90125

This is not really the real Yes! Indeed, the band who started working on this album was originally not going to be called 'Yes' at all. Yes had broken up after the Drama album in 1980. Even though there were a couple of ex-Yes members involved in this new project, they were going to be a brand new band, under a brand new name; they were going to call themselves 'Cinema'. This new name should, in my opinion, have been retained because musically this does not have very much to do with the original Yes of the 70's.

The essential members Rick Wakeman and, especially, Steve Howe were no longer with the band at this time. Chris Squire and Alan White brought Trevor Rabin into the band as well as original Yes member Tony Kaye (who played keyboards in the band before Rick Wakeman). Soon after, Jon Anderson also joined Cinema (and now they were three original members of Yes) so they decided to call themselves 'Yes' after all. This might have been a good idea if the music would have been in line with what the original band did. The problem is that this album does not sound like Yes! It's not particularly progressive; indeed, it is rather radio friendly, poppy music.

Don't get me wrong though, I don't dislike Trevor Rabin or this album. There are some good bits here. The short instrumental Cinema is great, for example. I do hate the song Owner Of A Lonely Heart though (in this version at least - there are better live versions of it like the acoustic version on the Songs From Tsongas DVD, for example).

Hearts, being over seven and a half minutes long, is a bit boring - it becomes tedious after a while. This song is the first time I ever got bored while listening to a Yes album. The rest of the songs are fair, I suppose.

I consider the Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe album to be the first real Yes album since 1980's Drama. In the early 90's these two versions of Yes merged, producing the album Union. If you like the classic Yes of the 70's, you should check out the Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe album first, and then the underrated Union, and skip 90125 and Big Generator. Even bands like Asia and GTR (both featuring ex-Yes member Steve Howe) is much better than the Rabin version of Yes.

The progressive low point of the band's career. For fans and collectors only.

NOTE: the bonus tracks on the CD reissue of this album include a song called Make It Easy, sung by Trevor Rabin. This song is actually much better than any of the tracks on the actual album. It rocks! It is a wonder that they didn't include that song on the album given the overall lower quality of the material there.

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