A charity single recorded in that most of modern of ways, over the internet, “Family Circle” finds Jon Anderson adding a sweetly hopeful vocal over a spacious, quietly inspirational music bed created by Matt Malley of Counting Crows fame.
The web has been a principal collaborative impetus in the years since Anderson split with Yes, a wireless form of connection that’s allowed him to simultaneously stay home while broadly widening his creative perspective in the shortest of time spans. He recorded the terrific 2011 solo effort Survival and Other Stories in much the same way, and similarly never met many of the people who shared co-writing credits throughout that project.
In no small way, it seems to have reinvigorated Jon Anderson, who sings now with a clarity, force and confidence that was sometimes missing in his final years with Yes. The utterly enchanting “Family Circle,” proceeds from which go to the Flutie Foundation, Sahaja Yoga Meditation and the National Autistic Society, also echoes Anderson’s more recent narrative focus on love and acceptance — rather than the spacial excursions of old.
He’s clearly come to appreciate, after leaving behind his former band’s frenetic road life in 2008, the simpler things, the more personal things, the things closest to our hearts. And that, in the end, is what makes “Family Circle” such a warm and welcome listening experience. Malley, by the way, is something of a kindred spirit — having left his own band as a co-founding bassist in 2004 to focus on family. Together, they make the case for their newfound emphasis on pursuing domestic bliss, one gorgeous note and one gorgeous lyric at a time.
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