YES, “Mirror to the Sky.”

It can be really sad when bands change with the times. Remember the feeling of hearing the cheesy synths of Jefferson Starship and not the gritty psychedelia of Jefferson Airplane? Well, Yes is back with a new album that sounds more like the band’s 1971 classic, Fragile, than its 1985 MTV hit, “Owner of a Lonely Heart.”

Guitarist Steve Howe and company have created a remarkable piece of nostalgia that revisits the English band’s signature prog-rock sound but manages to sound fresh and vibrant, rather than like a tired retreading of older material. From the science fictional imagery and classic logo of the cover art to the throbbing and complicated bass lines on songs like “Cut From the Stars,” Mirror to the Sky, feels like an amazing find in a thrift store record bin rather than a new offering from the band.

The album’s got it all. Nine-minute jam “Luminosity” gets theatrical with noodly synthesizers, ponderous guitar melodies and Jon Davison’s powerful vocals sung in duet with a woman. The pair delivers some pretty epic lyrics, including, “Dream the night came calling from forest mist/ The light in man leaves none to resist/ Voiced the thunder to hearts of brotherhood/ Perceive the arc man’s rising.”

There are four songs on the album that clock in at over nine minutes in length, but rather than extended jazz odysseys where the band simply vamps endlessly over a simple chord progression, the songs are carefully constructed and elaborate tapestries of sound that assemble musical elements like Legos into complicated sonic cathedrals.

The new album is very much a continuation of sonic trajectory staked out on the band’s 2021 release, The Quest. A key ingredient in the band’s new old sound is that guitarist extraordinaire Steve Howe has taken the helm as producer.

The album’s 13-and-half-minute title track builds from delicate guitar and gauzy keys to a musical duel in which strident guitars square off with thunderous bass lines in an elaborate call and response. Davison’s eventual falsetto vocals lay on a bed of acoustic guitar and lush string orchestrations as he sings, “What the shadow minds behind the third eye spies in vain define/ The essence they fail to posses and so resist all they cannot control/ Their forces then despise the very Soul and/ Its inseparable ties to the limitless sacred skies.” Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

“Circles of Time” is a gentle acoustic ballad that’s on the lesser end of five minutes, which makes sense, since the song seems to be about seizing the day.

“That clock on the wall/ Like the shadow of a noose/ Is a ticking time bomb/ Orchestrating and dictating our every move,” Davison sings.

It seems as if Yes has circled back to its golden age. Despite the deaths and lineup changes over the years, with Steve Howe in the producer’s chair, we may have more new gems that feel like old ones.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed when Steve Howe joined Yes. We regret the error.

Follow writer David Gill at Twitter.com/saxum_paternus.