It's the 30th anniversary of the release of "Big Generator," and I plan to celebrate as I always do: by pretending this album never existed.
How about you?
It's the 30th anniversary of the release of "Big Generator," and I plan to celebrate as I always do: by pretending this album never existed.
How about you?
I'm too busy celebrating Richard Marx's debut.
Both comments made me laugh, I must admit.
It's not an album I play very much. The sessions dragged on forever, with Trevor Horn leaving the project (and frankly he did not need them). His diminished presence here makes clear to me that he had a lot to do with the success of 90125. It's a very fragmented, bitty album that simply doesn't hang together as well as its predecessor. And by 1987, the momentum from 90125 from four years earlier was completely gone.
'Rhythm Of Love' is a worthy single, 'Shoot High Aim Low' is brooding and atmospheric, whilst 'I'm Running' and 'Final Eyes' even have a little of the old Yes magic. The other half of the album, I wouldn't care if I never heard it again. 'Almost Like Love' is especially awful.
This album is one I have a soft spot for, even though it's not as good as 90125 IMO. It's not a classic, but it's not near as bad as the reputation it seems to have garnered over the years.
I'm Running, Final Eyes, Love Will Find A Way, Rhythm Of Love, and even the title track are tunes I still listen to when I get in the mood for 80s Yes.
I only cared for two tracks on this one, 'Final Eyes', and 'I'm Running', curiously both I find outstanding however. The rest of the album.... not so much
I only get the impression that it has a bad reputation among those who hate 90125, like I assume the OP does. I was disappointed at first as I was with Rush's HyF but both steadily grew on me. The difference was that I only didn't care for one song on HyF and grew to like that one where as Big Generator was frustrating to listen to. I thought "Rhythm of Love" (it isn't about love) was quite good but somehow was missing something. I didn't want a Rabin song like "Love Willl Find A Way" (also not about love) on a Yes album even though has good parts. "Almost Like Love" (again, nothing to do with love) has a very good climax but not thrilled with the song. "Big Generator" was too jarring but grew on me. "I'm Running", "Final Eyes" and "Shoot High, Aim Low" are very good but only the latter a classic post Drama Yes song for me.
Ten years ago, I found my cassette that I hadn't listened to for a very long time, played it once while walking around and threw it away. Last summer, I was curious so bought the CD for very cheap, played only the half I liked maybe five times in a week, and it fared much better. I still prefer it to Magnification, Open Your Eyes and H & E, and maybe tied with Union, which I don't dislike as much as most seem to.
I started on Yes with Drama and 90125, and worked my way back. I have a residual fondness for 90125, particularly the end of "It Can Happen" and start of "Changes". By the time Big Generator was released, I was practically a Yes completist (easier then than now). I think I listened to the album, literally, once. My completism was thoroughly cured.
The upside is, it probably saved me from buying Tormato.
... “there’s a million ways to learn” (which there are, by the way), but ironically, there’s a million things to eat, I’m just not sure I want to eat them all. -- Jeff Berlin
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
'Love Will Find A Way' is a pleasant AOR song, I just don't see anything 'Yes' about it myself. I feel the same about Talk. Come to think of it I also don't like things like 'If Only You Knew' and 'Don't Go', so it's not just a Rabin thing!
I rate 90125 highly, FWIW. I just find it a far superior album in every respect. 'City Of Love' I could probably do without but it's not terrible.
He was in big demand by then- I remember reading an interview with him where he said he simply got fed up of them and their silly arguments, when he could basically work with anyone he wanted instead. And of course Horn was not just an ex-member but a big fan of the band too.
IMHO the good tracks on BG are among the finest YesWest moments, especially much of the 2nd half of the album.
If you're actually reading this then chances are you already have my last album but if NOT and you're curious:
https://battema.bandcamp.com/
Also, Ephemeral Sun: it's a thing and we like making things that might be your thing: https://ephemeralsun.bandcamp.com
IMO the best album with the Yes name on it since Relayer, but I don't like to think of this album as a Yes album. Cinema wasn't conceived as Yes, or a "poor-man's Yes," but something distinct from Yes. I like it the most of the 90125/BG/Talk trio, and I think of this unit ending its existence with Talk.
Yes, the best Yes did, yes.
Haven't listened to this album since it and I parted ways some 28 years ago, but inspired by such wonderfully sweet nostalgia I opened five separate YouTube-browsers and played "Almost Like Love" at five different tempi, adding a sixth browser at somewhat higher volume donning an extremely slow-tempo run of that deathrow interview Ted Bundy gave with Dr. James Dobson in which Ted blames his murderous activities on the influence of porn in an effort to escape ol' sparky. It was great to hear the excessive abundance of Jon's fresh and safe voice underneath the more unsafe and soon extinct one of Ted's. I mean, I'm on first names here not because I know them or anything, but because I really, really feel I should or shouldn't know them. Or anything.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
VERY underrated album. With the exception of Holy Lamb, I enjoy it top to bottom...and listen to it far more than/prefer it to 90125.
... “there’s a million ways to learn” (which there are, by the way), but ironically, there’s a million things to eat, I’m just not sure I want to eat them all. -- Jeff Berlin
Although there was not much left of their 70s glory it is still the last consistent album Yes made.
Very much a child of its time it's bombastic Power Pop, which might not hold up to the likeminded "Hold Your Fire" by Rush,
but it's still an OK album.
Everything went very much downward from there for Yes to sometimes embarrassing levels.
Count me one who thought 90125 was pretty damned brilliant but dismiss Big Generator as a full-blown flop.
It's not the production, it's the songs. Just awful. All of them.
The Prog Corner
I actually really like "Almost Like Love" :-)
"I'm Running" is classic YES.
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