Legendary prog-rock keyboard icon Tony Kaye was a founding member of the YES group. Having not heard too much on the new music / CD front from Tony, aside from all the great reissues of YES, Flash and his group Badger, Tony is back in 2021 with a new solo album of pensive, proggy keyboard-based instrumentals called End Of Innocence. Deeply moved by the events of 9/11, Tony relives the torment and tragedy of that day on the 16-track End Of Innocence. Of course, it’s 20 years later and even though we did go through the second decade anniversary, the album is still worth hearing if just to witness Tony’s still colorful musical imagination. The CD artwork is harrowing to behold, filled with hell-fire images of death and destruction. The album design is decked out in Roger Dean artwork, while the CD booklet is filled with quotes from Bush 2, Obama, John Kerry, with other pertinent information by others like Dalai Lama, Deepak Chopra et al, along with written notation of other crazy events of that day in infamy, including transcripts and writing detailing the hijackings, to the death and destruction that followed.

Musically, the album is very keyboard heavy and overall it’s a good showcase for Tony’s musical expertise. Written and performed mostly by Tony on his vast assortment of keyboards, the sound is excellent and if you can get past the chronology, events and circumstances involved you might just find the 16-track, all-instrumental CD to be a well-done type of contemporary New Age soundtrack, albeit one with a somewhat slightly depressing twist. Interestingly, End Of Innocence also pays tribute to the Gary Sinise Foundation. 9/11 remains a tragic turning point in American history and, even though some of us, especially the native New Yorkers that were reminded and haunted by it daily for years, just want to forget it, 9/11 still continues to distress the American and in fact the entire global psyche. Even so, for anyone that wants to relive 9/11 again, Tony Kaye's album End Of Innocence is a very cool way to do just that.