90125

UPDATE: I've shocked myself and changed this to four stars. It really is a cool album full of high-quality music. It just isn't very proggy or Yessy music. The 3-4 songs that never bothered me before have also grown on me. Couple this fact with the relatively poor songs on Big Generator, and 90125 becomes a good friend......

REVIEW: If the name 'Cinema' was chosen this album wouldn't even be on this site. The fact that the three most recognisable letters of prog were written on the cover of this album, leads to a lot of controversy. Was revamping Yes a mistake? Was is the right band with the wrong name? Did it kill prog rock? I don't really feel the need to consider such things; when I write a review, I try to base my ramblings on the music alone.

'Owner...' is a respectable single. I'm not overlly fond of it, the album, or the 80's in general. But it obviously worked; it made number 1 on the charts! And I can understand why many people on this site aren't interested, but we must be fair, it won over it's target audience with flying colours. Trevor Rabin, although an inherently vain bastard, is a good single-generator and knows just how to write a hit. The older Yes-men's bank accounts became full because of him, and the public were happy too (blissfully unaware of the weird and wonderful past of this "new" band). So with regards to the style of '90125', I can't really fault it's intentions. 'Leave it', the other single, really grooves and I prefer it to 'Owner...'. I'm also fond of the rocking 'Changes', Anderson's sweet 'Our Song', Squire's anthem-esque 'It Can Happen', and the semi-epic closer 'Hearts'. The rest of the album can be considered filler, but it's not unbearable. Horn's production is FAULTLESS for the era. The sound is consistent and bright, and lots of energy is carried through.

But I wish people would stop even mentioning progressive rock when slaughtering this record. It's not punk; it wasn't specifically designed to counteract the efforts of prog-rockers. It goes nowhere near the genre and therefore doesn't "ruin" it or even "ruin" Yes (they would return to their earlier sound in due course). 80's pop and progressive rock are two completely unlrelated subjects. They co-exist happily and go nowhere near each other...

...except when they use the same band name.