Yes albums after 90125- How Do They Rate?

[at least 100 dead]

Badly.

We want the gory details!

[Guess Who]

1. Keystudio
2. The Ladder
3. Union
4. Talk
5. Magnification
6. Heaven & Earth
7. Fly From Here
8. Big Generator
9. OYE - aka "Close Your Ears" ( the worst album that Yes ever made)!

[bondegezou]

There's a couple of recurrent fan myths here that need to be busted.

1. Open Your Eyes was not a re-tooled Conspiracy album. Only two tracks on it came from the later-to-be-called Conspiracy project, but most of the album was put together as a Yes album. That said, the sessions were very much led by Sherwood, who wrote nearly all of the album.

2. Keys to Ascension and Keys to Ascension 2 are distinct albums: there was a longer time between the sessions for each than there was between sessions for Fragile and Close to the Edge. Keys to Ascension 2's name and format was a decision of the record company that the band disagreed with (but could do nothing about).

Henry

[JJ88]

^But the label later decided to bung the two sessions together, hence why fans tend to do the same, IMHO.

With the KTA stuff, I rate the two epic tracks, I don't really find them especially cobbled together. The shorter songs don't do much for me, really, a bit bland and forgettable.

[Vic2012]

I don't have 90125 anymore but I had it for about a month and then got rid of it. Sorry guys, I just never liked it. Even now, when I hear the crunch guitar intro to "Owner" I wanna cover my ears and scream MAKE IT STOP!!

I had Big G but got rid of it. There might be a couple tracks I like from it but overall I never really liked it. Same story for ABWH. Can't blame Rabin on that one. It still had that 80s production. Awful sound.

Union, OYE: Never owned them or heard any tracks from either. I've never read anything good about those albums so never bothered.

Keys To Ascension 2: Got this on the strength of great reviews. Really liked it, and still really like it. It's really the only thing they've done since Drama that I like. I like it as much as Going For The One, Tormato, and Drama. I don't have KTA 1.

Ladder: It's worth keeping. I like more than half of it, and it's a great sounding album.

Magnification: Had it for a while then got rid of it. This was the point where I'd had it with the orchestra + rock group thing. They ditched the keyboards in favor of an orchestra and it just didn't work for me. I got rid of Kansas: Always Never The Same at the same time. Awful stuff.

Haven't bothered with anything that's come after Magnification.

[flowerking]

Here's how I would rank them:

Worthy releases:
1. Keys 1 (like the studio tracks more on 1 than 2)
2. Keys 2 (some serious mistakes on some of the live tracks, only 1 good studio track but its a great one - Mind Drive)
3. Talk (extremely underrated)
4. Magnification (love the title track so much it boosts the rest of this release)
5. Big Generator (solid effort)

Decent releases:
6. The Ladder (a couple of very good songs, several ok songs, a few irrelevant songs)
7. Fly From Here (FFH suite is nice, the rest is hit or mostly miss)
8. Union (like the Ladder but many of the songs here are less ready to go)

Bad releases:
9. Open Your Eyes (just blah)
10. Heaven and Earth (not even blah, just boring)

[at least 100 dead]

This is PBS. We now return to a mildly enjoyable rerun of "The Lawrence Welk Show: Memories of champagne music and the bands who made it."

(Cut to Lawrence Welk, surrounded by Roger Dean bubbles on the set.)

Lawrence Welk: "Tank you, tank you, welcome back to the Lawrence Welk Show. Aren't these bubbles wonderful? A man could get hit with dem bubbles all these years, I'll never understand it. But hey, anything for show business. It's a new thing for me, Mr. Wonderful!

But enough with the bubbles, let's continue on with our salute to Yez. A one, and a two, and a..."

================================================

Big Generator: Corporate mainstream rock with a twist. Sure, to contemporary ears the production is questionable and the DX7 horn stabs sounded dated even back then, but the songs are mostly very good. 8.5/10

ABWH: Impatiently waiting for this record to hit the stores in that balmy summer of 1989, only to be thoroughly disappointed by happy-clappy singalongs such as “Brother of Mine” and saccharine sour ballads didn’t stop me from seeing the band on tour later that autumn. The concert was exactly one day after the Berlin wall came down - a magical night, angels fluttering about and all that hippie shit.

Nah, not really: A throng of drunken Besatzer on shore leave in front of the stage hurling invectives at Anderson ensured that proceedings remained decidedly earthbound. The band soldiered on regardless. Anyway, this is a frustrating ablum, merely “Birthright” and “I’m Alive” are worth keeping, IMO. 2.7/10

Union By the time this came out, I had already lost interest in all things Yes. I only bought it a few years ago, expecting the worst due to the brutal online reviews. Surprisingly, there are quite a few decent tracks, “Miracle of Life” being the standout. Edit it down to about 35 min and it’s a 6.2/10.

Talk More than an unexpected return to form, this is the last forward looking Yes release. You need to listen past the over-produced drums and lack of Squire, though. Ditch “Where Will You Pee” as well as “Walls” with its hackneyed chorus and it amounts to 8.4/10.

Keys 1 and 2 where they try to channel themselves as younger elves. 5.7/10

Open Your Eyes appears to be universally loathed, but the title track along with “Universal Garden”, “Fortune Teller” and “The Solution” are all fine & dandy. 7.1/10

The Ladder continues in a similar vein, despite the two longer faux-prog tracks. Much of it comes across like an Anderson solo record, sure, but it’s more focused than OYE and we finally get to hear Squire again. Having an outside producer breathing down their necks didn’t seem to have hurt one bit. 8/10

Magnification Anderson’s swan song with Yes (so far, you never know with those nutters) is a pleasant, lush, summer-y oeuvre. Replacing the keyboards with orchestral textures was a worthwhile experiment, even though Howe has expressed reservations about the “project”. Like most of the post 90125 albums, it would have benefitted from some editing. 8/10

The Remixes Fun re-imagining of some old chestnuts. Standouts: Tempus Fugit, Arriving MOFO, Awaken and Ritual. 8.3/10

FFH Who cares if they pried 20 year old songs out of the freezer? It’s pretty good, Jack. Again, having a real producer to judiciously trim the fat (save for “Bumpy Hide”) was the right decision. 8/10

[Scrotum Scissor]

^

I guess you're saving a recension on Heaven & Earth to some separate, giant occasion?

[ThomasKDye]

Keys to Ascension and Keys to Ascension 2 are distinct albums: there was a longer time between the sessions for each than there was between sessions for Fragile and Close to the Edge. Keys to Ascension 2's name and format was a decision of the record company that the band disagreed with (but could do nothing about).

Henry

Yeah, if we want to nitpick at that level, then KTA 1 & 2 are 4a and 4b. They're really equivalent in terms of quality and atmosphere. I just consider it "Keystudio."

[DoubleDrummer]

While I can't disagree with SOME of the negative comments above, I am a fan of all YES albums. Some are better that others, that is certain..............but I don't see any of them as awful. One post here suggests that A NEW STATE OF MIND is a good song................I really like that song. Just like CAN YOU IMAGINE, it has Squire all over it and that is usually good enough for me.
I actually don't consider UNION as a YES album............and KEYS is good but rehash............an average recording of a good concert.
Another great song is THE MESSENGER off of the LADDER...............good stuff.
All the others I like..............especially TALK and GENERATOR.

[bondegezou]

Yeah, if we want to nitpick at that level, then KTA 1 & 2 are 4a and 4b. They're really equivalent in terms of quality and atmosphere. I just consider it "Keystudio."

I think one can hear in the music the influence their different contexts had. The KtA sessions were rather hurriedly done, almost an afterthought, with Wakeman barely engaged. The later KtA2 sessions are a band that's regained a certain confidence, with Wakeman properly signed on and engaged. Indeed, the KtA2 material stands out for finishing with these two Howe/Wakeman pieces, the only pieces in the entire Yes canon with that writing combination.

Henry

[Kcrimso]

Lots of good stuff and few complete disasters:

Drama: 10/10
90125: 10/10 (perfect pop album!)
Big Generator: 7/10
ABWH: 7/10
Union: 6/10
Talk: 7/10
Keystudio: 7/10
Open Your Eyes: 3/10
The Ladder: 8/10
Magnification: 9/10
Fly From Here: 7/10
Heaven And Earth: 4/10

[Garden Dreamer]

In my case it's avoid for all of them.

Same here. Like the Tull era in question, there is nothing essential that I absolutely have to own. I could probably pick out a few tracks from each album and make a decent compilation that I'd want to listen to more than once.

I'd pick "Homeworld" as my best single track from the era, gave me the most "classic Yes" vibe. I was fairly psyched when I heard this and saw The Ladder album cover, thinking "they're back!" The rest of the album didn't live up to those expectations.

Keysstudio may be the most cohesive full album for me out of the batch... but again, not essential.

Open Your Eyes... I remember listening to this in a Tower Records listening station. Had no idea a new Yes album was coming out. Thought it didn't sound like Yes, in fact it sounded like something I should hate...but somehow I kinda-sorta liked it. For some reason it had a ridiculous high price of like 19 bucks when all other CDs were selling for a few dollars less so I didn't buy it.

[mx20]

I dislike most Yes stuff post-Drama, but I will admit to being impressed by whatever that opening song on Open Your Eyes is; energetic & "Yessy." But I only ever heard it once! Magnification might be worth a listen, never seen a copy. The KTA1/2 stuff is pretty awful, as I recall. Mind Drive in particular sounds like a lame rehash of old ideas... Which is exactly what it was. I've heard samples of H&E and FFH and was underwhelmed to the point of laughter.

I'm also surprised to see Union ranking so highly here. Remember (as I learned from Henry's awesome site), that album has more stand-in session musicians in lieu of Our Heroes than can be readily believed. Maybe that's the problem; no one can believe the Union debacle was as svengali'd as it really was!

The Ladder is the only Yes album I've intentionally thrown in the garbage (I couldn't seem to sell that one). Awful.

All that being said, The Masterworks tour was one of the greatest big concerts I've ever attended, made even better in light of the crappiness of Yes' studio output.

[Man In The Mountain]

Actually Good
Keystudio
ABWH

A few OK tracks, but meh overall
Union
Big Generator
The Ladder

Nice Try
Fly From Here

Yawn
Magnification
Heaven & Earth

Oy Vey
Talk
Open Your Eyes

[Sputnik]

The only post-Drama Yes-ish album I own is ABWH. I've owned most of the others (Fly From Here, Heaven & Earth and OYE being the only exceptions, but I've heard all ot these in their entirety). Obviously none of these except ABWH "rate" for me, in fact for me most of them are pretty dreadful. I even recognize the fairly deep flaws in ABWH, some in poor/lazy writing, and many in production. But for me, these songs hang together a bit better and exhibit a bit more heart and excitement than anything else I've heard post Drama.

So or me, it goes as follows:

Listenable, but hardly special
ABWH

A few OK tracks or moments, but meh overall
Keystudio
Big Generator
Union (only for the ABWH material, the rest is a big yawn for me)

Yawn
Fly From Here
Magnification
The Ladder

Utter Dreck
Talk
Heaven & Earth
Open Your Eyes

Bill

[Splicer]

90125 I thought was not just a good record, it was a great record. Not Yes the way they were, but a modernized version of the band. Maybe less flashy, but solid songwriting, performances and production. The difference between it and its followup, Big Generator, is night and day. The former has a warmth in the production that the latter lacks. Not only does Big Generator lack warmth, it is starkly lit by florescent lighting in the most boring way possible. The songwriting is also lacking when compared with 90125 which is solid from beginning to end. I can listen to that entire album without skipping a song. Not so with any Yes album after this, including ABWH. There were smatterings of good amidst blandness after 90125.

[Ground and Sky's Ghost]

What the heck, I'll take a stab at it:

Big Generator - this came out not long after I had become a major Yes fan in college, so I loved it at the time and still like side two quite a bit.

ABWH - there's some decent stuff on this one, but I think it's ironic that it sounds even more 80s and commercial than a lot of the YesWest stuff of the time.

Union - urgh. So disappointing. Only like a handful of songs, mostly the YesWest ones.

Symphonic Music of Yes - elevator music Yes. Boring.

Talk - really liked this one, especially "Endless Dream". Probably my wife's second favorite Yes album after Going For the One - we had tracks from "Talk" played at our wedding.

Keys to Ascension 1 & 2 (sorry Henry, but I'm lumpin' em together) - When these came out I was annoyed that they were "padded" with touched-up live tracks and I thought the studio tracks were hugely overrated by fans desperate to like anything by the reunited "classic" band. Recently went back and re-evaluated, and cobbled together a "double vinyl format" playlist with three studio sides and one live one. Developed a whole new appreciation. If the music had been released that way in the 70s, it'd probably be considered one of the band's best albums.

Open Your Eyes - A painful abomination. Best thing on it was the hidden ambient track at the end. Seriously.

The Ladder - avoided getting this one for the longest time due to OYE flashbacks. Once I finally did get it, I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. I particularly like the little trio of songs that flow together in the middle of the album.

Magnification - avoided this one for a while too, but the rave reviews coupled with finding a cheap used copy finally made me pick it up...and I couldn't understand all the praise. It's OK, but it didn't floor me or anything. Listened to it several times after first buying it, but have probably only pulled it out once or twice since.

Fly From Here - after the long layoff, I was really hoping for something good...and they delivered. I love this album, pretty much all the way through. Title suite is excellent, and I really like a few of the songs on "side two" as well.

Heaven & Earth - argh, I guess this is what happens when a sleepy, old band runs out of unrecorded demos from the 80s to plunder.


Bonus opinions:

YesYears - loved this boxed set when it came out. Decent song selection, good sound quality and lots of rarities seeing the light of day for the first time. Still keep a couple discs from this set in my 100 disc CD player at home.

Something's Coming - nice to see the Peter Banks era get some recognition. His guitar playing is amazing in places on this set. Shame the sound quality was so poor (I have a lot of these same tracks from the Yesoteric boot collection with much better sound).

The Word is Live - avoided getting this for years because everyone complained about the sound quality. And with good reason for many of the tracks (especially the Drama tour stuff). But the rarities and unique performances make this worth having, IMO.

In the Present Live - picked this up at Best Buy because I had a gift certificate and had to use it on something. Wow, the band sounds like they're half asleep on some of these songs, stumbling through them at half speed. And no Anderson. And no Fly From Here material, which is what I was hoping for. Possibly the least essential official release in the Yes catalog. Don't know what they were thinking releasing this dog (other than "This'll draw some money out of the people who still buy our CDs").

Progeny 7 shows from 72 - now that's more like it. I've only gotten through the whole set twice, but this reminds me that I need to take a third trip.

[bill g]

Big Generator: B- I only really like 2 tracks, 'Final Eyes' and 'I'm Running', but those 2 I think are classics. The rest I can take or leave.

ABWH: B- I like how 'Themes' starts the album off, like they're saying, hey we're prog now. But other than that, only 'Brother of Mine' I find to be really good. 'Birthright' and 'Quartet' are decent, the latter having some nice melody.

Union: B- Some good tracks, like 'I Would Have Waited Forever' and 'Silent Talking'. The rest I neither love nor hate.

Talk: B I rather like the summer feel throughout, kind of a unique album in their catalog.

Keystudio: B+ 'Mind Drive' and the first half of 'Bring Me To The Power' are some of their finest tracks since 'Awaken' to my ears.

Open Your Eyes: C- They could be so much better...

The Ladder: B- On the right track...

Magnification: B+ Getting warmer....

Fly From Here: B- Not bad, but not totally gelling with me...

Heaven and Earth: C- Turning my attention to Glass Hammer....

[ProgArtist]

I don't have a lot of time to go album by album, but the three post 90125 albums that I like the best (and better than 90125) are Keys 2, Magnification and Fly From Here, although none of them are perfect. The worst two Yes albums ever are OYE (without a SINGLE good track) and Heaven and Earth, which at least has "Subway Walls". I find The Ladder to only be marginally better than those two. It's got Homeworld (good but not great), but most of the rest isn't so good. This made me laugh out loud:

"The Ladder ...The band at least seemed to be pulling together in the same direction which was good. Still, it had way too much sugary, Caribbean soca dance party, Janie-woo, kids programming, Golden Grahams cereal commercial fluff for me to rate it any higher. "

[julioscissors]

1. Fly From Here
2. Big Generator
3. Keys II
4. Talk
5. Keys I
6. Union
7. Open Your Eyes
8. The Ladder
9. Magnification
10. Heaven and Earth

[Ground and Sky's Ghost]

ABWH: B- I like how 'Themes' starts the album off, like they're saying, hey we're prog now. But other than that, only 'Brother of Mine' I find to be really good. 'Birthright' and 'Quartet' are decent, the latter having some nice melody.

Most of the ABWH comments here have only had positive things to say about the first half of the album. Am I the only one who likes the song "Order of the Universe"? Or did most people turn the album off during "Teakbois" and therefore never heard OotU?

Granted, OotU gets kinda cheesy and sing-songy in the middle, and the keyboard sounds are fairly crappy...actually, now that I'm listening to it, I guess I can understand why many don't like it. At least the intro section is decent.

[Sean]

If I'm after Side Two cheese Quartet really scratches the itch best, for me. Some parts are nearly beautiful. OOTU needed more instrumental spark, maybe a cool middle section or something...

[Man In The Mountain]

Most of the ABWH comments here have only had positive things to say about the first half of the album. Am I the only one who likes the song "Order of the Universe"? Or did most people turn the album off during "Teakbois" and therefore never heard OotU?

I love the ABWH album pretty thoroughly, even Teakbois, though I've never liked Order Of The Universe. Just find it very long without a real climax or totally cool bit to look forward too. In retrospect I think the album sounds very dated 80's sounding, but I still enjoy it.

[Sean]

I don't mind Teakbois. For mindless Caribbean Cruise style fun it just makes me wanna limbo!