'' is the self-titled album by four alumni of the
Progressive Rock group
Yes ,
Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe .
The project began in 1988 when Yes was in its 1980s line-up featuring
Trevor Rabin . At that time vocalist
Jon Anderson began to feel artistically limited in the band's current format. He then left to regroup with
Steve Howe ,
Rick Wakeman and
Bill Bruford of Yes’ "classic" line-up. Bruford, who had at various times been a member of
King Crimson , recruited Crimson bandmate
Tony Levin as the group's bassist. The group originally intended to use the name Yes but after a brief legal dispute, it was decided that
Chris Squire , as the only permanent member of the band, held exclusive rights to its name.
The group rehearsed and composed their material in
Paris and then flew directly to the island of
Montserrat to record. Many of the tracks on the album (specifically "Teakbois") carry Latin and Caribbean influences. "Let's Pretend" was co-composed by
Vangelis in 1986, and was a previously unreleased piece by the group
Jon & Vangelis .
The artwork for the album was created by artist
Roger Dean , best known for designing album covers for Yes in the 1970s. It features two paintings, the front titled "Blue Desert" and the back titled "Red Desert". These are the two largest paintings ever painted by Roger Dean, both measuring 9’ x 6’. Most releases of this album represent only a truncated version of "Blue Desert". There was, however, a special release with a gatefold cover, though "Blue Desert" was horizontally inverted in that version.
The album was one of the first original recordings to take advantage of the extended time limit on
Compact Disc s clocking at almost 60 minutes. Until then, only compilations or double albums on single discs utilized the extra time space.
#"Themes" – 5:58
##"Sound"
##"Second Attention"
##"Soul Warrior"
#"Fist of Fire" – 3:27
#"Brother of Mine" – 10:18
##"The Big Dream"
##"Nothing can Come Between Us"
##"Long Lost Brother of Mine"
#"Birthright" – 6:02
#"The Meeting" – 4:21
#"Quartet" – 9:22
##"I Wanna Learn"
##"She Gives Me Love"
##"Who Was the First"
##"I’m Alive"
#"Teakbois" – 7:39
#"Order of the Universe" – 9:02
##"Order Theme"
##"Rock Gives Courage"
##"It’s So Hard to Grow"
##"The Universe"
#"Let’s Pretend" – 2:56
with
- Tony Levin - bass, Chapman Stick , vocals
- Matt Clifford - keyboards, programming, orchestration, vocals
- Milton McDonald - rhythm guitar
- Deborah Anderson - backing vocals
- Tessa Niles - backing vocals
- Carol Kenyon - backing vocals
- Frank Dunnery - backing vocals
- Chris Kimsey - backing vocals
- Emerald Community Singers, Montserrat - backing vocals
- Rhett Lawrence - co-writer, "Rock Gives Courage"
:Produced by Jon Anderson and Chris Kimsey
