Mike Tiano explores how a subsequent update on the title track of Yes’ masterpiece ‘Close to the Edge’ happened – and why it matters.

Jimmy Haslip’s taste runs the gamut, from jazz to rock and even to long-ago pop stars. So getting him to narrow things down was quite a challenge.

Preston Frazier’s Best of 2021 Rock, Pop and R&B also includes Henry Bateman, Toto’s Joseph Williams, Lucas Lee, Dire Straits’ Alan Clark, and others.

This track fits well on an album where Yes attempts to find some sense of purpose in a world beset by climate change and COVID. So why’d they leave it off?

Maybe Yes’ bonus-track Beatles tribute “Mystery Tour” is just inoffensive fluff, but there’s a special place in my heart for this song.

“Sister Sleeping Soul” begins as a rather unwelcome return to the kind of soft rock-prog that doomed Yes’ ‘Heaven and Earth.’ Then something great happens.

The Yes lockdown album bides its time, waiting for just the right moment to discuss the COVID-19 shaped elephant in the room.

With “Music to My Ears,” Yes continues to seesaw between song ideas that clearly sprang from individual members. That leads to an ego-driven mistake.

Ever-more-confident Yes frontman Jon Davison seems to be growing into his role with each passing verse on the solo-written “Future Memories.”

Two different people constructed Yes’ “The Western Edge” from two different ideas while working in two different places. What could go wrong?