Jon Anderson - In the City of Angels

Jon Anderson

In The City of Angels
1988 Columbia/CBS

Now imagine the androgynous angelic vocals of spaced out Yes frontman Jon Anderson, and the pop mechanics of LA studio monkeys Toto. Together.

No really.

Now before you start bleeding from both ears, let me explain that this odd pairing actually happened. In 1988. We know only in the late 80s could such a bizarre combination occur. Never mind that Jon Anderson had just left Yes again because of its too commercial direction (when really it was more likely because Trevor Rabin was a better Napoleonic figure than Anderson, which may have bugged the shorter of two imps). Funny, since this album is much more commerical.

I have to admit I actually liked half of this album at its release. Having not listened to it in at least a dozen years, rexamining it I find I a few observations can be stated:

There are no tracks that truly are memorable as they stand.

There is at least two tracks that sound like carribbean-prog fallout similar to the Teakbois cut from the Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe album: New Civilization and Sundancing (For the Hopi/Navajo Energy).

And that brings me to observation number 3. The song titles are often deeply, stupid, even by Anderson standards. The aforementions Sundancing subtitle, there is also If itWasn't For Love (Oneness Family), Hurry Home (Song From the Pleaides), Top of the World (The Glass Bead Game), and, get ready for this.......Betcha. Talk about covering the range of bad (and overuse of parenthesis).

Half of this album musically would make for a decent AOR-style EP by Toto. meaning they would have to rewrite the lyrics to be simple pop fluff, as opposed to Anderson's inscrutible acid-coated gooberisms, and then sing them in a normal human register. David Paich or Steve Lukather could easily pick up the slack. I will give the Toto guys credit for doing what they do well, but talk about a weird gig. And Toto are not fully responsible, as the worse backing tracks are usually populated by even more faceless LA studio hacks like Dann Huff and Michael Landau.

The other half of this album should be killed and buried. We are talking some of Anderson's worst tracks (which of course admits that he has in fact done worse, but not by much). Hold on To Love is Vegas buffet show schlock, only in a rather screwed up tenor/alto (what the hell is Anderson's range technically anyway?), as is In a Lifetime. Bad. So much badness.

Betcha and Is It me were co-written with Mariah Carey collaborator Rhett Lawrence. Imagine how horrid that is.

In a Lifetime and Hold On To Love were co-written with Motown maven Lamont Dozier. I have no idea how such a pairing occurred. My guess is they paid Dozier handsomely and somehow he forgot to ask to be taken out of the credits.

Bad Jon. No more peyote and Steve Perry records for for you.