Yes: `Keys To Ascension' studio tracks. Are they well regarded or under-rated ?

[Dodie]

As usual with Yes threads, I'm distinctly in the minority for disagreeing with almost every single posting so far :-)

There was a lengthy discussion about this on the old forum just a few months ago. Anyhow, my take on it is that Yes did not fade away into artistic nothingness after GFTO/Tormato/Drama (take your pick), and that the best Rabin era stuff remains as fresh and vital to my ears as anything half-decent the band has done since the 70s - moreover, they've done some stuff since Rabin left that ranks amongst the worst stuff they've ever recorded. Yes has always been hit and miss, throughout it's entire history, even in the 70s!

The studio tracks from the two KTA albums have lots of good moments; the only one I really dislike is "Be the one", which does nothing for me (I find it's main melodic theme quite clumsy and annoying - my apologies to those who disagree!). The two epics are almost as good as anything Yes have done since (it all depends on how much you rate The Ladder and Fly From Here; I like most of the former but only some of the latter).

The best of the shorter KTA studio tracks are "Children of Light" (mainly for its fabulous closing section; what goes before is pretty ordinary, imho), "Footprints" and "Bring me to the power" (perhaps the best of the shorter ones).

Is it worth owning? Absolutely.
Is it any good? Yep, in parts.
Did the band and its management typically muck up the whole business, and should the KTA2 tracks have been treated as a proper album? Undoubtedly.
Are "That, That Is" and "Mind Drive" the best music Yes made since the 70s? No, that idea is comical to me - but as a fan of Yes in almost all its incarnations, I've had a fair bit of pleasure from hearing the KTA studio tracks, and they were an intriguing tentative move back towards a classic Prog style that ultimately didn't come about.

For me, the last hurrah of the so-called 'classic' line-up is Live at Montreux.

[Nearfest2]

True Chad but,the overlong middle section that sounds like it is outakes from The Remembering comes nowhere near what Jimmy Page,Chris Squire and Alan White were up to imho. I think Mind Drive could be edited and it would be more cohesive. I still love it. Keystudio is one of my favorite Yes cds. Rick's biggest objection to the 1 and 2 releases of Keys To Ascension was having the live stuff on there and Keystudio was the solution. But,by the time that came out,Rick was long gone until 2003.

I don't disagree. But I'm still allowed to like it.

[Paulrus]

I hear some interesting ideas there but I feel they are on the level of a demo run-through and incomplete. The arrangements could be better and some of the filler could easily be cut but what I think bothers me most about them is that the melodies are rather unmemorable. I admit that I'm a melody-whore -- I love rich, lush melodies that I can remember bits and pieces of after one listen. I find none of the KTA studio tracks at that level at all. Had they spent more time fleshing them out, there might have been something good there.

Couldn't agree more. When I said I was surprised at how much better these songs sounded again (after not hearing them for a while) that just means that rather than being near the bottom of my list of "Post-Drama albums", Keys (well, Keys 2 anyways) moved up to somewhere in the middle of the pack.

[Beebfader]

I prefer THIS listening order:
Mind Drive
Foot Prints
Be The One
That, That Is
Bring Me To The Power
Sign Language
Children Of Light

It flows like a vinyl, with MD on side 1, FP and BTO on side 2, TTI on Side 3, and the rest on side 4. It's a great running order and I love opening with "Mind Drive".


Thanks ! I'll try it. Have listened to it all today...the SOUND is there, Jon's recorded well, Steve and Alan sound great...Rick is Rick....I have yet to decide how much real substance there is I guess :-)

[Guess Who]

'Keystudio' is my favourite CD from Yes' back-catalogue..

[Mikhael]

The Keystudio stuff is lower on the chart for me than even Union is. As a matter of fact, although there's a couple of decent parts in a couple of pieces, OYE was more cohesive and better done than this. Sorry to those who like it, but it sounds like sketchpads of snippets, never finished, but thrown together to make a "product" prematurely.

KTA was overall disappointing. The fact that they re-recorded almost all the live material, squashing any energy or life out of it, combined with the lacklustre new material, made it an ominous harbinger of things to come...

[bill g]

'Mind Drive' has a feel that I hear in older Yes, an outdoorsiness or something. I really like that, and the first half of 'Bring Me To The Power'. Those to me are maybe their best material since 'Going For The One' - well about 3 tracks from the ABWH are right up there too (Themes, BOM, Quartet). Great stuff there. Footprints is another good one. I'm not so much into Children of the Light, but that's just me.

[ScottAM]

I love KTA, especially Part 2. "Bring Me to the Power" is one of my favorite latter-era-Yes songs, Howe is all over that piece.

I'm continually surprised that not more fans are gaga over KTA, especially those that want a "return to form". This was it! For one brief moment, Yes actually approached their song forms again like they did in the 70's and did a pretty decent job of it in my estimation. The fact that it was totally covered up by Open Your Eyes, tacked on with live tracks and split into 2 parts, and for the most part ignored in their live shows, is just par for the course of Yes'/management's poor career choices. But I would think fans would have loved this. I guess some of you don't. But if not, and if you don't like OYE, The Ladder or Magnification either, then why does Yes keep getting the most threads and pages here at PE? Most haters should've just given up a long time ago and moved on.

For my part, I like ALL Yes albums to some degree, and I liked the shorter songs of The Ladder, and love the orchestration and pieces featured on Magnification, and even FFH is okay even though too much Horn/Downes writing on it. But for retro-Yes, I think KTA is a successful "venture".

[trurl]

In hindsight, the material is (mostly) better than ABWH. That's really the best thing to say about it. I prefer Magnification myself.

[Progatron]

I love That that is.

It's nice to hear others give this some praise. I've always really liked the two studio tracks on Keys 1. Although as I've mentioned before, Jon didn't exactly show how hip he was when using "Shirley" as the name of a modern woman in the lyrics. Shirley? Nobody these days is named Shirley, Jon. (save the Leslie Neilsen jokes!)

I did see them on the Drama tour actually. To hear Trevor Horn try to sing Yours Is No Disgrace will haunt me forever :-)

Not as much as it haunts him, to hear him tell it.

the only one I really dislike is "Be the one", which does nothing for me

The first section is just okay. But I really love that middle 'Humankind' section. Very strong.

In hindsight, the material is (mostly) better than ABWH.

The thing with ABWH for me is that I love the first five tracks or so, and then suddenly things take a horrific turn with "Quartet" and "Order Of The Universe". So my version of that album is excellent but close to EP length.

[trurl]

I listened to Brother Of Mine recently and liked it more than I remembered. The rest of the album, not so much

[Mister Triscuits]

Although as I've mentioned before, Jon didn't exactly show how hip he was when using "Shirley" as the name of a modern woman in the lyrics. Shirley? Nobody these days is named Shirley, Jon.

I'm at the office now, and the very next email I received after reading this message was from someone named Shirley.

ETA: She didn't mention anything about being strung out on crack time, though.

[Brian Griffin]

[QUOTE=Rand Kelly;33302]

Footprints and Bring Me to the Power are, IMHO, as good as anything that had come prior

I agree here and iirc, I saw Yes play these 2 in San Francisco with Igor on keyboards.

If only!

Our beloved affirmatives never attempted these two songs live, sadly

BG

[dpt3]

They do at least a bit of Footprints here:

[Brian Griffin]

They do at least a bit of Footprints here:

Ya really think that counts?



BG

[Scott Bails]

But I would think fans would have loved this. I guess some of you don't. But if not, and if you don't like OYE, The Ladder or Magnification either, then why does Yes keep getting the most threads and pages here at PE?

Because their classic period is better than anyone else's?

[80s were ok]

?? so Yes's "Classic" period (which itself is undefinable), is better than the undefinable "Classic" periods of Rush, or The Who or King Crimson? I know, i know...to you the classic periods are the decade of the 70's of those bands. To a lot of fans, the classic period might be the 80's when radio and video play was high and arenas were filled.

[Big Ears]

Is it the last hurrah of the (second) classic line-up?

The last hurrah is a good way of describing the Keys to Ascension albums. My only complaint is that the keyboard solo in Close to the Edge is sanitised to death.

[80s were ok]

wouldn't the so-called last hurrah of the so-called second classic line-up been in 2004?

[Scott Bails]

?? so Yes's "Classic" period (which itself is undefinable), is better than the undefinable "Classic" periods of Rush, or The Who or King Crimson? I know, i know...to you the classic periods are the decade of the 70's of those bands. To a lot of fans, the classic period might be the 80's when radio and video play was high and arenas were filled.

You're so cute.

[calyx]

To a lot of fans, the classic period might be the 80's when radio and video play was high and arenas were filled.

I guess a lot of those people never really heard their previous work. I'm pretty sure most people who took the chance of listening to their 1970s albums ended up liking those better. Certainly that's what happened in my case.

[80s were ok]

You're so cute.

better not to reply if you can't.

[Paulrus]

They do at least a bit of Footprints here:

Wow, that was pretty cool. Chris was really getting into it -- that is missed. It's really a shame that lineup couldn't hold it together.

Ah well, we all move on...

[Garden Dreamer]

I listened to Brother Of Mine recently and liked it more than I remembered. The rest of the album, not so much

Say what? Brother of Mine is an ABWH song.

[trurl]

Say what? Brother of Mine is an ABWH song.

Uh, yeah? That's what we we talking about; read the posts above that.