Yes - 90125

Floyd

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Things got rather strange in Yes land. Steve Howe left. Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes left. Leaving no Yes, but just Chris Squire and Alan White, the drummer. No band at all, in fact!! There was a move to get Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, of the then recently deceased Led Zeppelin to team up with Alan White and Chris Squire. A new band to be called 'XYZ', ex-yes, ex-zeppelin. Clever, huh?? Robert Plant wasn't really into it though, and bar a few rehearsals, nothing came of it. So, enter a Mr Trevor Rabin. Guitar player, keyboard player, singer and songwriter. A new idea, a band called Cinema, to feature Alan White, Chris Squire and Trevor Rabin..... Enter Trevor Horn on production dutires. Enter ex-yes keyboard man Tony Kaye.... you see what's happening here?? The record company decided that Trevor Rabin wasn't a strong enough front-man. So, in an entirely unexpected twist, re-enter Jon Anderson, five sixths of the way through the recording of the album, and Yes are re-born. Only they aren't - nearly all of the songs were Trevor Rabin songs, the sound and vision is his. The guitar playing of Steve Howe ( then in superground Asia ) is deeply missed. But, there no two ways about it, Trevor Horn did a fabulous production job - 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart' was a huge hit single, and Yes really WERE re-born! The production values are very eighties, although for 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart' for example, pretty cutting edge for the time. The sound of this album is not a Yes sound, but Jon Anderson does sing in places - and that reminds you of Yes, even if nothing else does.

'Owner Of A Lonely Heart' is a great pop song, one of the finest of the decade, and won Yes a whole new audience. Elsewhere, things are less great. Lots of four or five minute, mid-tempo songs with semi hard rock guitar. Songs lacking character, although beautifully professional, and very well produced. The lyrics are toss. Some might say Jon Andersons lyrics were hardly great - but at least they raised a smile! These are non-descript. Still, the production continues to be fabulous throughout. Trevor Horn rescued this album. He played a big part in it. The song 'Cinema', the name of the band that nearly were, a two minute instrumental - is full of Chris Squire and Alan White more than any of the other computer programmed songs that are here. It sounds more like Yes, as a result. 'Leave It' is a great vocal showcase, plugging into Yes of the past whilst still sounding like the then new Yes of the present. 'Leave It' is a grand thing and one of the best tracks here. But then, 'Our Song', 'City Of Love'? These aren't Yes songs, they aren't good songs. The production is all that's here - Trevor Rabin wasn't a great song-writer and 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart' was a fluke. Well, that's just my opinion, of course. Trevor Rabin was incredibly talented - and Yes became a vehicle for him. He got heard, he wouldn't have done so otherwise. Well, don't you think? The closing 'Hearts' is a pleasing seven/eight minute long piece - and the kind of thing that i'd want a band calling themselves Yes doing. Not to get stuck in the mud, or anything. It sounds little, very little, like Yes of the past. But, there are vocal workouts. There is good structure and plenty of ideas. Still, all in all, 90125 is a rather compromised event, for me. It's a sell-out - but, the fact that's it's actually pretty good, is almost enough to compensate.

Track Listing:
Owner Of A Lonely Heart
Hold On
It Can Happen
Changes
Cinema
Leave It
Our Song
City Of Love
Hearts

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