Progressive Rock

[Protein Junkie]

I’ve heard The Ladder. My brother got it. I just explored other stuff since the mid 80’s. Yes were of their time, with me. I was obsessed by them from the seventies on, but The Buggles threw me completely. Never really recovered from that.

From what I recall the idea of recruiting Horn and Downes was light hearted but Squire took seriously.
Looking back at it now Yes had hit a brick wall creatively. Anderson was firmly in trench with the fairies at the bottom of the garden and Wakeman was his best friend.
I didn’t mind Drama or 90125 but the long awaited follow up to the latter was poor.
We then had Talk which contained three brilliant tracks but was so compressed in its production.
The Ladder for me contained Yes last two classical tracks in Homeworld and Nine Voices.
Since then the occasional chink of light with To the Moment and Into the Storm

 

[Dage]

Do you know http://www.babyblaue-seiten.de/ ? It's a German site but does a great job tracking most progressive outings, a lot of underground stuff too and of course on an internationale scale. Google translate will do a decent job on most reviews.

 

[plongo]

Reunited prog-rockers Porcupine Tree on surviving their rift: ‘You can’t help but feel bitter’ | Pop and rock | The Guardian

To use racing parlance; he (Wilson) has his own ideas on the game. AKA he's a total weirdo and not a team player.
Would be a scum player not a blue

 

[chesterbells]

Hogarth's voice annoys me after a while, I find it quite uninteresting but I can manage an album or two every so often. The new album's okay but there's bits on it where you think "Aaah, I wish Fish had sung that bit!". I listen to Fish's solo work more than Hogarth's Marillion but sadly they were much better when they were together.

Your first sentence sums up my ‘problem’ with them exactly. It’s just something about the whiny, quivering timbre of it that grates quite quickly for me.
I’ve really really wanted to like them post Fish, and boy have I tried, not least because I love Rothery’s guitar playing. I’ve learnt to enjoy certain individual tracks, or parts of them, but still really struggle to manage a full album.
By contrast, their first 4 albums I love to bits in their totality.

 

[chesterbells]

From what I recall the idea of recruiting Horn and Downes was light hearted but Squire took seriously.
Looking back at it now Yes had hit a brick wall creatively. Anderson was firmly in trench with the fairies at the bottom of the garden and Wakeman was his best friend.
I didn’t mind Drama or 90125 but the long awaited follow up to the latter was poor.
We then had Talk which contained three brilliant tracks but was so compressed in its production.
The Ladder for me contained Yes last two classical tracks in Homeworld and Nine Voices.
Since then the occasional chink of light with To the Moment and Into the Storm

I think you’re doing Big Generator a bit of a disservice there mate.
Holy Lamb was awful but the other 7 tracks all had merit imho, and I’d put Shoot High Aim Low up there alongside their best work from any era. I think partly because 90125 was so incredible, songwriting and production-wise, that whatever came next was also gonna struggle to compare.
Agree with you totally about Talk though.

 

[DelToro]

To use racing parlance; he (Wilson) has his own ideas on the game. AKA he's a total weirdo and not a team player.
Would be a scum player not a blue

Nah.

He's a Kevin de Bruyne - orchestrating all the great moves and bringing out the best in others such as Barbieri, Beggs, Bowness, Geffen etc.

 

[Protein Junkie]

I think you’re doing Big Generator a bit of a disservice there mate.
Holy Lamb was awful but the other 7 tracks all had merit imho, and I’d put Shoot High Aim Low up there alongside their best work from any era. I think partly because 90125 was so incredible, songwriting and production-wise, that whatever came next was also gonna struggle to compare.
Agree with you totally about Talk though.

I just remember being totally disappointed after 90125. It took an age to come out iirc too. Agree with everything else re 90125.
I value your opinion on BG and I do like Final Eyes and Love Will Find a Way but I rarely play the album.
I love chatting about Yes but no great surprise there :-)

 

[Dage]

90125 in my eyes was their last half decent output. Then they tried to emulate the commercial success of Pink Floyd or ELP and failed badly. After Howe and Downes left the band there was just not enough Yes in yes anymore. They probably would've fared better with building a new band with Rabin (they had that almost with "Cinema").

 

[OB1]

I think you’re doing Big Generator a bit of a disservice there mate.
Holy Lamb was awful but the other 7 tracks all had merit imho, and I’d put Shoot High Aim Low up there alongside their best work from any era. I think partly because 90125 was so incredible, songwriting and production-wise, that whatever came next was also gonna struggle to compare.
Agree with you totally about Talk though.

I like Big Generator plenty enough but that doesn't mean it isn't a some way of the peak that 90125 was. Shoot High is up there though.

Then again, I dont' have the downer on Yes' more recent output that most do. Naturally it is a long way off their glory days but it doesn't offend my years. I'm unlikely to go and see them live though without Mr Anderson. Shame ARW didn't make a studio album. I've been a fan of Rabin's since his first solo album.

 

[Protein Junkie]

90125 in my eyes was their last half decent output. Then they tried to emulate the commercial success of Pink Floyd or ELP and failed badly. After Howe and Downes left the band there was just not enough Yes in yes anymore. They probably would've fared better with building a new band with Rabin (they had that almost with "Cinema").

I’m not sure if we can count Downes as a traditional Yes man.
Maybe 90125 was actually a more authentic line up as Kaye returned. It only had one new member where as Drama had two. Mind you the music on Drama was actually more akin to the Yes sound.
I think the problem with Cinema once Anderson returned it was always going to be Yes.