You can't listen to the cover.... ;-)
But, yeah, it's bad.
It looks like a home burnt CD from some rapper you'd find at the checkout stand at your local Chevron.
You can't listen to the cover.... ;-)
But, yeah, it's bad.
It looks like a home burnt CD from some rapper you'd find at the checkout stand at your local Chevron.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
I have a similar reaction to the close of Once Upon a Dream. The final four minutes are really something and I find myself transported emotionally in a way I haven't been with Yes music since hearing Awaken for the first time. The energy of Jon and the Band Geeks here remind me of the Going for the One band very much.
I agree about the cover and in my digital library have substituted the cover Roger Dean originally offered Yes for Going for the One that I think ultimately Jon said no to. I think Howe is happy to use a Dean cover for all Yes albums since he and Roger are mates, and I love this approach because I associate a lot of Dean's art with Yes music, but I think at times Anderson wants to move in another direction for the sleeve art. In this case, I read his daughter Deborah came up with the design for him. Having an adult daughter myself that I adore, I understand how it can be hard to say no, especially when they make you art!
I can't choose between the 'bling' font and the Photoshop lens flare effect as my favourite aspect of the cover!
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I bought the signed cd from Talkshop and it arrived about a week ago. Actually the cd booklet isn't signed, but an "art card" is. It's the same art as the cd cover, but it's slightly larger than the actual cd booklet. So it won't fit in the cd case. So it'll have to be stored elsewhere.
Which sucks. Regardless, the music is pretty damn good, so I'll take that.
Where can one find this "cover Roger Dean originally offered Yes for Going for the One..."?
I gotta say, this album is really good. It scratches the Yes-sih itch better than anything Yes released since they parted ways with Jon. I was skeptical, but now I'm sold. I wasn't totally enamoured with them playing the Yes classics live, truth be told. Saw them a couple weeks ago. My mind was impressed, but my heart wasn't. But here, they can be themselves and it rings a lot truer to me. It's great hear to Jon in this muscular, virtostic, epic setting. This is where he sounds best. I enjoyed Yes albums like Fly From Here and Mirror to The Sky, but both have a tinge of old age in the mix. This seems really fresh and vital. The Geeks really have the Yes recipe dialed in. After touring around playing the classics they oughta! Watching some interviews with the Geeks they make it clear how much of this music was created by Jon. He sang a lot of the instrumental bits too. His vision just conjures up the old Yes mojo in ways Steve and Co just can't seem to access. Though they sometimes approach it. This album shows that Yes music can be made outside of Yes, thanks to Jon being in tow. I find this as Yessish as the ABWH album, for example. It's the "solo" album I always hoped Jon would make. It's also the kind of album I wish Yes proper could have made in recent years. So yeah, I'm really enjoying this one. More than I expected. Cover be damned.
Last edited by Sean; 08-29-2024 at 01:45 AM.
Sean, so well said and frankly the same points I have made in smaller bites. I have enjoyed all the Yes releases since Jon left, Fly From Here was my favorite amongst those releases. I wished they had stuck with Benoit and Oliver... but all those follow up LP's are enjoyable... they are all Yes like to me but not quite Yes. Having said that, this LP, had I heard these tracks randomly on an FM station pre internet like all those years ago... I would have stopped in my tracks and thought... oh shit a new Yes track/LP! Just my two cents. I finally got the LP today!
Regarding the art work... I still don't get the bad vibes. I guess I'm just so old school and have seen so many shitty LP covers I just don't understand to venum about this one. His daughter is a successful photographer and she tried to to something artsy with her dad... so maybe she fell short... why the uproar... who cares in the end... shouldn't we celebrate that this about to be 80 year old crooner most of us love is still making great music?
Last edited by rich; 08-29-2024 at 12:28 PM.
I bought the signed version as well and was also disappointed that the CD artwork/liner note version is not signed... it's a separate art card as noted that does not fit in the jewel case??? WTF! First time I have ever had that happen. Talk about lazy... having said that I still love Jon, the Geeks and the LP!... now on the next leg add some proper WEST COAST USA SHOWS!!!!
Two of the most iconic albums of all time have very plain covers. The Beatles' "White Album," and Metallica's "Black Album."
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I'll need to listen more but so far the new album is really good.
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I also really enjoy the album, just got it the cd but had listened digitally before that. Doesn't overstay its welcome; the band and production are great.
Yeah it looks like his daughter Deborah did the artwork according to the credits. I thought she was a professional photographer? Makes him look like a cheesy cabaret singer instead of hinting at the great prog rock contained within. But as someone else said, you don't listen to the cover. I would have thought someone from the label would have said "Really, that's what you're going with?"
No. As has been said, Dean is more friends with Howe and Downes, although he has also done work for Wakeman. Anderson is the one who took Yes away from Dean for Going for the One, and Yes went back to Dean when he left for Drama. Anderson has never used Roger Dean for a solo release, although he used something of a Dean-a-like for Olias.
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Deborah Anderson is a very talented photographer. See her work at https://deborahanderson.com/ She's worked with numerous people, including Pink, Elton John, Sting. She took the cover photo, and the photo is fine.
The problem is going from that photo to the cover, and particularly the fonts! Now, Deborah is also credited with album artwork, so that is all on her. It seems to me an unusual deviation from her usual quality.
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The cover to the album is amateurish. I would rather have some wet looking A.I. fantasy cottage or something.
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I must say it makes me feel great that so many people across the world have condemned this cover art. I don't mean that as a snark, it's really a good thing because typically people say "Who cares about the cover?" Which I and some of my colleagues have seen infect the recording artists themselves. Well, cover art is incredibly important in that it conveys the style of music it represents, aside from being technically well-done or interesting. It effects sales in a positive, or poor way, and shows intent of of the recording artist by how he packages his music. Besides that, I think prog fans in particular appreciate a stellar illustration for an album cover, as its been the tradition since the earliest days of progressive music.
The TRUE booklet is interesting, in that it is filled with very nice full page pictures of Jon, but very poor typography, inc: black text on dark backgrounds and tiny scripted text. Then there's one photo of Jon with the Band Geeks that looks more like a paid after-show meet & greet with Jon Anderson. It probably is. Amazing that labels in general never critique album art that musicians give to them. As long as its has all the legal information, they're good.
I have a Robin Trower live album for which he designed the cover himself. It makes this one look like a da Vinci. At least I got him to autograph it.
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