DRAMA

Most controversial of Yes albums - for obvious reasons. I mail-ordered this on vinyl in 1987, in the midst of hearing the whole Yes catalogue little by little. Was I aware of it being Anderson-less, I don't even remember. But I liked it the way it is. I came to like much more many classic Yes songs such as And You And I or Heart of the Sunrise, but Drama has survived as one of my most important vinyls. All songs are quite strong - especially I like 'Run To The Light' and 'Into The Lens'. They have that lovely eerie feeling! It gets pretty close to sounding ridiculous as Trevor Horn sings "I asked my love to give me she-e- e-e-elter" but with the interesting rhythm arrangement and Downes' tasty keyboard texture it's just grrreat. The sound of the album is one-of-a-kind in the whole prog history. __________ I borrowed the CD with 10 bonus tracks and also they showed me a brand new side of Yes. There are tracks with Jon and Rick still around that may not be any gems, but quite OK compared to Tormato anyway. But the most interesting thing were instrumental tracks by Chris, Alan and Steve. Hey, it sounds almost like The Police! And remember it was 1980, why should they close their ears completely and try to sound the same as in the old days? The booklet gives a nice historical view. When Jon had returned to Yes he understandably was against playing any Drama material in concerts, but when they did include bits of it, the audience responded very warmly. There is no reason for any Yes fan to hate Drama. Just ENJOY it!