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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but the best material went onto Volume 1, January 15, 2003
In late 1995-early 1996, the classic lineup of Yes -- Anderson, Howe, Squire, Wakeman, White -- recorded an album's worth of material at the Yesworld Studio in San Luis Obispo, California. In March 1996, they recorded three straight nights of concerts played in that city. Each of the two 2-CD volumes of "Keys of Ascension" has included some of the live performances of Yes classics and some of the new studio tracks.I suspect that a Volume 2 wasn't originally planned, because all the best live material went onto Volume 1. The tracks here have some clunker notes, and the performances aren't the sheer revelations that Volume 1 was. "Close to the Edge" and "And You and I" are two of Yes' best songs ever, and if you don't have a recording of them yet your life is sadly incomplete, but the versions here sound a little sluggish compared to those on "Yessongs". On the other hand, "Going for the One" and "Time and a Word" sound better here than on "Yesshows". I'm not a "Time and a Word" fan, but if I was, this version, with a nice Wakeman piano intro, is the one I'd want to listen to. The high point of Volume 2 is "Turn of the Century", a ballad from the "Going for the One" album that tells a "Pygmalion" tale, with fine acoustic work by Howe. The recording quality is much better than was possible on Yes' earlier live albums. The studio tracks aren't of the same high standard. They're pleasant, but none will ever appear on any Yes best-of collection. "Mind Games" is not as good as some of the reviews here would lead you to believe. It might be great at half its 18-minute length, but is too padded to maintain interest for that long. "Foot Prints" and "Bring to the Power" are good but not great tracks. The closer "Sign Language" and the second half of "Children of the Light" are Howe-Wakeman duets -- they're okay, but anyone who's honestly a Yes fan knows that the two could walk into a studio on any day of their lives and record something at least this good. (1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another angry Wakeman!, April 1, 2005
With all honesty, the album is wonderful, and looks wonderful as it's predecessor from 1996. The live tracks here are beautifully performed, in fact the best version of "Time and a Word" in my opinion ever done. Somewhere along the line Rick again was outvoted as he wanted this record to stand on it's own. As a result, Rick left YES again, but this time it didn't matter- as I reviewed in Keys One- this was the Grand Finale' of Yes.
The Engineers toyed with the CD production at some point, and like the other reviewer I was fortunate to get the 1997 version, as I noticed one of the songs was given a hatchet job in the later release, and another a piece added. Nonetheless, the album is a full blown YES effort, despite "Mind Drive" from the studio being in it's 18 minutes somewhat dull- it has some amazing musical moments.
Keys to Ascension One and Two, aptly titled and packaged, are YES at the end of their career. Although I forced myself to buy "The Ladder..." it was like a replay of the 80's.
YES has given us masterworks of musical art. My story of YES ends here. But the collection of remasters and memories carry on. "High the memory."
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Ascension, part 2, March 18, 2008
I have yet to listen to KTA, volume 1, so I can't comment there. The track listing does look good on that one. However, I have KTA volume 2. The first cd is a live show from San Luis Obispo. The live performance is very well done, very polished. The song choice is also excellent, in fact, I bought KTA2 first because of the live version of "Close to The Edge", which they nail. My only complaint on this cd is on "And You And I", the Eclipse part, instead of Wakeman doing the solo, they had Steve Howe do it. This diminished the power of that particular piece of music in my mind.
The second cd is studio recordings, the best by far which is "Mind Drive". This song pretty much has to carry the rest of the tracks though, as while they are good, they aren't nearly what we'd like to hear from a band like Yes, and they pale in comparison to their best works.
So, that said, I have to give this double cd 4 stars.
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