Re-Visiting weaker YES albums

[YESHEAD777]

So the main reason for this thread is the fact that there are only 2 other YES related threads on the main page, and we must keep up our quota here at PE. But seriously, I decided to visit some YES music recently that is considered weaker or maybe just underappreciated. Just listened to Fly from Here for the first time in awhile, and I have to say I really enjoyed the second half, esp. the last 3 songs. I always did like Into the Storm esp. I just still don't care for BD's vocals at all on the FFH suite. And Howe's work on the whole album is really stellar. I listened to the first two-S/T and TAAW recently also, which I've always loved. Some of Chris and Bill's best work! listening to KTA2 now-Mind Drive is such an awesome epic, and belongs with the other top 5 epics with CTTE,Awaken,GOD,TRSOG, and Ritual. I just hate the way they chopped it up live though when they finally played it. Next its gonna be OYE.

[Jubal]

IF you consider The Ladder to be a weak Yes album (many here do, I don't), I would recommend that one as well.

[YESHEAD777]

IF you consider The Ladder to be a weak Yes album (many here do, I don't), I would recommend that one as well.

I guess I should qualify the "weaker" description. Of course, with my namesake, even a weak YES album is better than 95% of what else is out there. Even Heaven and Earth. As for The Ladder, I've always liked about 80% of it alot.

[Splicer]

I wish Igor had continued with the band. I think he would have brought some decent compositional chops to Yes and his keyboard playing was top notch.

[BobM]

You want to discuss most everything since Going For The One? or since Relayer?

[DoubleDrummer]

I guess I should qualify the "weaker" description. Of course, with my namesake, even a weak YES album is better than 95% of what else is out there. Even Heaven and Earth.
As for The Ladder, I've always liked about 80% of it alot.

I wish Igor had continued with the band. I think he would have brought some decent compositional chops to Yes and his keyboard playing was top notch.

Yes.................he was very talented.

I've been such a fan over the years that I don't believe any of their provisions qualify as weaker in relation to the entire spectrum of music produced in their era.
There are some weaker albums from YES when compared to other YES albums, but I like those too, with a few songs as exceptions.

I listen to MAGNIFICATION, OPEN YOUR EYES (mostly Sherwood), and THE LADDER fairly often and enjoy those quite a bit.
I would rate the very first eponymous album weaker than the three above.
There are portions of TORMATO, DRAMA and UNION that are weaker, IMO.
And I really don't know much about FLY FROM HERE and HEAVEN & EARTH.

Everything else is magical in my book................with the (amazing) top period running from 1971 until 1977:
THE YES ALBUM -- FRAGILE -- CLOSE TO THE EDGE -- TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS -- RELAYER -- GOING FOR THE ONE

I also personally enjoyed the Trevor Rabin period and did not agree with the "sellout" critics during his time:
90125 -- BIG GENERATOR -- TALK

[BravadoNJ]

i don't think that Magnification & Fly From Here are weak albums. i still listen to them often.

when The Ladder & Open Your Eyes came out i liked them, but recent listens have left a sour note- seems more humdrum.

i've listened (by force) to Heaven & Earth only 3 times since it got it, to me it's like a stranger. JD's writing doesn't fit in with Yes.

i'll get flack for this but i think Going For The One is a weak album. sure Awaken is brilliant, but the rest is so so.

if there's a new album with JD & BS writing- i'm getting out of town!

[JAMOOL]

I wrote about the two most recent ones right here - agreed that FFH is quite good. It really feels like a Yes album which to me puts it above most of their other GFTO work.

[JAMOOL]

Also - I think their latter-day prog stuff, like KTA, The Ladder, Magnification - all decent, but IMO by that point all the imitators were lapping them on a consistent basis. Sometimes they can be great - I love parts of "That, That Is", and "The Ladder" is a terrific song, maybe one of the best they ever did - but I just never want to return to those albums.

[2steves]

IF you consider The Ladder to be a weak Yes album (many here do, I don't), I would recommend that one as well.

Been listening to it but can't stand most of the album but I have an EP of it---
Homeworld
It will be a good day
New language
Nine voices

Howe is amazing on these tracks so they interest me---although it's not something I would listen to all the time
The keyboardist is good too bad he had a drinking problem---but may have been too young to handle this gig

[Kcrimso]

I wish Igor had continued with the band. I think he would have brought some decent compositional chops to Yes and his keyboard playing was top notch.

What Igor has composed that makes you think that? Honest question

[bill g]

Funny, the other day I pulled out Keys vol 2, studio disc, as I've always loved 'Mind Drive', and notice that 'Mind Drive' doesn't really do it for me anymore, but surprisingly 'Footprints', and even much more so, 'Bring Me To The Power' I thought were great. I like parts of 'Mind Drive', but don't really like it when Jon shouts and yells. A few of the melodic sections I enjoyed, and there is a great moment, where there is a variation of what could be constituted as the 'chorus', using cool minor chords. But 'Bring Me To The Power', especially the first half, is downright inspired! I was surprised how good it was, or at least, how much I enjoyed it.

[yamishogun]

Been listening to it but can't stand most of the album but I have an EP of it---

Homeworld
It will be a good day
New language
Nine voices

I never made an EP for this album, but those are the songs I listen to - about 30 minutes. I'll listen to others including "Finally" and "The Messenger" but usually just the four songs.

As for FFH, I like the core of the suite a lot but prefer the shorter two track version that was recorded at the time of Drama . 100% "Bumpy Ride" free!
I like "Life on a Film Set" but had listened to the Buggles version enough the weeks before FFH so usually skip that. Then on to the last three songs. So about a 35 minute EP.

That is the length of Drama and almost the length of Tormato and Going For the One



With Close to the Edge, I took out "I Get Up, I Get Down", "The Preacher, The Teacher".....

[Mikhael]

I know I'm definitely in the minority here, but I thought "Talk" was the strongest of the Rabin years. About 75% of it was really good to me. I rate it above most of what came after.

"The Ladder" wasn't bad, either. "KTA" was rambling and disjointed in the writing department, and "Magnification" was bland. Even Steve Howe was less than thrilled with that one, as "Little Hitler" wouldn't let anyone else add input to his material by then. Since then, meh.

[Facelift]

I know I'm definitely in the minority here, but I thought "Talk" was the strongest of the Rabin years. About 75% of it was really good to me. I rate it above most of what came after.

I think Talk is a decent album. It's timing was terrible. Bad enough that it was an album that sounded like it was made in 1987 or 1988 getting released in 1994, (killing its commercial potential) but coming out as it did on the heels of ABWH and Union, I think it seemed like a step backwards for the band to fans, in terms of what they wanted the band to be and who they wanted in it (and it didn't look much like Yes either, what with the album cover). I also think that Talk is better than the majority of albums released under the Yes name that came after, but IMO that's not a very tough thing to do.

[Garden Dreamer]

Nothing has changed for me no matter how many listens I give these albums - referring to anything post-Drama. Trevor-Yes is unlistenable to me (I'm not calling those albums weak, just not my cuppa tea) and I could pick a track or two from the remaining albums that I would consider decent, but there is no reason for me to have anything post-Drama in my collection.

[Mister Triscuits]

Funny, the other day I pulled out Keys vol 2, studio disc, as I've always loved 'Mind Drive', and notice that 'Mind Drive' doesn't really do it for me anymore

"Mind Drive" starts out great. Listening to that opening for the first time was really thrilling. But when it stops dead about five minutes in and switches to that namby-pamby little "It will bring you rain" ditty, that just kills all the momentum. Even though the whole thing has some interesting compositional work tying things together later on, that part just ruins it for me.

I like the KTA1 studio tracks much better than the KTA2 ones. I think "That, That Is" is the best thing they've done post-'70s (not counting ABWH).

[yesstiles]

With Close to the Edge, I took out "I Get Up, I Get Down", "The Preacher, The Teacher".....

Yikes. Yes is my favorite artist. In all of Yes' vast canon, "The Preacher The Teacher" is to me their pinnacle moment. Shivers and goosebumps. Studio version that is; the post 1973 Squire-harmonica versions ruin it for me.

[yamishogun]

^
That was just a little joke

[DTA]

I've actually come to like Open Your Eyes. If they had just gotten a bit more adventurous with some of the songs and didn't waste their good bits in shoddy songs, I think it'd be a really great album. The title track is incredible, and the rest of the songs all have something good in them I can latch onto (except Loveshine and Man In The Moon - even the titles suck on those). The intro to Wonderlove (another stupid title) is outstanding and I can imagine it being the intro to a sprawling epic, but then it devolves into sappy, adult-contemporary schlock, much like Miracle of Life. But schlock is good every now and then!

[Mikhael]

I think Talk is a decent album. ...it didn't look much like Yes either, what with the album cover

Now this I agree with. It also didn't SOUND like the Yes most fans wanted. I took it for what it was, without prejudice, since I thought BG was pretty crappy (especially in the production - the snare sounded like somebody tapping on a table-top), and I knew it wasn't going to sound like Howe-era Yes. So as a stand-alone recording, I thought it had some good material on it.

[happytheman]

What Igor has composed that makes you think that? Honest question

Have yet to find a copy that's priced reasonably.. but this shows Igor could not only play but write..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6o9...No4GWjZNAIUNg_

[rich]

I wish Igor had continued with the band. I think he would have brought some decent compositional chops to Yes and his keyboard playing was top notch.

Agreed, he really was talented... blows Mrs Doubtfire away (Jeff Downes)

[rich]

" i'll get flack for this but i think Going For The One is a weak album. sure Awaken is brilliant, but the rest is so so."

no flack, I used to think that... the preceding LP'S were simply stupendous with the exception of Tales imho... now I will get some flack!! I have grown to love GFTO and think of it as a top 5 Yes LP. I think Parallels is brilliant particularly on Yesshows. Of the post Tomato LP"S I'd put Talk and the Ladder at the top, both great to these ears.

[bondegezou]

What Igor has composed that makes you think that? Honest question

Well, he released a solo album, Piano Works, that's great: http://www.relayer35.com/Yescography/PianoWorks.htm On The Ladder, he had a big part in writing "Homeworld" (the chorus), "If Only You Knew", "It will be a Good Day" and "New Language", it appears.

Henry