weren't so muddled. Still, the premise alone makes it worth reading.

Arbitrary rating: 3 out of 5 psychosomatic labors

The Alienist - Caleb Carr

The Alienist (Caleb Carr, 1994)

Starting with a midnight call to a grisly crime scene, The Alienist mixes history, psychology, and suspense to tell the story of a serial killer loose on the streets of New York City in 1896. The historical details are interesting - it's wild to imagine a world where fingerprinting isn't admissible court evidence - but they don't get in the way of the story, which is well plotted and well paced.

Since this serial killer preys on immigrant male child prostitutes, and since there is no immediately obvious way to tie anyone to the killings, the corrupt police department is not particularly keen on investigating. Undaunted, Commissioner of Police Theodore Roosevelt (yes, that Theodore Roosevelt) authorizes an alternative investigation led by eminent alienist (a.k.a. psychologist) Laszlo Kreizler, which tries to identify the killer by creating a full physical and psychological profile, based on the known facts surrounding the gruesome, yet consistent, killings. The closer they get to the truth, the more they court danger, not only from the killer but from New York gangs, the upper crust, and even the established police force, who resent Roosevelt.

The action is bracing when it hits, and the character development in between the action is well done. Probably the most exciting part is the investigation itself: we get the same thrill of affirmation as Kreizler's team when their careful, studied, yet ultimately tenuous deductions turn up solid clues. The intellectual exercise and the thrill of the hunt combine to make this a great read. Its pleasures are solid and composed: there is no outrageous plot twist, no surprise ending, just a well-told story of people working against time to prevent the atrocities of a deeply disturbed soul.

Arbitrary rating: 4 out of 5 tenuous deductions