The second of the two Jon Davison / Steve Howe collaborations on 2014’s Heaven and Earth has a distinctive retro feel. Instead of harkening back to the salad days of the ’70s, however, Yes’ “Step Beyond” is dominated by isolating programmed synthesizers.
Alan White’s drums are more prominent in the mix, but he’s given little to work with thematically. Unlike in Yes’ prior track, “The Game,” Chris Squire’s bass propels “Step Beyond” forward with glimpses of the innovative trebly style found on “The Fish.”
But Geoff Downes offers only patches of piano and organ chords beyond the retro keyboard theme. As with “The Game,” he feels under-produced and underutilized.
The results seem misplaced on Heaven and Earth, which suffers from a general lack of uptempo material. Steve Howe contributes some of his finest fretwork on the album, but it can only do but so much to raise the energy of this Yes song.
Davison’s vocal is once again strong and self-assured, and the lyrics put “Step Beyond” in a good place:
Why such resistance
to reach out from behind our walls?
Elevated pride leads to a fall.
We settle for small, blind identity,
forgetting all that we truly are.
Get up off that shelf.
Make the bold, the brave leap
outside yourself –
beyond
Still, the Billy Sherwood-produced backing vocals are also just too much of a good thing, providing another minus in a track with too much of an ’80s pop feel.
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