Music Arcades: Jon Anderson: Animation

Now I've been big enough to admit that Jon Anderson has released some absolute stinkers (1, 2 — jeez, that latter one is now going for £260 on Amazon!). So please hear me out as I advance the minority-view theory that old Jon had a golden period between 1978 and 1982, taking in the last Yes album, the first two Jon & Vangelis albums, his second solo album, and this one.

I think there are some very good songs on this album. I haven't got a clue what many of the lyrics are about — when I was 16 I assumed Jon did know, but increasingly I'm sure he doesn't — and some of the musical touches, like the snatch of gamelan music at the end of Unlearning, are tokenist and/or pretentious. But if you treat the singing as just musical phonemes, like Brian Eno's early vocal albums, you will find great melodies, well arranged. And beautifully performed and produced! Absolutely brilliant playing throughout: the drumming at the start of Much Better Reason is a special favourite.

A few of the lyrics do make sense. I've already mentioned Surrender, the meaning of which is gormlessly transparent. It's kind of quaint, but also telling, to hear the prophecies of ubiquitous digital media in Olympia. The album's centrepiece is the title track, and it follows the same pattern as the title track of the previous year's The Friends of Mr Cairo: the first half is busy; the second slower and more intimate. The song is a reflection — often going off at tangents, as is his wont — on Jon's desire to be present at the birth of one of his children (probably Jade Genevieve, his third). "I'll tell you there is nothing in life to touch the birth of a child," he sings. Well we had the midwife round last Saturday, and if all goes smoothly up to the birth, it'll be in a pool in the living room. And I'll be there. My role is to "be calm". Probably not the most challenging of the tasks to be handed out on that day, but am I up to it?