Mirror to the Sky- Rating out of 5?

[soundchaser09]

The album has now been out for two weeks- Is it luminous to you? Or is one second enough for your ears?

[Homemade Parachute]

Hmm… I'd say a 3.5, maybe, if we want to get that granular… (and we should always be granular!) There's a lot to like overall, but also some weaknesses or missed opportunities. I think the title track is the clear winner: it has that smack of *ambition* which marks a lot of the best Yes music, with, to my ear, some of the least-not-good lyrics. The bonus material is fine, and better than that on The Quest, but doesn't seem quite fully baked: "Unknown Place" has some fine playing, but hasn't yet made a space in my memory, so I'm not humming it yet, while "One Second" and "Magic" potion are fine, if kind of innocuous — they're not aspiring to much, but they do what they do and are pleasant enough to listen to. It's a clear step up from The Quest and definitely H&E, but I think I like the songs I like on FFY more than the songs I like here, if that makes sense.

The bigger questions, of course: will I play it, and does it make me happy, to which, yes and yes.

[Frumious B]

I would go with 3.5 too. I voted 3 because I just couldn’t see giving it a full 4.

[pjt]

High 3.75 or low 4.25, so 4.
It's really the first since FFH that I just love to listen to with no need to compromise. It was only The Ladder before it, and Talk before that.

[Davy]

3.5 sounds right to me, I rounded up.

[JMKUSA]

I give it a solid 4.

For comparison, I would give TQ a 3, H&E a 2, FFH a 4, Magnification a 3.5, The Ladder a 4, Open Your Eyes a 2, and KTA2 a 3, KTA1 a 2.5, Talk a 3.5, and Union a 2.5.

[Yesed]

As an EP with Luminosity, Circles of Time, Magic Potion and One Second is Enough, it squeaks out and easy 5.5.

[Mr. Holland]

Depends completely to what you compare it with. If it's with the rest of the Yes catalogue, well I gave it 5/10 in the "Rate the Yes albums" thread, which would mean 2.5/5. So I'll round it off to 3/5.

[Gtkgasman]

On a 5 point scale, a yes scale alone, with CTTE being a 5, MTTS is a 1. It falls a the bottom of the scale in comparison with the Yes catalog.

[Yesed]

On a 5 point scale, a yes scale alone, with CTTE being a 5, MTTS is a 1. It falls a the bottom of the scale in comparison with the Yes catalog.

Well yea, probably. But compared to nothing it’s off the charts.

[Gtkgasman]

Well yea, probably. But compared to nothing it’s off the charts.

Haha. Yeah! I don’t know how to do Yes album ratings any other way. No matter the scale, I put CTTE at the top, and the last 3 JD era near the bottom, and go from there. 🤷♂️. I haven’t done that thread yet on rating all the albums, on a 10 scale, guess I should take a crack at it.

i think some folks did it in 3 tiers. I’ll take a look!!

[soundchaser09]

well this is certainly splitting opinion with the majority at a 4! Interesting...

[Mr. Holland]

The average after 24 votes is a 3,25.

[Frumious B]

64% are giving it a 3 or higher. That seems like a fairly solid win. I kind of question the folks who gave it 1s and also the folks who gave it 5s, but they almost perfectly cancel each other out with a 1 vote difference.

[Homemade Parachute]

For me, I think it comes down to MttS being a solid win for any artist, band or solo, in their 55th professional year. It may not shake the world, or move anything out of your own personal top ten, but what could? There was no need to make it, they could keep touring old albums and wouldn’t have sold a single ticket less, so I’m just glad they made it, and it turned out as well as it did.