DRAMA

I just can't consider calling a band without Jon Anderson Yes..So coming into this album I took an approach of this album being a band that had members of Yes and the Buggles.and man, was I impressed!

The absence of Rick Wakeman has been experienced before, and the band pulled out one of their best works as a response. This album also is leaps and bounds over their last work with Wakeman, maybe they just ride on a higher mental level without him.

The replacements were vocalist Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes on the keyboards. Although Anderson's and Wakeman's are impossible shoes to fill, they shed some new and needed light into the band. The songs got considerably catchier and had a few short accessible numbers. The opener however, has been a staple of Yes 'Machine Messiah', which serves as one of their most innovative pieces, encapsulated by some really heavy, nearly metal guitar parts by Steve Howe.

Yes did have some collateral before this album was made. Eddie Offord returned to the producer position and the ever important Roger Dean was back doing the artwork, and one it is one of his best works.

Putting the poppish lyrics and vocal melodies aside, the compositional structure ranks up there with some of the top Yes albums. The ending 'Tempus Fugit' features Alan Whites and Chris Squire's defining moments.

A criminally under rated album due to just the mere absence of Jon Anderson. There is a factor of his reluctance to play these songs live also that affects its hindrance. One of the best Yes albums one can come across.

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