tupan Very good! I was curious about the most recent albums of Yes, because I've only listened to their ultra classic Fragile - one of my favorite albums of all time. Magnification is a truly "symphonic" album: the keyboards were been replaced by real orchestration, conducted by Larry Groupë with maestry. This gave a more organic feel to this album, a very positive achievement in my opinion. This album have many highlights: Spirit of Survival (good lyrics), Magnification, Don't Go (nice lyrics too), Give Love Each Day, the epics Dreamtime and my favorite, In The Presence Of. The short songs are interesting too, there's no filler in this album! I recommend Magnification to all the fans of symphonic prog.

siLLy puPPy BIG GENERATOR is definitely the point where YES jumped the shark. I can honestly say i love 90125 as much as many of YES' catalogue beginning with the first album to that very one, but on this one it is clear that the great decline has begun. Not saying there weren't some good albums after this but it was never quite the same. Having said all that, i actually like BIG GENERATOR and despite it being a substandard album for one of the best bands ever to grace the planet, it is nevertheless a decent listen. Part of the decline stems from the fact that the progressive pop era of YES which was supposed to be a new supergroup called Cinema had dropped some of the progressiveness that 90125 had. The sound went a little bit more towards the new wave and pop sound and despite the huge hit they had with 90125 they decided it was a good idea to distance themselves from it. Were they convinced at this point that ANYTHING progressive was lethal? Who knows but it probably is more a result of a group of talented individuals just going through the motions having displayed their utmost chemistry together and now just having to fulfill a contract.

Still though this is YES and even though this is not in the top ranking of their output they are quite talented in crafting clever, catchy and interesting pop songs. Upon my first experience i found a few tracks on here very good such as the total pop sellouts "Love Will Find Away" and "Rhythm Of Love" as well as the title track and the excellent "Shoot High Aim Low" which takes a political stance regarding the horrific illegal wars of the US in Nicaragua. It is a fairly lengthy song for this phase of YES and it has a very subdued melancholic sound.

Many tracks on BIG GENERATOR sound rather new wave but nothing on this one sounds as original and unique as 90125. Despite the pop sounds reigning on this one, there are some moments of past glory. "Final Eyes" has some hippy dippy "And You And I" acoustic guitars going and "I'm Running" has some cool proggy time sigs and instrumental prowess despite its calypso type of island feel at the beginning.

This is a decent album despite being a major step down from anything YES had previously done. I actually don't mind listening to this on occasion. Yeah, i know. This is not what anybody wanted to hear from their favorite supergroup in prog history but this isn't really a YES album. Maybe there should be a human rights law at the UN that mandates anytime a band loses a certain percentage of its members it should be required by law to change its name. Couldn't they have called this era of their career MAYBE? Ugh. It is what it is. Not their best but certainly not their worst.

siLLy puPPy After the experiment of "Drama," the first YES album that replaced Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman with members of The Buggles, the band did a whole tour but unfortunately Trevor Horn was unable to perform to the band's likings as far as sustaining the passable vocal abilities in the vein of Jon Anderson as heard on the album. The band decided perhaps the 70s meets 80s experiment had run out of steam and reluctantly called it day. The band known as YES officially ceased to exist after the end of the "Drama" tour. The plans of the members were to create new supergroups that would take elements of the YES era and incorporate them into the contemporary sounds of the early 80s. For progressive rocks lovers this was a tragedy. Commercially speaking, the then former members of YES would soon see some of their most economically beneficial music surpassing anything they had ever experienced. While Steve Howe and Geoff Downes would go on to form Asia, Trevor Horn would go on to be a successful producer (starting with this one), Chris Squire and Alan White decided to create something new altogether. Originally they hooked up with Jimmy Page which didn't work out but the fruits of which ended up on Page's band The Firm's albums. Despite a lofty idea it was a no go and they had to recruit some new blood to the mix. They settled on Trevor Rabin who was somewhat successful in his native South Africa with a band called Rabbit and after a chance meeting with YES' original keyboardist Tony Kaye, Chris Squire rekindled musical ideas and invited him to play keyboards on the new project. This new super group was supposed to be called Cinema and was never intended to be a YES project at all. The final ingredient in the new group was unfilled: the vocalist. The disbanding of YES was totally amicable so when Squire played some of the new material to Jon Anderson, he really liked it and decided to sing on the new album. Someone thought it was a great idea to be under the YES moniker and thus the 11th YES album was born. Like it or not, YES released their most successful album with 90125 and even had a #1 single in "Owner Of A Lonely Heart." The title simply comes from the original Atco Records serial number of the original LP: 7-90215-1.

I would say that the success of this album is due to a mix of circumstances. First of all, the progressive pop tracks are all extremely catchy and well written as well as impeccably performed, but as we all know there is no reason any brilliant album should catch on to a larger audience without some sort of delivery to the larger public. Like many 70s bands of the day, YES was prescient enough to see the power of the video and when "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" caught on with a new generation of fans totally oblivious to the previous incarnations of YES, the video became a HUGE hit propelling the album to sell mass quantities to the chagrin of progressive rock snobs who only found the war of complexities to scratch their itch.

I absolutely adore this album. Not only was this the very first YES album i encountered, but it is one that stays with me over time. It was indeed my gateway drug to the affirmative one's unique style but was so well crafted and beautifully delivered that it holds a strong place in my musical world. While some early albums in my world are respected for their introductions to a band's discography, 90125 remains high on my personal list of albums simply because i enjoy the hell out of it. Not progressive enough? Gimme a break! This album may not take you to Saturn's rings like "Relayer" or "Tales From Topographic Oceans" but it is not meant to. This is an Earthly concoction of extremely well played progressively constructed ideas that find a more accessible rhythmic structure that fits nicely into the day and time but still sounds totally unique and is really unlike anything else not only released under the YES moniker but stands out from any other album ever released as well.

Personally i find the biggest hit "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" to be the weakest track on here and even so i still don't dislike it. This album is just filled to the brim with catchy progressive new wave and pop tracks. "Hold On," "It Can Happen," "Changes," "Leave It" and "Our Song" are simply just beautifully well crafted pop songs stuffed with progressiveness that doesn't feel forced or over contrived. The odd time signatures of "Changes" are particularly noteworthy of showing just how well this incarnation of the YES lineup could easily meld two seemingly opposite spectrums of the musical world together so brilliantly. I just cannot understand any negativity behind this one. Only the last couple of songs keep me from giving this a full five star rating. The difference between this and the most progressive of YES' albums is that like the previous couple albums, the melodies are the focus with the progressiveness being the icing instead of the cake, but on 90215 they really succeed in balancing these elements like a fifty foot stack of rocks on a river bed. Great music doesn't have to be based on a "complexer- than-thou" principle and 90125 is a wonderful example of just how satisfying well constructed songs that have recurring melodic themes can be.

siLLy puPPy After the ho-hum response that divided YES fans on "Tormato," the pressures of being one of the biggest prog bands of the 70s had clearly taken its toll. The music was becoming more of a chore in keeping up with the current trends instead of making the music that inspired the band in the early 70s, so exit stage left both Jon Anderson AND Rick Wakeman (again). Ironically it was Anderson and Wakeman who were the most enthusiastic about making a new album after "Tormato" but when the creative juices failed to gel they split leaving the continuation of the band in question. I mean really. YES without Jon Anderson? Chris Squire, Steve Howe and Alan White were having none of the band breaking up business and set out to figure out a way to keep it going. The ushering in of the 80s couldn't have been more different than a mere ten years earlier when progressive rock was just beginning to blossom. By this time heavy metal, disco and pop were in and even country was having a comeback. As the YES destiny would have it, the remaining YES members serendipitously were recording in an adjacent studio of The Buggles members Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes. The Buggles had become the cutting edge band in the new world of music of new wave and MTV and their famous track "Video Killed The Radio Star" was not only the very first video to ever appear on MTV but also hit #1 in the UK. Chris Squire happened to own their album, they all hit it off and the next thing everyone knew was a totally unforeseen new incarnation of YES. Ironically after two albums that eschewed the artistic album cover talents of Roger Dean, the new wave YES actually solicited his return to create an album cover for DRAMA, their 10th studio album. So Trevor Horn took up duties on vocals, a tall order indeed but despite not reaching the heights of the mighty Jon Anderson does a veritable mimicry that keeps the vocal ties to the past while allowing the music to go places no YES fan had ever anticipated.

Wow. What a trippy album this is. No, not trippy like whoa! this is so lysergic man! but trippy like whoa! this sounds like YES but it also sounds like lots of other things. This is one of those YES albums that really divides the fans. Some love it and some hate it. I happen to love it however i wholeheartedly concede that this does not come close to their streak of early 70s masterpieces which progressively rocked the world and changed the very fabric of space-time. This is different in every way. This is a one-shot exploration into a monstrous hybrid of old YES and contemporary influences with a healthy dose of 70s kickbacks as well. YES was humble in that it realized it needed to evolve into some new beast to be relevant. I totally admire this about them. For better or for worse, they were having none of the stuck-in-the-early-70s syndrome and found a new way to let their talents stand out.

The first track "Machine Messiah" actually reminds me of a slightly new wave version of Pink Floyd's "Welcome To The Machine." It has acoustic guitars and lyrics that totally bring that classic to mind, however Geoff Downes keyboards take it to a new level. A great way to start the album. After a 10:27 intro track the contrast slaps you in the face with the 1:21 "White Car," which is a strange little interlude of synth and vocals. "Does It Really Happen" has some classic Squire bass lines going on with some new wave guitar of Steve Howe. While Steve does his best to be modern on the guitar duties, it's actually his excellent lead guitar fills that keep this grounded to the classic YES sound since they are ever so unique and unequivocally YES sounding. This track has a "Blue Collar Man" feel from Styx on the keyboards. "Into The Lens" is another lengthy track that could rightfully qualify as progressive new wave. Nice bass line and staccato backups. For the longest time i only remembered this song under my own invented titled "I Am A Camera." Great instrumentation here and one of my favorite tracks on the album. "Run Through The Light" sounds to me like a Yes meets The Police track. Doesn't quite sound like Sting and company but very much drifts into their territory of the day. "Tempus Fugit" is a Latin phrase that means "time flies." My next favorite track. I love the bass line, the guitar and the lyrics which includes the band's name as an integral part of the chorus.

Another testament to the brilliant members of YES comes alive on DRAMA. While the album cover is a little weak compared to their others, i really dig the music on this one. I get an excellent musical enjoyment experience out of it but because of the fact that they are trying so hard to copy other sounds rather than creating them, it does not deserve the highest of honors that their earlier material does. DRAMA displays a band which was searching for new avenues in musical exploration and despite not taking the lead in coming up with new musical ideas, YES does an EXCELLENT interpretation of current trends while adding just enough classic touches to please the open-minded fan of their glory days. This may not be better than the output from 1970-74 but this is actually better than "Tormato" and almost anything that came out from the 90s on. In short, DRAMA is a delight that will please anyone who loves both YES at its progressive rock heyday and the better prog pop phase of the band.

siLLy puPPy On “Going For The One” YES had come full circle regarding their musical differences and successfully reunited the lineup of Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Alan White, Chris Squire and Rick Wakeman. It was a transitional album that honed down the bombastic complexities of albums like “Relayer” and “Tales From Topographic Oceans” and simplified the song structures with the intent to fit into a changing musical world where simplified music had dethroned the earlier 70s perceived excesses. YES successfully crafted an album that stayed true to their sound while taking the first step into their progressive pop style without totally severing the progressive umbilical chord from the past by adding the beautiful “Awaken” to finish off the album and perhaps the era of fully progressive rock.

Their 9th studio album TORMATO finally jumps ship altogether from the full-fledged progressive rock of the earlier years and delivers one of their very first progressive pop albums that would usher in a couple decades of similarly inspired music to follow. The first thing about this album that confuses the first time listener is the question of just where in the world did they get the album title? Is a TORMATO a tornado that hit a vegetable market that happened to have all tomatoes that day? A craggy outcrop of rock on the summit of a hill in the town of Mato on the island of Sarawak in Malaysia? Or is it a radioactive tomato that morphed into a Godzilla type creature that is ready to devastate Baltimore? Guess again. The name was actually derived from Steve Howe’s idea of naming the album “Tor” after the highest point in Dartmoor, England. The artist Hipgnosis who designed the “Going For The One” album also did this one and after Wakeman objected to the design he threw a tomato at it which ended up as the album cover of choice, so TORMATO is simply a combination of the “Tor” idea and the tomato being thrown. Not my favorite album title or cover either, but there it is.

Musically TORMATO is a strange beast which features virtuosic classical trained progressive rockers unleashing their full musical prowess into short radio friendly track lengths. It’s actually kind of interesting if you can embrace the irony of it all. As horrible as this album is purported to be, i personally don’t find it that way at all. No doubt i do find this to be the weakest album of their 70s output, but a weak album by one of the greatest prog bands in history is still a worthy album to experience and much better than some of the utter crap like “Union”. Right from the get go “Future Times / Rejoice” embraces a musical glee with the vocals of Jon Anderson who seems to take lead on this album as the centerpiece which the musical “noodling” revolves around. While the melodies tend to be pleasant enough pop inspired songwriting, the virtuosic performances around them are a bit surreal to say the least. The lyrics of YES have always tended to be a little spacey and hippie dippy and they only become more so here whether it be about environmental concerns on “Don’t Kill The Whale” or new age fantasies on “Arriving UFO.”

Overall this is not a horrible album but after all i love good pop music as much as i love good prog. There are many examples where a band is successful in one style and is pathetic in the other. YES proves here that they have what it takes to create a very decent middle of the road album that peaks and troughs in both arenas of pop and prog. I assume the main objection to this album revolves around that it went in the pop direction at all, but for me that is not a problem as living in the real world of the day, YES also proved they had the foresight to see the writing on the wall and adapted to the new world without compromising the sounds and style they were known for. Ingenious if you ask me. I can honestly say i like every track on this album except for the “Circus Of Heaven” track which kinda makes me wanna hurl. While i wholeheartedly concede that this was indeed a major step down in quality and the beginning of a loathsome era for their original prog fans, i can only admire the tenacity of YES for steering their musical vehicle into arenas that kept them relevant at the time without totally watering down the music to unlistenability (that would eventually come). By keeping the band name alive and kicking was relevant for new fans discovering older progressive rock and wished to delve into their discography. Successfully maneuvering the business aspects of the musical world in the late 70s aside, i actually find this to be an enjoyable album for the most part and while not a desert isle pick it is by no means designated to the completists only file because i find the melodies on this one infectious.

In the end, this album was the breaking point for a band who was obviously placating a musical market to the best of their abilities and after this album and tour both Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman would jump ship leaving the band’s future in question, but with hind-sight being 20/20 we know that the band would constantly reinvent itself in most unforeseen and unorthodox ways with some successes and unfortunately, ho hum, way too many that were not.

While i rarely find bonus tracks on the YES remasters to be essential this one actually has some total winners that for me are worth the price of admission alone. The track “Money” for example is so experimental and different from anything the band has done that you would hardly guess that it is a YES track at all.