Review of 3 Yes-related/inspired projects

[bondegezou]

https://www.sonicperspectives.com/features/sonic-briefs-number-five-2022/

Covering Trip the Witch, the second Arc of Life and the new album from Yesterdays.

[patrickq]

Thank you, Henry.

[TommyTopographic]

Thanks Henry.
Saturn we miss you is a nice lil tune with JA, I'm liking his vocals on this one, tend to think he double tracks his vocals on his home studio recordings to very shrill effect these days but this one is spot on.
'All things considered' by Arc Of Life is not one for me, if that's the single to entice you to get the album then things do not look v promising for that album I'm afraid, I agree with the reviewer, Sherwood needs to be kept away from producing albums, they do indeed always sound the same sonically.

[Ceasar’s Palace]

Thanks!

My views on Arc Of Life:
First album. O no, they’re going for poppy and it’s a disaster! Wish they’d try something more proggy.
Second album. Nope, that’s not working either. Maybe call it a day?

[bondegezou]

My views on Arc Of Life:
First album. O no, they’re going for poppy and it’s a disaster! Wish they’d try something more proggy.
Second album. Nope, that’s not working either. Maybe call it a day?

LOL!

I cannot get over how bad both the Arc of Life albums are.

[JMKUSA]

LOL!

I cannot get over how bad both the Arc of Life albums are.

This is what happens when technology makes it far too easy for someone to record and release every single song they write. Billy has some good songs he’s written in the last decade, but he also has a lot of “meh” songs that all sound the same. I suspect that the second album, much like the first, is primarily a Sherwood solo album with his friends playing on it. Just like the new Word Trade album he did a few years ago. The band name is simply marketing.

[Frumious B]

Just think. If Jon Anderson and Chris Squire had formed a band with Haun, Schellen and Kerzner then that would have been the new Yes.

[Frumious B]

This is what happens when technology makes it far too easy for someone to record and release every single song they write. Billy has some good songs he’s written in the last decade, but he also has a lot of “meh” songs that all sound the same. I suspect that the second album, much like the first, is primarily a Sherwood solo album with his friends playing on it. Just like the new Word Trade album he did a few years ago. The band name is simply marketing.

Releasing everything you write is one thing, but mix things up. Show some musical and sonic diversity. Except for a vocal or instrumental interlude here and there it seems like there is absolutely nothing to differentiate the various Sherwood projects. The songs could easily all be on the same record. Somebody please buy Sherwood an acoustic guitar with zero electronics and maybe a stack of albums by Johnny Cash and various CBGB type bands to maybe flush some of this homogeneity out of his system.

[Enlighten]

Releasing everything you write is one thing, but mix things up. Show some musical and sonic diversity. Except for a vocal or instrumental interlude here and there it seems like there is absolutely nothing to differentiate the various Sherwood projects. The songs could easily all be on the same record. Somebody please buy Sherwood an acoustic guitar with zero electronics and maybe a stack of albums by Johnny Cash and various CBGB type bands to maybe flush some of this homogeneity out of his system.

He’s definitely stuck in a rut of his own creation. The “Sherwood sound” is predictable, uninspiring and certainly not covering any new ground. But hey, the same could be said of Yes. They’re all just slogging along.

[bondegezou]

Releasing everything you write is one thing, but mix things up. Show some musical and sonic diversity. Except for a vocal or instrumental interlude here and there it seems like there is absolutely nothing to differentiate the various Sherwood projects. The songs could easily all be on the same record. Somebody please buy Sherwood an acoustic guitar with zero electronics and maybe a stack of albums by Johnny Cash and various CBGB type bands to maybe flush some of this homogeneity out of his system.

When he's not in control, when he's not producing, I think you hear more variety, as on The Quest or Marcelo Paganini's Identity Crisis. But, yes, indeed, an Arc of Life and a Prog Collective album coming out in the same month merely highlights the absurdity.

[Frumious B]

He’s definitely stuck in a rut of his own creation. The “Sherwood sound” is predictable, uninspiring and certainly not covering any new ground. But hey, the same could be said of Yes. They’re all just slogging along.

The writing is one issue, but I think the later era Yes albums certainly have their own sound and character. Fly From Here, From A Page, Heaven & Earth and The Quest definitely sound like different records to me and they all have different producers involved.