BIG GENERATOR

This record is unloved, underrated to my mind, like all those produced with Trevor Rabin. All seem to me to be of good quality, even if the South African guitarist clearly predominates and gives a FM rock orientation to the group. For my part, I have always had a particular tenderness for "Big generator".

Of course, this record aims to be commercial. But it came out in a period when the prog seemed dead, after "90125" which was even more made for radios. In this poor period for 1970's groups, "Big generator" seemed to me to reconnect a little bit with "prog music".

The introductory track perpetuated the FM rock style but had a gripping energy allowing to be in a favorable listening condition, and to fully appreciate the splendid "shoot high aim low" and its 7 mn reaching a more "prog" format. The following catchy themes ("Almost like love", "Love will find a way"), simply pop but well done, led to a climax fully in the tradition of Yes, in my opinion: "I'm running" , the most elaborate track on the record.

All in all, this was a reassuring record for the Yes fan that I am. I still had understood that the band would never do the equivalent of "Close to the edge" or "Tales from topographic oceans" again But I found in this record the proof that the "prog" was not dead and could be reborn.

It certainly diserves between 3,5 and 4 stars in my opinion. But I give it 5 stars, very subjectively, for the importance that the issue of this record had for me in 1987.