Yes – Aurora

What does it sound like?:

Short answer. Yes. No. Different.

The Yes
First of all, I liked Yes as a teenager, and lived through the Drama wars. A lot of my exposure was through osmosis from friends with older brothers, but I got into it all until they were usurped by King Crimson’s Belew period. I have returned periodically to their work over the years, and seen them live in many incarnations, but it’s probably fair to say that the magic was mostly not present. I had a listen to Mirror to the Sky when it came out, for a laugh to be honest. However I liked it – and listened to it a lot. I think they gave up pretending to be Yes, and just got on with being Yes and doing their own thing. An alternative reality Yes. Now comes the second album without White or Squire – and it seems to have come with raised expectations and positive noises from the camp. The two pre-released tracks so far have been catchy as hell, but impossible to pin down. So I was happy when Bargey offered the chance to review it.

I have not done the ’six listens’ thing. I just want to give you a straight reading on how this made me feel, written while listening to each track in turn. It’s fair to say that this was quite a trip, and it manages to be at least the equal of Mirror to the Sky, whilst not being a carbon copy.

Track one, Aurora, opens with a Buggles-ish piano flourish from the unfairly maligned Geoff Downes, with strings who I imagine are provided by the same team as the last couple of albums. The strings really work. Then we are down to business with 12 string guitar and Squire-like bass, but maybe more studied musicality (voice leading, perhaps…?). Jon Davidson provides lyrics of a mystical nature, apparently from the same source as the inspiration for ‘Topo’! There are some shiny synths and organ. But what’s happening? It’s got complex rhythms and jumps around a lot – Jay Schellen is on drums – but, it’s somehow as catchy as anything they ever did?!? It’s got a folksy/psychedelic vibe too. Steve Howe is producer of all tracks and gives us a fair tour of his styles right from the start of this one. Great opening. Very, very confident. It’s glorious!

Production note: Steve Howe should always have been doing this! He took it on from the last couple of albums, and managed to find a way where the band can work remotely but still work in perfect sync. Respect for that. He has de-modernised the band, in terms of taking away all the commercial pressure to conform to the latest sound.

Track two, Turnaround Situation. What’s going on here then? Another song that is somehow incredibly catchy whilst still being prog. I almost feel like Howe is nodding towards his old band, The Tomorrow, at times. The backing vocals and acoustic guitar (perhaps a mandola?) make this another folky vibe. Then we get pedal steel. I’ve noticed so far that the drums swing well, and you can hear the impact of each drum hit. No idea what Jon D is singing about, unless it’s about escaping the current political turmoil…? Howe solos on a nylon string guitar. Blimey, he’s good. Keyboards are once again quite shiny, but also stick to sounds that could have been around years ago albeit with subtle touches of sampled vocals. Billy Sherwood, the bassist/b-vox, and I suspect the lynchpin of the band, brings a bit more of his own vibe to this one.

Track three, Love Lies Dreaming… starts with sampled pipes, organ, acoustic guitars again… but a bit more downbeat than what we have heard so far. Howe, Downes and Sherwood have quite a complex set of arranged parts going on here. Nice to hear Moog on every track so far. Once again we have a complex set of time changes but with a very melodic vocal over it. It’s again quite folk-rock. This track is a bit more lightweight at first listen, but it has a quality to it that I suspect will grow on me. I think that’s two songs in a row with minimal electric guitar for large parts of the song until near the end (acoustic mastery from Howe though…)

Track four, Countermovement. This starts with a sort of folk rock vibe, and I think it’s becoming clear that this lineup has found its sound. This sounds very like the superb longer tracks on Mirror to the Sky. Electric lead at the fore. This is going to be a long track I think. I will report back in a few minutes. (Time passes) Well Steve Howe starts off on lead vocals, and that was a shock. But it works. Davidson provides support. The song is about ‘not keeping up with these maddening times’ – haha, that’s clear, this is like a new-old band that occupies that space that Yes would have done. And that’s good enough. Howe mentioned jazz and blues in the lyrics, and then his Portuguese guitar came in, with some tuned percussion, and yet more folky harmonies. The song takes twists and turns, and Howe gets to show his instrumental range. I think Sherwood takes a few lines, and Davidson comes back to lead with some thoughts on AI and I suppose another pushback on the current state of the world. The keyboard playing throughout is also first-class, a lot of Yes fans hate Geoff Downes because he’s not Rick Wakeman. He wiggles the Moog with the best of them. This track had some more modern synth sounds too.

Thus far, I’ve noticed a few Easter eggs in the lyrics, mentioning older Yes albums.

Track five is Ariadne, and this starts with a full orchestra. Once again: folk rock vibes from the off. This is about challenging a ‘mad king’s tyranny’ but it’s not set in the modern day, honest. I wonder what point he’s trying to make here, eh..? Anyway it’s back to the prog for a bit, sounding very much like the last album. The strings are huge sounding here, I think that’s Paul Joyce and the Macedonian orchestra from the last album. The song here though is like nothing I have heard before. It is bonkers. Everything going on in short notice. It’s as if they have decided to just get their heads down and get on with being out-and-out prog sea shanty political observers. This is the best track so far.

Track six, All Hands on Deck. Heavy guitar and organ! Keeping up the musical variety. More nautical stuff, and more references (sideways) to the madness of the world. Steve Howe is quite heavily featured on vocals. Davidson gets to sing in a lower register. I can’t quite put my finger on what this one is reminding me of, and it passed very quickly. A bit slight? Seems like one of the b-side songs that we got on the last two albums.

Track seven, Outside the Box. Folky vocalisations and acoustic instruments introduce this one, but again it takes a turn into heavier instrumentation. I don’t think that a wordless vocal harmony piece was on my bingo card but I really liked that they would do something completely unexpected. Feels like the introduction to another piece that we don’t get to hear?

Track eight, Emotional Intelligence. Feels like a Jon Davidson song done by the band, and I’d bet that’s him on the acoustic. Howe is on pedal steel and this is shaping up to be a beautiful piece. Once again this reveals his preoccupation with the damage done by AI to real human interaction.

Track nine, Jambustin’ – what sort of a title is this? Duane Eddy twanging guitar. Lyrics about fighting back against the zeitgeist once again. Completely unexpected and not really like anything else I can think of. Even a bit funky, by the least funky band ever. Ah! Don’t Kill The Whale gets mentioned here. I probably missed loads of references on other songs. I have never heard of this phrase, maybe it’s a think out there. The music is really oddly twisting… and a catchy one.

Track ten, Watching the River Roll – I think Billy Sherwood is the main singer to start with? Jon comes in to back him up. Howe plays some snaky guitar parts and Downes puts some interesting chords behind it with more modern sounds than much of the album. Howe seems to like the modulated tremolo sound, it’s used a lot on the album. If this is one of the bonus tracks, it shouldn’t be – I’d swap this with the two lesser tracks (6 & 7) for this one.

What does it all *mean*?

What does anything mean? Yes are not Yes. But they are, Yes.

It’s good, and it’s packed with hooks and musical interest. I doubt anyone who never bothered with Yes would bother with this, but don’t write it off if you are a fan of old who got lost in the aforementioned Drama wars/The Battle of Trevor Horn’s Fairlight. This will get a lot of listens here.

(Note: I only heard a low bitrate MP3 of the album, but it still sounded great. The Atmos mixes of the first two songs are already up on streaming and they sound celestial, as they should.)

Goes well with…

Mirror to the Sky

Release Date:

June 12th 2026

Might suit people who like…

Music with a folky prog bent. Plus, of course, fans of some of the other Yeses.

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