DRAMA

Drama is Yes's first album without Jon Anderson, the main creative source and unmistakable seal of Yes sound with his unique vocal range. This event raised many doubts about the future of the band, considering that Rick Wakeman also left the group in the middle of the creative process of the album.

Despite this, you can find in Drama an album of an acceptable quality level. Trevor Horn, the singer of the hit single Video Killed The Radio Star of the Buggles who replace Anderson, and the multi-instrumentalist Geoff Downes on the keyboards, without reaching shine, do their job correctly.

Drama travels between the remains of the progressive, that the surviving trio (Squire, Howe and White) still contributed and the collaboration their new members of new wave and synth-pop orientation brought with them. That fusion gave the interesting Into the Lens and Run Through the Light and the brief and intense White Car. In these songs, Horn manages to get closer to the style of the most personal Anderson.

On the other hand, the dynamic Machine Massiah, of more than 10 minutes, while still having a firm and well-made guitar riffs is related to a heavier sound. It also has few to do with the usual material of Yes in songs of similar duration. Does Really It Happen? and Tempus Fugit, the remaining titles on the album, despite their efforts to maintain their progressive roots at all, give us clear signs of the sound that the band brought back to the eighties.

It is not the best example of the most genuine Yes, but on balance, Drama passes the exam.