Yes Albums - reviewed & ranked by emptysquares

I started listening to Yes when they were still considered pretty cool and their intricate music, strange lyrics and ethereal vocal harmonies sounded to me to be something new. With the coming of punk rock in the late 70’s, Yes quickly became super uncool and in the UK the gestapo-like music press would keep it that way for the next 25 years.
In the 80’s, Yes began chasing US commercialism but Trevor Rabins ‘boy band pop with added guitar shredding’ formula held little appeal for me and it seemed that a group that once strived for originality were now trading in clichés. And so it was that I lost interest in Yes for the next 35 years or so.
In 2020, when the Covid-19 lockdown gave me some enforced free time I thought it might be interesting to catch up on the 10 or so studio albums that passed me by. Listening to their catalogue I was struck by how much time and energy they spent trying to repeat their brief 1983 commercial success when it must have been pretty obvious to everyone that their shelf-life as chart popsters was always going to be fleeting - what manner of teenager wants a poster of fucking Yes on their wall?
It seems to me that while Yes may have started life as idealistic 60’s dreamers, these particular hippies became accustomed to expensive lifestyles… and an existence as cult musicians from a bygone era was never going to pay the bills. And so began the long & futile chase for radio-friendly songs aimed to please an audience that was no longer interested. Sadly, much of their later material is compromised to some degree due to this.
Despite all this, the Yes back catalogue has a lot to offer and the band created some truly unique moments in rock history – and who knows, there may still be life in the old dogs yet.

• Chart updated: 02/07/2024 17:45
• (Created: 06/12/2020 11:23).
• Chart size: 29 albums.

There is 1 comment for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Yes Albums - reviewed & ranked has an average rating of 88 out of 100 (from 2 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.

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19. (=)

Keys To Ascension 2 
Live

 Yes

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Like it’s predecessor, Keys 2 is a double album primarily consisting of a non-essential 1996 live performance of Yes classics but also included is 45 minutes of new studio material in the form of 5 tracks – the main event being the 18+ minute 'Mind Drive'. Originating from Squires aborted XYZ project with Led Zeppelins Jimmy Page, Mind Drive is stylistically the nearest the band would get to Fragile & Close to the Edge outside of the 70’s. Sure, the production is very ropey and these songs sound more like demo's than finished products. Also, Andersons “They will bring you rain…” melody is painfully twee, but this thing builds, twists and turns and just gets better and better the more you listen. If early 70’s Yes is your thing, then seek out Mind Drive! The rest is okay but a decent producer could have got a lot more out of these songs and immediately following this release, Wakeman left (for the 4th time) frustrated that good quality material was being squandered as bonus tracks with a sh*t production. Of course, he was right.
V:Jon Anderson; g:Steve Howe; b:Chris Squire; k:Rick Wakeman; d:Alan White [First added to this chart: 07/05/2020]

Year of Release:

1997

Appears in:

17 charts

Rank Score:

55

Rank in 1997:

324

Rank in 1990s:

3,143

Overall Rank:

19,037

Average Rating:

 70 (38 votes)

Comments:

0

23. (=)

Talk 

 Yes

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This final outing of Trevor Rabins Yes saw him decisively assume full control of production duties seemingly determined to once and for all drag the band out of the 70’s and boldly into the 80’s – only it was now 1994 and on release his poppy glam-metal style was already sounding painfully dated. For the most part his production style seemed to consist of little more than dialling the reverb up to 11. The songs were a slight improvement on both Union and the awful Big Generator – in particular 'The Calling' and the batty 'Real Love' were almost enjoyable. But on 'Walls' Yes sound like a bad Bon Jovi tribute band and the big finale 'Endless Dream' is 14+ minutes of artless waffle. By now, most of the fans that Rabin had won over some 10 years earlier with 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' had long since lost interest and following disappointing album sales and a tour of half-empty stadiums, he wisely decided to call it a day with Yes to pursue a career in movie soundtracks.
V:Jon Anderson; g&v:Trevor Rabin; b:Chris Squire; k:Tony Kaye; d:Alan White [First added to this chart: 06/12/2020]

Year of Release:

1994

Appears in:

29 charts

Rank Score:

70

Rank in 1994:

290

Rank in 1990s:

2,642

Overall Rank:

15,850

Average Rating:

 62 (77 votes)

Comments:

4

24. (=)

Keys To Ascension 
Live

 Yes

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Essentially a live album of Yes standards, Keys to Ascension also contained 24 minutes of studio material in the form of 2 new songs. It also marked the return of the ‘classic’ line up including Howe and Wakeman, promising a more adventurous Yes style following the departure of Trevor Rabin. Unfortunately, no one seemed to have told Alan White as his drumming continued with the big ‘stadium-rock’ style bathed in 80’s style gated-reverb - sadly, the lack of subtlety and variation in Whites playing is a recurring weakness in later period Yes. In general these tracks sound like demos rather than finished products, which is a shame as the songs had promise leaving a distinct feeling of missed opportunity.
V:Jon Anderson; g:Steve Howe; b:Chris Squire; k:Rick Wakeman; d:Alan White [First added to this chart: 07/05/2020]

Year of Release:

1996

Appears in:

16 charts

Rank Score:

69

Rank in 1996:

315

Rank in 1990s:

2,658

Overall Rank:

15,952

Average Rating:

 73 (42 votes)

Comments:

1

25. (=)

The Ladder 

 Yes

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Sadly, ‘the Ladder’ found Yes desperately searching for another chart single to the point that we had to endure Anderson morphing into some kind of weird alto-Barry Manilow on the shmaltzy ballad 'If Only You Knew', then for the inevitable rocker 'Finally' he actually attempts a throaty rasp... come on, this is Yes not f*cking AC/DC! Elsewhere the band pile on the embarrassment with white-man-does Latin-American / Caribbean style grooves seemingly in an effort to create their very own Minstrel Show. Frustratingly, the album is bookended with strong tracks showing what could have been - the closer 'Nine Voices' with its nod to 71's 'Your Move' is the albums best moment. Overall, The Ladder sounded contrived and was trying too hard to be mainstream to be remotely convincing or authentic.
V:Jon Anderson; g:Steve Howe, Billy Sherwood; b:Chris Squire; k:Igor Khoroshev; d:Alan White [First added to this chart: 06/12/2020]

Year of Release:

1999

Appears in:

27 charts

Rank Score:

69

Rank in 1999:

274

Rank in 1990s:

2,655

Overall Rank:

15,945

Average Rating:

 65 (59 votes)

Comments:

3

27. (=)

Union 

 Yes

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With two versions of Yes simultaneously floundering on both sides of the pond, Jon Anderson hatched a plan to combine the two warring parties to form a new super-supergroup. What could possibly go wrong? Anderson then recruited movie trailer specialist Jonathan Elias to produce, who in turn hired an army of session musicians instructing them to make ‘Union’ sound more like his favourite pop groups. Simple, that’ll work!! Meanwhile, Trevor Rabin had cooked up three new songs so puerile and saccharine that they made 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' sound like death metal. The whole thing was then wrapped up in Elias’ sophisticated production (add more reverb please) et voila!! Two potentially mediocre albums combined to make a single amorphous pile of incoherent dogshit.
V:Jon Anderson; g: Steve Howe; g&v:Trevor Rabin; b&v:Chris Squire; b:Tony Levin; k:Rick Wakeman, Tony Kaye; d:Bill Bruford, Alan White; + countless others [First added to this chart: 06/12/2020]

Year of Release:

1991

Appears in:

50 charts

Rank Score:

231

Rank in 1991:

78

Rank in 1990s:

965

Overall Rank:

5,723

Average Rating:

 63 (83 votes)

Comments:

2

29. (=)

Open Your Eyes 

 Yes

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'Open Your Eyes' was the title, but Cover Your Ears would have been more appropriate. The best I can say is that it starts out not too bad with 'New State of Mind' which has a bluesy riff of the type that you’ve heard a zillion times before. My advice is don’t waste any of your life with the remaining hour or so of turgid, badly produced nonsense. Exactly who Yes thought would buy this garbage is anyone’s guess….and when it came to it, not many did.
V:Jon Anderson; g:Steve Howe; g&v:Billy Sherwood; b&v:Chris Squire; k:Igor Khoroshev; d:Alan White [First added to this chart: 06/12/2020]

Year of Release:

1997

Appears in:

8 charts

Rank Score:

5

Rank in 1997:

1,215

Rank in 1990s:

11,183

Overall Rank:

72,269

Average Rating:

 57 (37 votes)

Comments:

1

Total albums: 6. Page 1 of 1

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Yes Albums - reviewed & ranked composition

Decade	Albums	%
1930s	0	0%
1940s	0	0%
1950s	0	0%
1960s	1	3%
1970s	12	41%
1980s	4	14%
1990s	6	21%
2000s	2	7%
2010s	2	7%
2020s	2	7%

Artist	Albums	%
Yes	23	79%
Steve Howe	1	3%
Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe	1	3%
Bill Bruford's Earthworks	1	3%
Chris Squire	1	3%
Jon Anderson	1	3%
Rick Wakeman	1	3%

Country	Albums	%
	29	100%

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Rating	Date updated	Member	Chart ratings	Avg. chart rating
100/100	05/02/2021 16:38	TheDude85	43	95/100
95/100	12/30/2020 14:54	matterhornrider	55	92/100

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100/100

From TheDude85 05/02/2021 16:52

Very descriptive analysis and sincere approach to evaluating the work of this group. Tip of The Cap!

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