DRAMA

Drama has slightly more of an 80's sound compared to earlier albums, but it is still far, far away from the more commercial 90125 or Big Generator. Indeed, this album is much more in line with earlier Yes albums than what might be expected given the radical changes in the line up. Such vital members as Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman were here replaced by Geoffrey Downes and Trevor Horn of The Buggles of all people! Geoff and Steve Howe would later form Asia. But Drama - thankfully! - does not sound anything like The Buggles or Asia. Drama is still very much a classic Yes album and, in my opinion, an improvement over Tormato, Going For The One, Relayer and Tales From Topographic Oceans.

In many ways Drama is similar to the Relayer album. For both of these albums Rick was replaced by a new keyboard player that only stayed for one album. For Relayer it was Patrick Moraz and here it is, as already mentioned, Geoff Downes. This circumstances left the stable members of the band more space on these albums. Steve in particular takes the opportunity to give his guitars a more prominent place on these two albums. There is a more aggressive sound to both Relayer and Drama with Machine Messiah almost having a Metal sound. This is an absolutely faboulos song!

Just as Steve's guitars take up some of the space left by Rick, the backing vocals of Chris and Steve fill in where Trevor Horn cannot quite fill the shoes of Jon. Trevor Horn has a similar voice to Jon's, so the change is not as dramatic as might be expected. Thanks to the unique and distinctive sounds of Steve's and Chris' guitar and bass sound as well as their backing vocals ensure that the typical Yes sound is still very much here. This proves that Yes is an entity that does not depend on one or two specific individuals. Yes is not just a band, but a type of music!

I didn't always rate this album as high as this, but over time I have grown to love this album a lot. It is another Yes masterpiece!

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