I’m not a fan of Yes. Never have been. Well maybe parts of 90125 and Big Generator, but otherwise no. Just not my thing. However, you cannot fault the musicianship or the song writing credibility of a band that has delivered for fans for over 40 years.
Circa is formed by current Yes member Alan White (drums), former Yes member Tony Kaye (Hammond, keyboards), current Yes member Billy Sherwood (bass, vocals), and guitarist Jimmy Haun, who played on the Yes album Union.
So match that information with the fact the album features just 4 songs and you should know exactly what you’re getting here.
Some quite brilliant instrumentation and some very Yes friendly higher pitch vocals layered over heavily progressive and innovative rock music.
The shortest track is 7 minutes and the longest is 18.
Ok, so it’s not my thing and it clearly is an album that will only appeal to progressive rock fans and Yes devotees, so my opinion isn’t going to mean much in the scheme of things.
What I can say is that it’s recorded nicely. Production is solid and the album is mixed with a nice balance of vocals and instrumentation with a musical bed that’s pretty light, certainly not a hard rock affair.
This review is more or less to advise the curious as to what’s on offer here and keep AOR and hard rock fans away from it. Yes alumni – you guys should eat this up if you have the time to devote to getting to know the inner workings of the songs.
