![]() The progressive rock genre hadn’t yet solidified when Yes recorded their debut album. This lineup didn’t last long – on the subsequent tour, the band refused to change the key of older Yes tracks to fit Horn’s voice. Without Wakeman and Anderson, the band sound tougher – opener ‘Machine Messiah’ is closer to metal than usual for Yes. The pair helped Yes to regroup after the messiness of Tormato – closing track ‘Tempus Fugit’ is particularly strong. On Drama, the departed Anderson and Wakeman were replaced by The Buggles – Geoff Downes and Trevor Horn had recently enjoyed a hit with ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’. Songs like ‘Then’ are almost comical with their overstuffed arrangements.ĭespite Yes’ plethora of lineup changes, Drama is the only album on this list not to feature Jon Anderson on lead vocals. The material is a smidge weaker than the debut overall, but the major difference is the addition of orchestration – it’s not a good fit for Yes, who are busy players. The second Yes album follows a similar format to their debut – an eight-track record with a couple of 1960s covers, this time of songs by Richie Havens and Buffalo Springfield. ![]() ‘The Ancient’ is tough going, the most avant-garde Yes track of the decade. ‘The Revealing Science of God’ is a memorable opener and ‘Ritual’ is a triumphant closer, but neither justifies its twenty-minute length. It topped the UK charts anyway, even though Wakeman later compared it to a padded bra. ![]() After Yes’ impressive growth over their first five albums, it’s a disappointment, with not enough musical ideas to sustain a double album. Yes’ sixth album was derived from a footnote in Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi. Songs like ‘Circus of Heaven’ and ‘Arriving UFO’ use gimmicky sound effects, and even the stronger songs like ‘Release Release’ have overstuffed arrangements. Tormato is stuffed with cheesy sounds – technology like Squire’s Mu-Tron bass pedals and Wakeman’s Birotron haven’t aged well. The group lost engineer Eddy Offord, an overlooked player in Yes’ peak era, early in the album’s recording. Given the circumstances, it’s not surprising that Big Generator is a fascinating mess, at times both a commercial 1980s record (the title track) and an oddball arty album (‘Holy Lamb (Song for Harmonic Convergence)’).Īs with the above example, Yes followed a triumphant comeback with a disappointing mess of an album. The record company were keen for another hit, while Anderson wanted to introduce Yes’ new audience to some “Stravinsky-isms”. They squandered the follow-up with infighting – producer Trevor Horn quit during the prolonged recording process. Yes Albums Ranked: 1968-1987 #12 Big Generatorĩ0125 provided a way forward for Yes, their highest-selling album. But this list focuses on the band’s first dozen albums, through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s – the group largely disappeared from the spotlight after this point. The band have continued to the present day – albums from around the turn of the century like 1999’s The Ladder and 2001’s Magnification were generally well-received. They reinvented themselves as a pop band in the 1980s, scoring a hit with 1983’s ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart’. But they rebounded with more excellent albums in the mid-1970s, before breaking up after 1980’s Drama. The band alienated fans and critics alike with the overlong Tales From Topographic Oceans in 1973. The commercial zenith of Yes was in the early 1970s with albums like Fragile. The most beloved Yes lineup featured the stratospherically high lead vocals of Jon Anderson, the thunderous bass and harmonies of Squire, the jazz-influenced drumming of Bill Bruford, the spidery guitar and harmonies of Steve Howe, and the dazzling keyboards of the caped Rick Wakeman. Despite a revolving crew of members – bassist Chris Squire was the only constant over the twelve albums covered on this list – the band enjoyed consistently brilliant players in their five-piece lineups. Starting out as a psychedelic pop band, they became one of its leading exponents of the emerging genre of progressive rock. Progressive rock behemoths Yes emerged from London in the late 1960s.
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