Dragonfly
02-13-2005, 08:59 PM
New State of Mind seriously ROCKS!
O.K. It’s been a while. I heard it again while sitting at the computer (reading all of your wonderful comments) playing through an old set list titled “Singalongs”. Yeah, New State of Mind probably isn’t the first song that comes to your mind when you think of songs you like to sing along with. Its set list companions include several gems from King Crimson(’s 80’s period), a Beatles tune and a few others. What makes these “sing-alongs” in my book is that I enjoy creating vocal harmonies along side the band’s; adding more layers. KCrimson’s easy because it’s usually just Adrian up front with Tony on back up. When there’s only two, a third is usually quite easy (and satisfying!). Today’s rather large gem, the lead-in track on OPEN YOUR EYES, is more of a challenge.
The thing I like best about the Billy Days of Yes are his vocal harmony contributions. Sherwood’s vocals fit nicely with the rest of the lineup. He even gave Chris a break, live, on a few songs where he’d sing Chris’s original, higher harmonies allowing Chris to relax on other lower notes. New State of Mind has very tight chords throughout. On a strictly compositional note (as I don’t want this thread to go the way of all of the mix-bashing remarks this album has endured), Billy and Chris wrote some tight vocal blocks. Cool ones! My “find” came when I discovered that, amongst all of the voices on, “a new perspective. A new state of mind….”, there was a minor seventh missing. (I heard it in the instrumentation, but not in the vocals.) There you go! Perfect opportunity for a sing-along. Not only do I add more fat to the recipie, but it’s a bit of a puzzle to do, making it more of a game. It’s one thing to find a minor seventh in a single chord, but when that chord goes wandering, “mi-i-i-ind”, it can be a tricky. Fun!
Anyway, it was nice to hear again. This album is very “crunchy” in the Heavy Metal sense. Rock on , Yes!
Dragonfly :fly:
O.K. It’s been a while. I heard it again while sitting at the computer (reading all of your wonderful comments) playing through an old set list titled “Singalongs”. Yeah, New State of Mind probably isn’t the first song that comes to your mind when you think of songs you like to sing along with. Its set list companions include several gems from King Crimson(’s 80’s period), a Beatles tune and a few others. What makes these “sing-alongs” in my book is that I enjoy creating vocal harmonies along side the band’s; adding more layers. KCrimson’s easy because it’s usually just Adrian up front with Tony on back up. When there’s only two, a third is usually quite easy (and satisfying!). Today’s rather large gem, the lead-in track on OPEN YOUR EYES, is more of a challenge.
The thing I like best about the Billy Days of Yes are his vocal harmony contributions. Sherwood’s vocals fit nicely with the rest of the lineup. He even gave Chris a break, live, on a few songs where he’d sing Chris’s original, higher harmonies allowing Chris to relax on other lower notes. New State of Mind has very tight chords throughout. On a strictly compositional note (as I don’t want this thread to go the way of all of the mix-bashing remarks this album has endured), Billy and Chris wrote some tight vocal blocks. Cool ones! My “find” came when I discovered that, amongst all of the voices on, “a new perspective. A new state of mind….”, there was a minor seventh missing. (I heard it in the instrumentation, but not in the vocals.) There you go! Perfect opportunity for a sing-along. Not only do I add more fat to the recipie, but it’s a bit of a puzzle to do, making it more of a game. It’s one thing to find a minor seventh in a single chord, but when that chord goes wandering, “mi-i-i-ind”, it can be a tricky. Fun!
Anyway, it was nice to hear again. This album is very “crunchy” in the Heavy Metal sense. Rock on , Yes!
Dragonfly :fly: