If you are struggling to comprehend who Yes the band are these days, then fear not. Though links with the band’s past are becoming increasingly tenuous and fragmented, this particular incarnation of a group celebrating nearly 60 years in existence have proceeded to record album number 24. The musical evidence suggests they had a great time doing it, and while it is easy to be scornful on the chequered recent history there is a good deal of fine music to enjoy here.

Applying the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” principle, Steve Howe, Geoff Downes, Jon Davison, Billy Sherwood and Jay Schellen – for they are this year’s Yes – have recorded an album of brightly lit songs, proclaiming the worth of humanity and firmly shutting the door on technological innovations. To strengthen their cause the Czech National Symphony Orchestra appear on two numbers – the title track and Ariadne, whose story has a rich classical tradition.

The most substantial piece, Countermovement, is at the album’s core. It could (perhaps should!) have been called And You And AI, as an update to their 1972 epic, but it works as an effective and at times emotional rebuttal of AI, and the shadow it threatens to cast on everyday life. It also begs the question – who could possibly replicate Yes in AI form? For there is a comfort in knowing the craft of Steve Howe’s eloquent guitar breaks could never be properly reproduced.

Elsewhere there is lots to enjoy, though some tracks suffer from ‘overmusing’, and there are times where 1970s English pastoral references threaten to become too twee. Love Lies Dreaming is an example, but to his credit Jon Davison, the angelic vocalist who continues to sound like a younger Jon Anderson, reins in these moments before they overstay their welcome.

Ariadne is the most intriguing track stylistically, its main triple time subject taking the profile of a 16^th century galliard, proving impossible to dislodge after a few listens. Jambustin’ goes the other way, awkwardly funky but adding a welcome dash of grit, and with a curious vocal reference to an earlier Yes hit when Davison sings, “Don’t kill the whale, she’s not for sale!” The call and response of Turnaround Situation is cut from similar cloth, its oblique beats and bass summoning listeners towards the dancefloor but leaving them unsure on the shapes they should make when they get there.

The band are given free rein to express themselves through a mixture of instinct and improvisation, under the watchful eye of the most senior Yes player, Steve Howe. His is the reassuring hand on the tiller, while the presence of Geoff Downes is another reason to be cheerful, his blend of pop sensibility and freedom of expression finely judged.

On occasion the band could rock out more, and take more risks – save for the hefty keyboard sound added to All Hands On Deck, or the rugged Outside The Box, which has an enjoyable playfulness. But Yes fans should enjoy this for what it is, a celebration of the musical language they have uniquely made their own.

Irrespective of the internal wrangles with the ‘Yes’ name, and the intentions of Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman, this is an enjoyable addition to the lengthiest of rock canons – respectful of its past yet mindful of its future.