The title track comes next, and it’s the longest song they’ve written since “Mind Drive” and “That, That Is” in the mid-90s.

And Bassist Billy Sherwood was a longtime friend of Squire’s who has collaborated with the band since the mid-90s.The band had boldly proclaimed themselves masters of the album craft, and I could by no means oppose such a statement, as 'Mirror to the Sky' is a well-written, finely composed and recorded album, working pretty well as one, too. Howe said the track is the most different of all the album's tracks in terms of guitar styles, using an analogue pedal board that had an automatic double wah-wah effect.

It's not completely the Yes of the past, but there are still some spiritual connections with some eras of the band.The closing minute reminds me a bit too much of the “Soon” section of “The Gates of Delirium”, but it’s fine. There’s a Morse-code like pattern that crops up around the song’s midpoint, and it’s a nice complement to this album’s repeated themes of outer space. That’s really the worst I can say about Mirror to the Sky, because this album in fact sounds amazing—I just found myself imagining what these songs would sound like live, because that is the Yes that I know and love. s, and thus at time hedged in the direction of "sing-song-y" on the last two albums as well as on tour. they would not be able to reach even that so when they surpassed it I must admit to being quite surprised.

During instrumental passages, I was silently thrilled to read in the liner notes about exactly which guitars Steve Howe used on each track! Its initial title was "Luminous", but it was subsequently changed after Howe, Davison, and Sherwood expanded on the initial arrangement that they had worked out and made it what Howe described as "a bigger tune".He praised the well constructed arrangements and some "epic" lyrics in the title track and "Luminosity". Everything we love about their music is here - long suites, shorter acoustic pieces, the usual harmonies and Jon Davison’s vocals eerily close to Jon Anderson’s while retaining his own style, slightly deeper in register than Anderson’s but just as compelling.

Circles of Time" originated from a musical idea of Davison's that Howe insisted to put on the album. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.An early title to "Magic Potion" was "It's a Good Day to Be Had by All", but Howe changed it as it sounded too similar to "It Will Be a Good Day" from The Ladder (1999). A major update arrived in the March 2023 edition of Prog magazine, which featured an interview with Howe who spoke about the album. The last three minutes have some neat ideas that contrast grand-sounding organ with gentler acoustic guitar passages.