Yes, post 70s

I have been listening to yes for a few years now and for a good while haven't been listening to them much , I was very young when I heard them first , but when I was younger I didn't have all the money I would have liked to! so I got what I thought was the important yes albums from the 60s and 70s, All I didn't have was "Tormato" and "Drama" (although I think that was 80)

This time last year I was given "magnification" by a friend for my birthday, I thought it was ok and never really got into it, but now I can honestly say that it has become one of my favourite yes albums! yes, it actually took a full YEAR to finally really see it for what it is, an excellent album, different than the 70s in both sound and style (which is most likely why it didn't interest me in the first place )

So then I decided to buy the "yes symphonic dvd", and again, brilliant!!

Now what I want to know is, what albums from the 80s - 90s period are good? I've heard "keystudio" is great but i'm not sure what it is! is it a collection or an actual album?!!

My knowledge of yes in the 90s is next to nothing. I don't even know the line-ups.

So whats the stuff like around that era fellow yes fans??!

chopper wrote: "Keystudio" is a collection of the studio tracks from "Keys To Ascension" volumes I and II, which themselves contain new studio and live recordings. Both are excellent, there is an epic studio track called "Mind drive" which is worth getting. Personally I'd buy the original Keys albums as the live recordings of old faves like Starship Trooper are worth having. The Ladder is also worth getting, but Open Your Eyes, although I've never heard it, is supposed to be among their worst albums.

Regarding "open your eyes" i've heard that it IS their worst album  Is "keys to ascension" a studio or live album?

It's odd how "keystudio" is a collection of songs from just two albums!

Yes post seventies is a mixed bag of good and bad.  Here are some of the good ones.

Drama - Very good album despite the fact that Jon is not on vocals.  Some of their best songs are here, including Machine Messiah and Tempus Fugit.  The rest of the songs are also good, but overall it's not as strong an album as their mid-seventies stuff, but then again, nothing else they did is.

Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe - Like Drama this one is very good, with some classics like Brother of Mine, Themes, Fist of Fire, and Birthright.  It's a little bit stronger than Drama.

Talk - This is probably the best of the Rabin albums.  Endless Dream is a very good epic in the same vein as Awaken, and Real Love and The Calling are also good.

Keys to Ascension 1 & 2 - These were live albums from the Anderson White Wakeman Howe Squire reunion from 1996.  But it also contained 75 minutes of new studio material, which was some of the best music Yes ever recorded.  Keystudio is a compilation of just those studio tracks without the live versions.  It's probably their best album since Going for the One.  It contains 2 20 minute epics, Mind Drive, which is similar to classic Yes prog, and That That Is which is a little bit different from anything else they had done.

The Ladder - Another strong album, not quite as good as Keys, but with some really good songs.  Homeworld was actually written as part of a soundtrack to the game of the same name.

And you already heard Magnification.  I should also mention 90125 because it was their most commercially successful album, and had some good songs.  But it's not as progressive as the other albums so I'm not sure you'll like it as much.  Tormato also has some great moments on it, and I would rate it just as high as most of the albums I listed above.

   Magnification is nearly a great YES album, easily their best since the halcyon days.Drama as mentioned is a very good Yes album with some outstanding tracks in ' Machine Messiah' 'White Car' and 'Into the Lens' despite Trevor using a voice synthesizer to sound like the great man.Keys to Ascencion is a brilliant live album with some not so good studio tracks.The Ladder is for me with Open Your eyes as bad as it gets with only Universal Garden from the latter and Homeworld from the former the exceptions on these albums,Tormato; although the start from their fall from the zenith is still in comparison to the Rabinesque years a fine album.But enjoy what has been recommended I still love the two early albums before they gave us the six unbeatable gems that were to follow.

After GFTO in my opinion Talk is the best album that I know (not counting the live DVD "Symphonic Live"). Not everything on this album is fantastic, but especially the three longer tracks are marvelous. I agree with Winter Wine that Endless Dream can be compared to Awaken in quality. I would also like to specially mention "I am Waiting" which is really beautiful and emotional.

Other albums I think are really nice: ABWH, Magnification 

The rest I think is not really worth getting