Here's another record I bought within a few weeks of yesterday's Hawks and Doves — pretty much on its release, in fact.
I listened yesterday on Spotify, which throws the allmusic review of the album at you, willy-nilly:
It is definitely the culmination of their work together, their most ambitious effort. The shorter cuts on the album all have their moments and surely hold up to anything from the previous releases, but Horizon stands far above them all. It combines the best elements of Anderson's work in Yes with the electronically classically tinged stylings of Vangelis to produce a work that is near masterpiece in its quality. It is a life-affirming, positive piece.
It's hard to disagree with the last sentence, but it hardly makes this unique among Jon Anderson's works. In 1983 I was hoping the rest might be true, but I've never felt it was.
He is Sailing is a great song, but it's fundamentally a failed attempt to emulate State of Independence from the wonderful Friends of Mr Cairo. Polonaise is good, but suffers by comparison with FoMC's Outside of This. As for Horizon, it's shape is identical to the title track of FoMC (1981) and of Animation (1982), so it's there's a strong sense of re-tread about it, made worse by the fact that it's twice as long as either of its more successful progenitors. It's a classic case of where the standard criticisms aimed at Jon — of overblown, misty-eyed portentousness — seem entirely warranted. It doesn't help that, for whatever reason, they've multitracked his vocal, as if they felt it was lacking in conviction.
MusicBrainz entry for this album
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