Yes – ‘Aurora’ album review: Inside the Box, rather than out of it
The new album from Yes – their 24th, and third in the last five years – comes complete with everything you’d expect from the ageing prog-rockers, but not much more.
The Skinny: Aurora is stunningly mixed and mastered, is full of technically proficient and relatively economic singing and playing, a sense of brevity which has not always been a hallmark of the genre (well, for the most part anyway, though at almost 14 minutes, ‘Countermovement’ almost immediately outstays it’s welcome and then continues on from there), and a generally pleasant if not actually exciting cohesiveness.
But when the first thing that you feel like remarking on about a new album is the mix or the mastering, it’s hardly inspiring, is it? Phrases like “technically proficient”, “relatively economic” and “generally pleasant” are not really the sorts of things that are going to make you want to run out and buy a new album, are they? They’re probably not even going to make you want to open your Qobuz app and search out the release.
For a band who have been operating in the progressive-rock genre for such a long time, it’s hard to hear how much their sound has progressed over the years. Yes have been around, in various lineups, for what feels like forever. Incidentally, that’s also how long most prog rock songs feel like they last.
Aurora is the sound of a band who have patently not moved on while the rest of the world has progressed around them, and has begun to lap them around the field. There’s a song on this record called ‘Outside the Box’, but everything about the album feels the opposite of that sentiment very much.
It’s hard to imagine who this release might be for, really. Surely it’s not going to displace (or even join) the other albums from even the most hardcore Yes fans’ list of favourites, as much as it surely won’t win them any new ones (although, I would be interested in talking to a person who hears this and then feels the urge to seek out more of it, if you’re out there). It’s not going to sell more tickets to the YES Epics, Classics & More tour, and it’s not going to change the minds of anybody who thinks that prog-rock is anything more than a self-serious self-indulgence.
Similarly, it’s hard to imagine what mood you’d need to be in or which occasion you’d be trying to soundtrack for you to want to reach for this album. It doesn’t command or demand your attention enough for you to put it on just for the sake of putting it on, and it’s not going to energise or motivate you to get on with anything particularly while you listen, and it’s also a little too involved and spasmodic for you to pop it on as background music. The closest thing I can think of is that it might make a good driving album, but why would you bring this along in the car and not something better?
As an album, it’s totally fine. It sounds alright. The playing is good, and sometimes even better than that; the singing is a little bit too clean and could do with a bit more vitality, but it’s not offensive. But don’t we all want to aim a little higher than that? Fine. Alright. Good. Not offensive. Again, these are not words to inspire excitement, but what more could we want from music than to be inspired and excited?
Standout Track: ‘Aurora’
The Verdict: Not that they would, but if anybody asks you, “Hey, would you like to hear the new album Aurora by Yes?”, you can confidently tell them, “No, not really”, without missing out on anything special.
Release Date June 12th, 2026 | Producer Steve Howe | Label InsideOut
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