Re-Visiting weaker YES albums

[ledsox]

Bumpy ride sounds like music for pre-schoolers.

By the way, how does "Heaven and Earth" rate in Yes's catalog? How many albums(and which ones)would you consider to be worse? It's the only Yes studio album I have never owned or heard.

I put H+E above Talk, OYE, Union and FFH (I know that's not saying a lot). For me it's in there with Tormato, The Ladder and Magnification as flawed albums that I still really like big parts of.
It's a different Yes, for sure. It's the lightest (and poppiest) Yes album and it took a few plays to sink in but it has a Yes heart at it's core that I think will age well. Also, it's not overproduced at all and the cd can be turned up loud.
I did make my own cdr version with a slightly sped up "Believe Again" and resequenced it with the best of the FFH tracks and it's a fun engaging listen.

[Digital_Man]

According to rateyourmusic the only Yes album that is rated lower is "Open your eyes." On progarchives, it's the same thing(as far as original studio albums go).

[Kcrimso]

Bumpy ride sounds like music for pre-schoolers.

By the way, how does "Heaven and Earth" rate in Yes's catalog? How many albums(and which ones)would you consider to be worse? It's the only Yes studio album I have never owned or heard.

Only Open Your Eyes is worse.

[Reginod]

I didn't have a problem with "Bumpy Ride" as a bit of music, but the way it was shoved into the FFH suite didn't work, IMO. I would have wanted to take some more time and arrange things differently.

H&E wasn't a bad album but certainly lacked energy.

At this point my question is, will Yes ever make another album? I'm sure that they don't lack for material, but if the will isn't there among all the members, then I guess it won't happen.

Even though I'd probably go to the show if they came to town, I've got little interest in Yes as a live band at this point. If they can re-invent themselves as a creative entity, that will be cool.

And I also feel that, even though the current membership is doing OK in terms of keeping Yes out performing to audiences, the real key to the band's legitimacy lies in Jon Anderson's hands. Too bad that the legal reality of Yes says otherwise.

In terms of weak Yes albums, you get what you get. I like or can at least appreciate them all for different reasons, but I don't think anyone is going to say with a straight face that what they've done in the last 35 years is as good as what came before.