The Ladder is most certainly one of their most confident and natural sounding albums in quite some time. Is this a return to the days of Close To The Edge? No, this is Yes in the here and now of 1999. The core of the legendary band that has recorded some of the most amazingly powerful and uplifting rock albums of the 1970's is still here and playing some very inspired music.

It's unfair to hold a band to someting they did some 25 years ago and expect them to recapture that. New songs such as Homeworld, Face To Face, The Messenger, New Language do capture many of the wonderful qualities that the music of Yes is known for. Lightning Strikes is a atypical song for them but they play it with such a upbeat and fun spirit, that they make it a Yes song. Nine Voices is a wonderful acoustic song. If You Only Knew is a simple ballad for them but could be a hit for them on the adult contemporary charts. Overall, The Ladder is very much a Yes album. Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Alan White, Igor Khoroshev & Billy Sherwood have succeeded in creating new and vibrant Yes music on the eve of the new millenium.

It has been a long time since I have been hardly able to play any other CD for weeks. The Ladder is certainly the best work by Yes since Talk, and among the best work they have ever done. And no, I did not start out as an 80's Yes fan. I have been a fan for 30 years. They and Renaissance have always been my favorite bands. The Ladder has some of everything for everybody: the classic epics, the sweet ballads, the hard-edged stuff, the Asian-sounding chants, and, of course, the always amazing guitar playing of Steve Howe. I think it is this variety that has brought the most criticism of this CD. Most Yes fans want EITHER Close to the Edge OR 91025 OR Anderson's solo works. Relax. Open your mind. Be versatile, like Yes has become. Then you will know why a long-time devout progrocker (me), a lyric/melody lover of Fairport Convention (my wife), and a heavy metal lover (my son) all thoroughly enjoyed the tour and can't get enough of this CD.

It is very telling that 95% of the reviews for "The Ladder" are ecstatic. This is a thrilling album & a return to form. For those confused by the last 4 Yes releases prior to "The Ladder" you MUST read Chris Welch's outstanding book on Yes "Close To The Edge", which explains it all, from 90125 to Union, the confusion-inducing Yes era.

"The Ladder" is truly brilliant. Billy Sherwood & Igor Khoroshev make this a fresh new sounding recording, although Sherwood has been with the band for a while now. The harmonies are really fantastic, Chris's bass playing is finally freed up & can actually be HEARD - so much like the Yes-Album/Fragile era, Steve Howe is all over every song with creative fills & inspiring solos & gobs of incrdible slide work - some breathtaking acoustic work also, reminding me of his acoustic work on the GTR album. Jon is in TOP form, singing soft & tough with heart & soul.

Yes is working hard to get their audience back and get back to doing what they do best - melodic exspansive music with technical flourishes i.e. "prog-rock". Even the short songs have multiple tempo and key changes.

So far faves are: Homeworld [10 mins long & for a Sci-Fi video game - how Prog can you possibly GET?] Can I?/Face To Face If Only You Knew [this is NOT AOR!] Finally [WOW! TFTO synths & guitars] The Messenger [shades of "And You & I!] New Language - best since "Mind Drive"!

If you love Yes run out & get this album.

I don't know if anyone will see this being so far down the line of reviews but here goes. I wish to respond to a couple of points in other reviews. Jon Anderson's 'spacey' lyrics. If you are going to complain about such lyrics don't praise CTTE or TFTO or even the YES album. Jon is simply progressing along a spiritual path and for me that is what YES music is all about. The other point I'd like to address is that too many people expect another CTTE or TFTO. They have done that. I have written poetry and song lyrics and such since H.S. and know the desire and the actually need to do something that you haven't done before while keeping true to yourself. For me this C.D. is a return to form in that, after some wandering down some different paths, YES has rediscovered their destination. All of these guys are spiritual in one way or another and that spirit vision is what makes YES YES! I have grown since I was a young teenager and first heard TFTO on the local late night radio show. That music propelled me towards my own spiritual 'Awaken'ing and still provides me joy when I listen to it. BUT I have grown, so has YES. They will NEVER make CTTE or TFTO or GFTO again. They are not the same musicians or human beings they were then. Neither should we be, those who grew up with them through the seventies. YES is a spiritual band that helped create Progreesive Rock. Don't condemn the spirit, revel in it by allowing your own to grow. The Ladder is an amazing C.D. in that regard. Put Switch The Ladder back in time to Fragile and the people complaining would probably be saying the same sort of things about Fragile today that they say about The Ladder. Yes is about a feeling in the music that comes through the technique and musicainship. If you want pure technique go listen to jazz and other such forms of music. If you are a true to the core YES fan that understands what this group in all it's incarnations has done, you will love this C.D. Only change is permanent but within all change is the unchanging center of what we are. It is there in this YES effort and it touches that unchanging place in me. To Be Alive is one of my favorite tracks on the C.D. So I will quote some of the lyrics here to close, 'There's the sound that keeps you trying/There's the sound that makes you smile/There's a sound in every corner/Of the world that we survive.

That sound is in this effort from the band clearer than it has been for years. If that is what you seek from their music, you will not be disappointed.

Peace to all on the journeys you wander.

Jaroth

A couple of months back I saw the Yes Masterworks tour and was so impressed by the masterful playing and the stage presence of Anderson, Squire, and Co. that I decided to purchase my first new Yes CD since the mindless Big Generator.

I want to preface by saying that I grew up listening to Yes music and consider myself a huge fan of this talented and inspiring group. Unfortunately, IMHO, nearly everything Yes has produced since Drama (and possibly 90125) has been a disappointing let down--their live performances excepted.

And in keeping with this sad pattern, The Ladder proves no better than its predecessors.

Homeworld starts favorably and has some good moments. Unfortunately it quickly descends into mindless pop simplicity and ends awash in Jon Anderson New Age silliness.

Between the leading track and the next to last track, Yes indulge in the kind of pop music absurdity and imbecility that I'd expect from Night Ranger or Air Supply! And in the process, they manage to defile some of their classic material--Anderson's moronic reworking of We Have Heaven titled Can I? It's as if he's asking, "Can I write and play music as creatively as before?" I think not!

There are few bright and too many uninspired moments in tracks 2 through 9. Track 10, titled New Language, spares this from being a completely futile effort. It's the only track where Squire's premier bass playing makes any sort of impact and the music retains some of its prog rock grandeur and creativity. It's far from Starship Trooper or Awaken, but it's at least palatable.

The final track starts out with an accoustic arrangement that sounds eerily close to the beginning of I've Seen All Good People. It's not a bad song but its wishy-washy New Ageness makes a second listening undesirable.

It's a shame that Yes have fallen into the same pit of lack of creativity and inspiration where so many great rock groups of yesterday (ELP and Page & Plant (aka Led Zeppelin) to name two of the most noticeable)now reside.

I know I'm going to catch heat from some of you diehards out there, but I believe that being a fan means speaking out when your favorite rock band consistently puts out below par material. Yes is much better than that.