New Yes Album in July – Fly From Home

You’ll permit me to geek out for a moment, won’t you? Good. Because I’m gonna do it anyway.

See, Yes – the progressive rock giants who landed on the U.S. music scene in 1969 and have been recording and performing ever since (though with many personnel and style changes along the way) – are my favorite band, to the exclusion of all others. I have seen them live 7 times since 2001. I have listened to every studio album more times than I can count. I’m pretty sure I could sing the lyrics to “Close to the Edge” , “Starship Trooper”, and “Awaken” from memory, and if you know anything about Yes, you know that’s no easy feat.

And I am not exaggerating when I say that their music has saved my life, twice. In my darkest moments, in the most difficult times of my life, their music has shown me a bright point of light to cling to and strive for. And they are the only band that I can say, without any qualification or hesitation, that I genuinely, deeply love.

To put it simply, Yes changed my life. And not just once, but over and over again.

Today I’ve learned that finally, after 10 years, they are releasing a new studio album. And this isn’t just another vague rumor. There’s actually a release date. And its coming out in July! Be still my heart.

Current lineup: Alan White (drums), Steve Howe (guitar), Chris Squire (bass), Geoff Downes (keyboards), Benoit David (vocals). Photo from yesworld.com.

Now, a  part of me is rebelling against the fact that this album won’t include Jon Anderson. The band has been touring without him for the last two years, after he was forced to abandon performing for a while due to some pretty serious medical issues, so its not exactly surprising. And their new vocalist, Benoit David, is a perfectly fine fit with the band; he brings a ton of passion and youthful energy to their performances, and his own band Mystery has released some fine original music in their own right.

Photo from jonanderson.com

But, I’ve seen the band twice since Benoit came on board, and while the shows have been great, I miss Jon’s presence desperately. I can’t help but feel that the spiritual core of the band is lacking without him in the lineup, that there’s some sort of void in the music’s soul as long as he’s not singing. Yes is certainly more than the sum of its parts, and the other guys in the band are every bit as important as Jon is/was. But I miss him. I miss his gentle, comforting presence; his attitude of universal love and acceptance; I miss his angelic, almost otherworldly voice; I miss his smile, his mannerisms, his open-armed embrace of the audience before him and the world beyond his sight. However musically talented Benoit may be, and however dedicated he may be to the band, neither he nor anyone else will ever really replace Jon.

I’m going to try to put those feelings aside though, because Fly From Here is scheduled to be released on July 12 in the U.S., almost exactly a decade after I went to my first Yes concert with my parents and had my entire world rocked. The timing is particularly poignant for me, considering the song that really made me into a Yesfan for life came off their last studio album, Magnification, which was released just before I saw them live. It feels both fitting and deeply significant to me that they are finally releasing a new album now, when I seem to have come full circle and have reached another point in my life when I truly need them.

I set a goal for myself as part of my Eleven in 2011 to write a series of blog posts about Yes and their music, and now I’ve got a tangible deadline to hit. So, in the weeks leading up to the release of Fly From Home, I’ll be looking back and rhapsodizing about Yes’s career, my favorite albums and songs, and the incredible experiences I’ve had seeing the band and its members perform live.

And hopefully, this will all lead up to the new album release and a brilliant new addition to the Yes canon.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about an album release in my life.