Steve Howe – Beginnings

I bought this when it came out. One of the WORST albums ever created. (As a Yes Fan) Avoid this DIRE album at all costs! He cannot sing and you will cringe at the insipid lyrics.. UTTER GARBAGE LP. Anyone liking this garbage doesn't appreciate any liking for music in any way. There is NO EXCUSE for this DIRE shit. He is a great guitarist, but someone needed to tell him he cannot sing worth a DAMN!! Can I get a refund on this AWFUL mess? £5 of my pocket money wasted on this garbage? He should be ashamed for releasing this, but he seems to be so up his own arse that this garbage is 'ART' AWFUL GARBAGE!!!! The free sticker in the album didn't compensate for the awful vocals....

I picked this album up last year and was pleasantly surprised at how much I like it, since I had heard so much naysaying about the vocal performance. As far as the music is concerned, this album has a lot of variety and excellent compositions, which is good because the vocals certainly do detract from the songs to an extent. I find this to be the case more in the ages of solo singing rather than the harmonized ages, but I can understand why this is a turn-off for a lot of listeners. With that being said, his voice is just about as bad as any "twee" band from the 90s with a lame singer (cf. BMX Bandits), definitely better than the Shaggs (which isn't saying much), and leaps and bounds better than Bob Dylan, whose voice and singing style are so awful that I can't listen to any of his recordings. This does beg the question, why didn't Mr. Howe simply find someone else to sing the lyrics? Perhaps we will never know.

A stunning guitarist and musician hope someone broke it gently, he can’t sing for shit, still a enjoyable listen

Unlike the other reviewer, I really like Steve's voice on this album (although they aren't perfect) The highlight for me is "Australia". As always with Howe, the guitar work is simply masterful. Along with White's drumming and Moraz's piano on some songs, some of them really seem (to me, at least) like decent Yes songs. This comes second to Chris Squire's "Fish Out Of Water" in my rankings of the Yes solo albums of the time. I would recommend this whole-heartedly.

Steve's voice is frighteningly bad on this release despite attempts to clean it up in the studio. But I have had this record for so long and listened to it so many times I don't even hear his voice anymore. The music is as frighteningly excellent as Steve's voice is bad. All excellent songs produced and arranged with deft expertise. Recommended especially for Yes completists.

Edit: 11/13/23 As I read thru my previous comment, I realized I'm being way too hard on Steve. Like dctodd99 above, I do rather like Steve's voice here. It fits the songs perfectly. I could have easily deleted my original comments, but I can it to being unfair and unjustly critical. I love Steve Howe and always have. Not only is he amazing guitarist, but a genuinely kind hearted person. So Steve, I'm sorry.