Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe CD - Import

2003 JVC K2 24bit digitally remastered edition of the eponymously titled album by the Yes splinter band issued into the Japanese midline.

Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe: Jon Anderson (vocals); Bill Bruford (drums, percussion); Rick Wakeman (keyboards); Steve Howe (guitar).
Additional personnel: Milton McDonald (guitar); Matt Clifford (keyboards); Tony Levin (bass, stick); The Oxford Circus Singers, J.M.C. Singers, Emerald Community Singers.
Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe is better known as four-fifths of Fragile-era Yes. Jon Anderson left the Trevor Rabin version of Yes and joined his old mates for the Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe album in 1989. In the Big Dream: A Video Compilation features three music videos and a live version of the Fragile classic "Heart of the Sunrise" recorded September 9, 1989, at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA. The most interesting part of this video is the behind the scenes and interview footage of ABWH at work and at play in both London and Montserrat. "Brother of Mine" is the best song on the album, but the video is marred by the silly outdoor sequences featuring dancers painted up like a bizarre cross between Native Americans and Kiss. The performance footage features quick edits in which the painted faces of the dancers dissolve into the similarly painted faces of ABWH. (Yikes!) It should be noted that "Brother of Mine" was co-directed by renowned album cover artists Storm Thorgerson (known for his Pink Floyd sleeves) and Roger Dean (known for his sci-fi landscapes gracing Yes and ABWH albums). "Order of the Universe" and "Quartet (I'm Alive)" are the other two standard videos. ABWH required a few backing musicians on their album and tour, in particular a skilled bass guitarist to play Chris Squire's parts on the old stuff; King Crimson and Peter Gabriel veteran Tony Levin played on the album and much of the tour, but Jeff Berlin mans the bass guitar on "Heart of the Sunrise." ~ Bret Adams
File under "Yes." When this version of the band couldn't obtain rights to the name, they put their album out under their combined names, but it's still Yes by any other name. Jon Anderson's tenor wails through spacy lyrics, Rick Wakeman constructs cathedrals of synthesized sound, Steve Howe rips high-pitched guitar leads, and Bill Bruford makes his drums sound like timpani. For all that, it's a pedestrian effort for these veterans, not as bombastic as some of their stuff, not as inspired as others, but it definitely has the "Yes" sound. "She Gives Me Love" even refers to "Long Distance Runaround." ~ William Ruhlmann

Q - 4 Stars - Excellent