Open Your Eyes (Yes album)

Untitled

Open Your Eyes is the fifteenth album by progressive rock band Yes and was released in 1997. The follow-up to the twin projects Keys to Ascension and Keys to Ascension 2, Open Your Eyes marked Billy Sherwood becoming an official member of Yes, following Rick Wakeman's departure.

Initially begun as a collaboration between bassist Chris Squire and Sherwood, vocalist Jon Anderson was impressed by some of the early material and was eager to sing on it. Sherwood, Squire, Anderson and White worked on the songs, with Steve Howe involved at the end. However, the end result did not satisfy some of the band members.

Both Anderson and Howe claim that the album was too rushed to incorporate their ideas and suffered as a result. Indeed, Open Your Eyes was received with mixed reaction from both critics and fans upon its November 1997 release, some finding it lacking in trademark Yes qualities, while some still praise the album for its upbeat nature. Nonetheless, Open Your Eyes - the cover of which referenced the band's 1969 debut - was a commercial flop, only reaching #151 in the US while missing the UK charts completely.

Although not officially credited as a member of the band, new recruit Igor Khoroshev -would be featured much more prominently on 1999's The Ladder -as he contributed keyboards to a few of the album's tracks.

Track listing

All songs by Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Billy Sherwood, Chris Squire and Alan White.

1. "New State of Mind" – 6:00
2. "Open Your Eyes" – 5:14
3. "Universal Garden" – 6:17
4. "No Way We Can Lose" – 4:56
5. "Fortune Seller" – 5:00
6. "Man in the Moon" – 4:41
7. "Wonderlove" – 6:06
8. "From the Balcony" – 2:43
9. "Love Shine" – 4:38
10. "Somehow, Someday" – 4:47
11. "The Solution" – 23:47

Chart Success

Open Your Eyes (Eagle EAGCD013) reached #151 in the US during a chart stay of 1 week.

Notes

• The song "Somehow, Someday" incorporates the main melody from Jon Anderson's song "Boundaries" on his Animation album.
• The song "The Solution" itself is actually 5:26 long, and is followed - after a two minute break - by 16:21 of nature sounds containing excerpted vocals from all the album's songs

Personnel

Yes

• Jon Anderson - vocals
• Chris Squire - bass, vocals
• Steve Howe - lead guitars, vocals
• Billy Sherwood - keyboards, guitar, vocals
• Alan White - drums

Additional Personnel

• Igor Khoroshev - keyboards on tracks 1, 4 & 5
• Steve Porcaro - keyboards on track 2

Sources

• AllMusicGuide.com
• "Top Pop Albums 1955-2001", Joel Whitburn, c. 2002