Yes - Keys to Ascension
The music of Yes has an almost otherworldy sound that is occasionally  hard to reconcile with the sight of five very ordinary blokes standing on a  stage. As a result, Yes were arguably always better to listen to than watch.Keys to Ascensionattempts to bridge the disparity between the band and  their music with cutaway footage of forests and waterfalls and plenty of Roger  Dean artwork. Sometimes it works; more often it feels contrived, as in "Turn of  the Century," where attention is distracted from Steve Howe's fretwork by a pop  video-style presentation of thePygmalionstory as told by the lyrics.This is the classic Yes lineup of Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick  Wakeman, and Alan White, captured in concert in California in 1996 (the same  concerts spawned no less than two double-CD albums). In a very generous 150  minutes of music making, they give what amounts to a greatest-hits tour of the  classic Yes canon from "Time and a Word" throughThe Yes Album,Fragile,Close to the Edge,Tales from Topographic Oceans,Going for the Once, andTormato. For enthusiasts, it's a treat to  watch Howe swapping from Martin six-string to Gibson semi-acoustic to electric  mandolin to 12-string to pedal steel, sometimes all in the same song; or watch  Chris Squire's apparently effortless bass technique. Occasionally they drift  intoSpinal Tapterritory (Squire's triple neck in "Awaken"!) and overall  there's a polished politeness to proceedings that hints at a band going through  the motions, which is hardly surprising given that the latest material here  dates from 1978.--Mark Walker