90125

Before I knew the term prog even existed and before I had been blissfully blown off my sofa to 'Topographic Oceans' or forked out hundreds of dollars on box sets such as 'Yes - In a Word', this little album somehow fell into my grip and I found myself drawn into the world of Yes. I played it ad infinitum and loved every moment of it. I had been at a friend's house and he played it and I knew I had to get this. What harmonies, what musicianship, what a single with 'Owner of a Lonely Heart'. That was then, and I would have easily given '90125' 4 stars, however.... this is now, and as a bonafide unashamed proghead the verdict is... no thanks. To be honest, I rarely play the thing anymore. All the best songs sit very comfortably on the aforementioned Yes box set and that's enough for me.

The album is incomparable to the likes of prog genius works 'The Yes Album' or 'Fragile'. In fact to compare them would be futile because they come from totally different planets. Planet 'Fragile' and planet '90125' are even from different universes! As a result of course, this much maligned album alienated a multitude of fans, and yet gained scores of new fans with it's commercial success. The charts fairly blazed with the opening track, and for my mind it is the best thing on the album. Yes, it is the most commercially accessible as far as marketing goes. Look at that brutally retro film clip and you will see what I mean. But I love the guitars and the crunching riffs and the over produced echoed vocal performances, and even the lyrics are memorable - in other words uncharacteristically commercially viable.

'Leave It' was another barnstorming chart success too but it is dull without the cool clip to compliment it. 'It Can Happen' is a wonderful song with a catchy chorus and great vocals from Anderson. So what else is new? 'Changes' is terrific - in fact the lyrics really spoke to me when I was going through changes recently in my life. But... the rest of this is not much to write home about... so I won't here.

Suffice it to say grab a cheap copy and get it over with then once the CD ends, breathlessly shove 'Fragile' into the CD player and regain your faith in Yes.

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