DRAMA by Yes: Lost Classic or Justified Dud?

geir there aren't a lot of swirling organ runs in any hair metal i've heard, like there are in "homeworld." that's more a classic 70s prog thing. and "lightning strikes"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEdh48lNuSs
and "face to face" sound nothing remotely like hair metal

I love The Ladder and always feel guilty for loving it. If Only You Knew probably ha a lot to do with that.

it's a weird album. it's ok. it's probably the best of talk-open your eyes-keys to ascension-ladder stretch, but the songs aren't very memorable (none of them in this entire era are).

I like magnification, but I don't really like the orchestra on it.

I love Magnification. All the choons are 4/4 but I really like how well the orchestra just plugs in.

i <3 jon anderson but he has been incapable of anything but twee new age shite for 20+ years

i was on this thread mostly for nostalgia and cheap lols once i heard the new lineup was making a record but horn being involved intrigued me
horn/downes wrote much of the new album and it sounds to me after listening to all the samples that they have managed to make a record that is not an embarrassment - which is the best you can expect from a yes album in 2011. it's sort of "soft" and very buggles-y, no real Drama-ish rocking out, but a credible effort all around. if the classic lineup dudes manage to live for another 2-3 years i'm sure they'll get together for one more go and benoit david will go back to the tribute circuit.

Having to do overtime again so I'm chucking some of this. Currently The Ladder. Did Drama yesterday, loved it more than I did upthread

aside from the corny songs, "if only you knew," "finally," and "it'll be a good day" (which isn't horrible), i like 'the ladder' a lot. it's a "return to form." i'm as impressed with them for getting their heads together enough to record such a strong album thirty years into being a band as i am with the cure for recording their best album, 'disintegration,' ten years into it. i realize that perseverance and longevity aren't exactly the first qualities that most people (me included) look for in rock bands, but there's something (hesitate to admit it) inspirational about how dynamic the epics are and how "lightning strikes"/"can i"/"face to face" are at once manic and bizarre while referencing ancient touchstones, like their own "we have heaven" and the kinks' "phenomenal cat." i acknowledge that this is a quirk, even pathological, like i said earlier

if this new one is a patch on 'the ladder,' i will be stoked

and the kinks' "phenomenal cat."

pretty sure that's just a stock loop that came with mellotrons

if the classic lineup dudes manage to live for another 2-3 years i'm sure they'll get together for one more go and benoit david will go back to the tribute circuit

Ooh, I don't know about that. I interviewed Wakeman a couple of weeks ago, and he said that there was no way the classic line-up would ever reform now. He's still sore on Anderson's behalf, that Squire/Howe/White weren't prepared to hang fire while Anderson had his health problems. Wakeman's next project is a three-way with Anderson and Rabin, by the way.

Then again, I pushed him a bit and he mumbled "never say never"...

Wakeman's next project is a three-way with Anderson and Rabin, by the way.

UH-OH

I saw the classic lineup play in '03 and they were on fire. One of the best shows -'ve ever seen. IMHO they should've bowed out after that tour. Gone out as champs.

I've listened to all the previews for this a number of times. I'm a big Drama fan. I don't think this is quite that calibre;

Really? I've been listening to them too and I think they suggest something with a wider scope than Drama. Hopeful.

the '07 tour was pretty good too.

when i first got dish installed there was this channel that broadcast recent concerts by bands like Rush, Yes, and the Moody Blues. The Yes one was particularly awesome, though Steve Howe's cadaver was kind of awkward. also, I don't think there was a single non-white person in the audience which struck me as pretty odd (but not really)

was it the one with chris squire wearing spandex?

I will listen to this where I listen to everything by the new Yes: in my friend's car.

We saw them about a year and a half ago with the new singer. It was a really good show -- but let's be clear:

Steve Howe can BRING IT. He may look cadaverous but the guy absolutely tears it up live.

when is this thing going to leak?

don't remember the spandex but they were all dressed pretty ridiculously. I agree about Howe though. Seems like he does nothing but play guitar.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CtjAeK4GUvM/TZRzJ7n7zYI/AAAAAAAABGY/a1FgGGz9-Rg/s400/yesrobshanahan.jpg http://www.yesworld.com/images/yes2011-home.jpg

I can't work out which one is the 'shop

second one I think, I guess to make it seem less like horn is a member of the band this time out.

I wonder who farted btw

howe is a vegan, so him.

this has leaked btw (actually it's already out in japan).

certainly the best thing with the Yes name on it since 90125; you could say it's a bit too smooth, maybe, and the buggles demos and drama-era yes-castoff 'we can fly from here' are the best things on it by far, but it's better than it has any reason to be. new vocalist is completely fine and doesn't ape anderson through the whole album. doesn't really sound like 'drama' either.

Digging it, actually. Only a few songs in. Nice glossy spacious old school Horn production. : )

"i saw you at the air race yesterday, april showers. . . ."

this new one reminds me that rio came out a little while after drama

Alright - my opinion: It seems to lose its way after the "Fly From Here" suite (yep. With an "Overture" and everything.) though the Chris Squire-sung track is an enjoyable enough attempt at the "90125/Big Generator" vibe. The solo Steve Howe track is filler - why didn't that just end up on one of his own records? "Life On A Film Set" ( another Buggles leftover) has an odd early Crimson/ELP feel and it almost works. Overall it feels...lackluster, down to the playing. No amazing playing from Howe or Squire - more like they're filling space. Or they're thinking of lunch.

there's also a little too much asia going on and . . . yoso maybe?

and the buggles suite doesn't hang together all that well, on first listen, at least -- concept's alan parsons project loose, 'i robot' or 'turn of a friendly card' or one of those

but still i'm a sucker for these vibes. would love to smoke a bowl with j anderson the first time he hears this, to see the look on his face

"sailor, beware. there are storm clouds"

Yeah, I'm a sucker for it, too. Especially the Trevor Horn touch and those big synth parts (haha!). Kind of happy Jon wasn't part of this one, actually. He deserves better.

amen

squire's song doesn't sound too far off his solo album, or that syn reunion album from a couple years ago, at least for the first minute. then. . . .

okay, "life on a film set" could be a buggles reunion song. that's more like it

ween, "the hour of need," the mollusk or white pepper

gerard johnson (st. etienne and then a bunch of yes associated stuff) co-wrote 'man you always wanted me to be' which yeah, does sound like that Syn album, very poppy (so is hour of need. actually I could imagine Sarah Cracknell singing that one. can't you?)

whoah. almost as hard for me to imagine sarah singing on a yes album as beth gibbons. lisa gerrard i could see. but i had no idea about gerard johnson's association with squire. that enough blows my mind

The whole Fly from Here suite is not too bad but it sounds awfully like a pastiche. imo Bumpy Ride is Yes's way of saying "look we can do the trickier stuff, omg look an irregular time signature and now it's getting faster LOOK" and almost works despite sounding incredibly self-conscious.

In its entirety the album just washes over me. Sometimes I swear I can hear the arthritis grinding away at these old buggers.

That's a pretty fair description--on the plus side, nothing on the record sounds godawful or even embarrassing-- on the whole it's a very inoffensive album, with no real high or low points to speak of. Production is clean but not rich, same synth sounds throughout. On first pass I guess the final track is the best, though I can't really remember how it goes.

Same! I hear the end track with its On the Silent Wings of Freedom-style guitar work and think "oh yes this is that good track at the end" and then it ends and I instantly forget what it was.

That sums up the album for me — its middling inoffensiveness (p much as you said) is nice while it lasts but it doesn't leave an impression. I don't know whether I'd prefer them to have taken a few chances and risked producing a respectable turd.

Having said all that, it's most definitely a true Yes album in every way that matters.

album's growing on me, even the suite. took a few listens with 'the ladder' too. this is one of the few albums i'd endorse listening to on shuffle. i think the sequencing kind of sucks and the suite doesn't hold together well enough to work as one piece. taking it apart and letting "movements" shuffle in between "songs" has me enjoying the subtle "themes" common to each of the "movements" better than when i listen to it straight. man do i put in work for this band

ahahahaha

Usually the work pays off, that's why we keep doing it. I'll keep your shuffle suggestion in mind btw; I can imagine how much better this album would work with the dull second half being spiced up by that recurring motif.

that's what happens, for me at least. plus, instead of one forced suite, and then a bunch of songs, the whole thing becomes one long interconnected listen

Yes has never worked with running themes outside contiguous suites iirc, perhaps they should formally give it a go in their dotage.

there might be some recurring melodies etc scattered throughout 'topographic oceans,' not sure. that one's defeated me so far through the years. i'm all ears if they record more after this. i hope if t horn's not on board again, that at least they use a strong producer of his caliber; that's what seems to have worked best since way back with eddie offord. would love it if they gave it a go with like eno or fridmann (or albini or kanye) but somehow i doubt that's in the cards

it does seem to be the beginning of a new era, although it probably depends on how much longer the dudes can hold up (unless they're gradually passing the baton to a whole new generation via oliver/benoit, like a cricket team or something)

(providing squire is prepared to let go even in death)

chris squire and keith richards will outlive us all

The suite has really really grown on me. I must have played it about 15 times now. In terms of greatness it's better than Machine Messiah/In the Presence Of, but obv it's not up there with Awaken/Delirium/Close to the Edge. Squire's bass work is fantastic and David's voice really suits the material.

Also this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly_from_Here

According to Squire, the title track is the band's eleventh epic piece

Only eleven?