If you have a Spotify or any other music streaming service that lets you listen to entire albums in one go, I've got some homework for you.
Because I was a late bloomer musically, having never started a music collection until roughly 1981 when I had some disposable income in the military, I was exposed to classic bands' later stuff long before I got to truly explore their earlier gems. When you grew up in the 1970s, all you heard was Yes this and Yes that and I have to admit that it just didn't connect with me, probably because the music was more cerebral, more thematic. Don't get me wrong, songs like Roundabout were incredible, but that and maybe one or two other radio hits was all I knew.
And then came 90125, their 11th studio album. This album was not only my true introduction to Yes from a whole album perspective, but what an album. Yes had broken up, and some Yes members decided to form a new band (Cinema) and try and reinvent themselves and hired Trevor Horn (famous for being one half of The Buggles) to produce. Eventually Jon Anderson came on board to record vocals, the album basically already having been recorded, and the new Yes lineup was born.
The opening track, Owner of a Lonely Heart, starts off with pure rock guitar riff and then, what's this? Here's a rhythm you've never heard from Yes before. And is that - yes it is! Sampled strings. We're definitely not in Kansas anymore Toto. The treatments applied to this and other 90125 songs are the mild version of the amped up 80s pop stylings of Trevor Horn. Remember, this is the guy that gave you the sound of ABC's The Lexicon of Love, a monster of an album, Malcolm McLaren's Buffalo Gals, etc. Remember Art of Noise? Grace Jones' Slave to the Rhythm? Frankie Goes to Hollywood? Trevor. Seal's debut? Trevor again.
With Hold On, the band has taken on a stadium rock like quality. The guitars are now power riff machines, the drums are loud and deliberate. The vocal harmonies are back. Is this new incarnation of the band the rock answer to 1980s new wave? You bet!
It can Happen opens with some luscious sitar and features some gorgeous piano arrangements. Am I the only one noticing just how easy it is to sing along to these choruses? Yes as new pop masters? Oh yeah.
Changes is pure Yes of old, just in case you thought they had gone full 80s and forgot their roots. Nope. Same with Cinema, which earned the band a Grammy. A nod to the name of the band that would have been had Yes not reformed after the split-up?
The 6th track, Leave It, is my favourite from the entire album. Vocal harmonies that are out of this world. I would have been even more impressed had the A Capella version, included as the last bonus track on the Deluxe, remastered version been part of the original release. Yes, I know you want to listen to that right away, but don't. Listen to the original, let it percolate in your brain, then listen to the A Capella version last, as it was intended. It's pure brain massage.
The rest of the album never connected with me, but your mileage may vary. Just don't forget the A Capella before you close this chapter in the history of a band that shouldn't have lasted past 1980, but thanks to Trevor Horn, was reborn as a contender for years to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment