At that time vocalist Jon Anderson had felt artistically constrained within Yes' current format, where the songwriting of Trevor Rabin had taken the band in a commercially successful but musically and lyrically different direction.

[5] Pre-production recording took place at La Frette Studios near Paris with Anderson putting down an outline of much of the album's songs with guitarist Milton McDonald, percussion programmer Joe Hammer and keyboardist/arranger Matt Clifford.

[7] Bruford has said that though he is credited as co-writer on all of the tracks, he had nothing to do with writing or even arranging any of them, and his role was limited to re-recording parts that had already been laid down with drum machines before he became involved with the project.

"Birthright" concerns the British nuclear tests at Maralinga in the 1950s and 1960s in Australia and incorporates material by Howe and Max Bacon for their band Nerotrend.

"Quartet" (She Gives Me Love) contains lyrical references to several Yes songs, including "South Side of the Sky", "Long Distance Runaround", "The Gates of Delirium", "Awaken", and "Roundabout".

[9] Dean was asked to design the cover in February 1989, and claimed he was not briefed on its direction and proceeded to work on "whatever seems appropriate"; his main idea was to suggest what American Indian culture might have developed if European colonists had not come to the Americas.

Much of the cover depicts real landscapes and formations in the US; the clay pinnacles in the foreground are in Bryce Canyon, Utah and the background hills are based on the Vermilion Cliffs by the Colorado River.

"[23] The Times said that "everything you never liked about Yes—the endless fiddling around, the pretentious, waffling arrangements, and of course Anderson's peculiarly grating, emasculated vocals—is delivered in spades, but with little of the imaginative grandeur or inventive cut and thrust needed to keep the music buoyant.

"[24] Paul Stump's 1997 History of Progressive Rock commented, "The album was calculated to appeal to diehards; sweeping orchestral bridges, episodic songs, multitudinous solos.

But this, as did the 90125 project, lacks momentum, the emotional syntax of the music is still boringly rock-based; the orchestration, once pearly and luminous, sounds merely stodgy, and technology remains under-utilized; even Horn's primitive samplings of 1983 are absent here.

Additional writing credits are below:[25] Note: "Distant Thunder" (Anderson, Vangelis) is a hidden track appended to the live version of "Order of the Universe", and plays after 53 seconds of silence.