Keystudio
All the songs onKeys to the Studio Ascensionoriginally appeared as added studio tracks on the live albumsKeys to the Ascension. Here they're gathered on one disc for the first time. When punk spat in the face of prog-rock in 1977, the response from genre aristocrats Yes was to calmly wipe away the phlegm from their capes and install themselves at the top of the album charts withGoing for the One. Fortunately, when the lineup responsible for that fashion-defying aural concoction (Jon Anderson,Chris Squire,Steve Howe, Alan White, andRick Wakeman) eventually reconvened under the Yes banner in San Luis Obispo, California, in 1996, the chances of being accosted by sneering punks had vanished, as had any chances of having No. 1 records. Thus, free from ridicule and persecution, the quintet was at liberty to pursue their own imperious path into the land of fragile topographical themes. And do you know what? It could've been 1973 all over again, with the 19-minute "That, That Is" and the throbbing 18-minute "Mind Drive" making this just the record for fans who cried themselves to sleep under their Roger Dean quilt upon hearing that news about theBuggles.--Kevin Maidment