THE LADDER

Even if Yes continued to release good albums throughout the 80's and 90's and even experienced commercial success in the early 80's with 90125 and the hit song Owner Of A Lonely Heart, I don't think that anyone could deny that they were far away from their glory days in the 70's. Some members left and some others came back and then left again, etc. etc.

While I have some difficulties with 90125, even it had its moments. Big Generator, Talk and Open Your Eyes are all in my opinion good (but non-essential) albums and Union and the Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe and Keys To Ascension projects are all great. But the latter three had only been brief reunions of past members and small reminders of what Yes used to be capable of in the 70's.

Steve Howe finally returned full time for the previous Open Your Eyes and even if I like that album, there was something missing still. The Ladder has that missing something! The Open Your Eyes line-up was not a full reunion of a classic line-up, but it was very close. Jon Anderson is here of course, as is Chris Squire and Alan White. Jon and Chris had been with the band from the very start, Steve since 1971 and Alan since 1974. Billy Sherwood and Igor Koroshev joined the band here full time for The Ladder making this the only six man line-up of Yes ever.

The Ladder is more in line with the classic Yes sound of the 70's, more so than any other full Yes studio album since 1980's Drama (almost 20 years earlier). (Though, the two Keys To Ascension live albums that were recorded a couple of years before The Ladder had included some new studio tracks featuring the classic line-up from the 70's).

And they do indeed pull off some great songs here. The best one is Homeworld (The Ladder) which is a great song. But the whole album holds up very well.

Highly recommended! A good companion to the classic albums of the 70's.

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