----------------------------------------------------- MAY 20, 1998 ----------------------------------------------------- Source: Kuno http://kuno.senserdesign.com/shnews.php?id=20 Jon Anderson, The More You Know By Sven Kardelke There was a time, when you could say for sure that a Jon Anderson album contains sounds of singing birds and talking whales in combination with some nice vocal-guitar arrangement. THE MORE YOU KNOW really is different. Possibly the first solo effort of the YES vocalist ever without the slightest hint of his notorious New Age approach. Whereas his solo albums before sounded rather natural, drum boxes and keyboards dominate on THE MORE YOU KNOW, leaving hardly any space for any other instruments like guitar or bass. The record itself suffers a lot from this, as there are no surprises or changes throughout the whole album, just some variations. The first song, "Magic Love," with its (sampled) horn section apparently has some Phil Collins feel about it. And "Free (Some Would Say)" comes along as a mid-tempo swing tune. Together with his wife Jane, Anderson only performs as a singer on this production. He also signed responsible for producing, writing lyrics and "melodies." But the sheer load of instrumental work was all done and written by Francis and Bobby Jocky, who are completely unknown to me -- and after listening to THE MORE YOU KNOW hopefully will be. No instrumental skills, no experiments. In fact, most arrangements on this record remind one of the demo songs of a Casio keyboard. However, Anderson's voice is beautiful as ever, but -- to be honest -- none of his solo efforts could reach the quality of the group's work -- neither artistically, nor commercially. So why should THE MORE YOU KNOW do so? Although it really is different... Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, problems, corrections, or additions, contact YesinthePress@aol.com