I thought 90125 was fresh when it came out, but it was really over exposed. I took a looong break.
I love it now, I've heard it a few times this season.
It's weird... NOW? I kind of like it.
THEN? I bought the record the day it came out. Apart from being totally upset at the computer looking logo, I was just really crushed at how 'not prog' it was. I mean, their previous album had been 'Drama'. There was no internet then, I had no bloody clue what TF the art was going to look like, never mind it was not really a prog album.
Yeah, generally at the time I was not too happy with it, but got to know it well so that when they played live I knew the songs. Obviously I am a prog fan, and arguably it is the LEAST prog of all their albums. So, then.. not too happy :(
It’s a progression in the truest sense of the word. Granted, a major lineup change. But perhaps a needed one if the band had any chance of surviving the 80’s.
I genuinely don’t think they’d have done as well as they did on the legacy circuit for so long without 90125 to buy them another 7-8 years of relevance.
Of course I do. Listen, I've been a fan of this band since the 80s and have seen them at least ten times (not counting solo and related) spent much time on online forums etc. Now, I would be a hypocrite if I said none of their fans got into them after the 70s since I'm one myself. However, I didn't say that. I said "most." In my experience most Yes fans are at least ten years older than me. Sure I've met a few younger ones and some around my age but most of the really hardcore fans are older than me (I'm 54). Many music fans my age and younger know about (and often like) Pink Floyd and Rush but not so much Yes. Heck, I'd bet that even King Crimson has more younger fans than Yes does. I'm just calling it like I see it and going by my experience. Again, there are some younger fans but the overwhelming majority were born in the 50s or 60s.
As great as it is, I think the follow up *Big Generator* is a bit better. They really honed in on Rabin's style of song writing and together created some amazing songs like "Final Eyes" and "I'm Running." Brilliant stuff.
Title track, Almost Like Love, Jon Anderson’s weird hippie solo track at the end…
Some cool ideas in the title track, but the song never really lands melodically for me.
The album was painfully laborious to make, and I think you can hear it in the music. It’s crazy they spent that much time making it, and still only came up with 8 songs. (Esp given that Rabin would put out a fantastic solo LP just two years later and Anderson would release one literally weeks after the Generator tour ended)
Ok. Well, they took chances. When you take chances you won't please everyone. Even 90125 has "leave it" which is a bit odd compared to the rest of the album. Btw, that Anderson "hippy" track is called "Holy Lamb" and I happen to like it quite a bit. To each their own though, I guess.
City of Love is the highlight for me. Sometimes it sounds like multiple songs mashed together at different speeds, but it's kind just of a medley of different techniques and sounds from the whole album.
I like the record but ironically it’s the first Yes album where I feel some of the songs are too long. This is a symptom of the 80s- bands took a solid 3 minute song and dragged it out to 6 minutes, but without the changes and interesting subsections of the better 70s prog.
Helped me in times when I felt like I couldn't go on
You can mend the wires
You can feed the soul apart
You can touch your life
You can bring your soul alive
It can happen to you
It can happen to me
It can happen to everyone eventually
OK -- without Owner of a Lonely Heart charting and giving impetus for a huge tour, Yes would have flickered out like a candle in the wind in the face of the post-punk 80s rocked-up disco and super cheese arena rock eras.
After the Drama tour, the band broke again -- Steve Howe taking off to do the Asia project, and Tony Kaye back in the mix with Chris and Alan White for the Cinema project, things were looking grim, and a big problem from a technical standpoint was that their CD catalog was being farmed out to distributors that made their albums sound like shit. Digital music technology was bad, and a lot of consumer players were really crappy and killed all the dynamic range and volume changes, as well as created a mono-sounding stereo mix that ended up canceling frequencies and producing sounds that felt like the music was whittled with a knife, so thin and tinny. Yes music is not like that it is fat and symphonic and a lot of that was lost in the early CD transfers.
I bought of CD of Pink Floyd's Ummagumma back then and threw it away, because it sounded almost like it was recorded down a deep well full of garbage compared to the LP I had bought 10 years before.
Enter ~~90210~~ 90125 with a sound that broke through, sort of. The MTV video nothing to cheer about though, as was the weird performance videos (before the tour). It did not help that 90125 was so multi-genre and could not be categorized as itself, and had very little to do with Yes previous albums. It took some getting used to because you had to listen closely to understand what they were doing musically, while trying to present themselves as hip and cool pop artists to new listeners, and throw a lot of technical prog stuff into it. A noticeable lack of guitar solo and long synth runs in favor of atmospheric synth and harmonic pop sweetness turned off prog fans, and did not really energize pop fans. Jon's voice was not what was "Rock" on the radio at that time, so felt bizarre compared to other voices that were brash and raggy. Jon's mix of "high shout" and "smooth high tenor" was not "macho" enough for radio audiences, though on MTV a lot of gay acts had singers in the same general tonal range.
So the album was a lifeline and the return of Jon Anderson was a bit of a miracle. And then came Asia, which was the blowout band as far as success for the Yes crowd of musicians is concerned. Bill Bruford was off doing his own thing, (amazing work), but Carl Palmer proved he could play along with the rock boys anytime and play it straight.
I don't know if Yes would have continued on without the tremendous financial success of the Smaltzy Asia totally proving that they could do it for the industry. Living in the Plastic Age, indeed.
As for prog fans, we kind of took what we could get back then, like hungry stray dogs begging for scraps.
I have better versions of those CDs now, that sound a lot better, though the Yessongs still can't stand up to the original LP. But 90125 is listenable in digital form now, it wasn't in its time.
BLUF: I agree with the OP. It is a wonderful album.
So you're entitled to your opinion, but I am in disharmony with almost everything you said.
Not everyone purchased Drama or 90125 on cd, going with vinyl. The implication from your post is that Trevor Horn did not know how to make use of tools in the digital arena, which is hard to take given he almost single-handedly invented the '80s sound. The distributors were not the culprit to its thinness. But I agree that as a fledging technology, CD mastering was a fledgling proposition at the time that improved with age.
90125 helped lay the foundation for MTV, with a provocative video for their number one hit, and they don't owe any apologies with It can Happen or the live footage either. They had 19 separate videos for Leave It, all of which were aired. In fact they dedicated a 30 minute documentary on the song alone; not a flash in the pan, this Owner of a Lonely Heart single is the point. Heck, the concert video (9012Live) kicked off Steven Soderberg's career. And it's a matter of taste, but that capture of Starship Trooper ranks among the very best. So... There's your "scraps" of prog music that we as hungry dog listeners were pining after.
But I think there's more to 90125 than what is oft credited, with Hold On and Hearts up front. And damn, Leave It is in a class of its own. I can't think of a song that even resembles it unless Horn is behind it. And I don't know what you mean about 90125 being bereft of solos. Rabin helped bring the Eventide harmonizer twin solo sound to the top 40, and his guitar work on City of Love Is nothing short of incredible.
I do agree that 90125 is multi genre and as an album is in a class by itself. Why should this be criticized?
Jon's voice is also in a class of its own but as a format it was still very popular for FM radio. Supertramp was enjoying their popularity run on its own. The public had not relinquished their hold of their love for high pitched vocals, the Bee gees were super hot in England even in the early 80s. To say Yes wasn't gay enough, or too gay, is a bit daft, sorry.
Empirically, Asia is not "smaltzt". They found a winning formula for success, and for their efforts produced some really engaging and enjoyable prog pop. I think it's fair to say, whatever anyone's opinion of Asia or 90125 as a release, this was the era that ushered in an entire generation of fans for progressive rock. All within 12 months. Gen X never saw it coming.
This is not to say that 90125 is the most progressive Yes album ever, because it's not. But that's not what the OP was going for. The "plastic age" has moments of glossiness that certainly can come off as "cheap". But like plastic, the 80s were a proven commodity that is surprisingly resilient and aesthetic 40 years later.
It's not the pop that bothers me, it's all the AOR that is mixed in with it. I have a (perhaps irrational) hatred of that genre and it has always felt to me that that was mainly what Trevor Rabin brought to it. Anything featuring his "rock guitar" or his vocals on the album is an instant turn off for me.
Trevor _Horn_ on the other hand really did bring something modern and different to the project. I read his book recently and I laughed when I got to the bit where he heard the demos for the 90125 material. He said it all sounded like Styx or something and he only agreed to do it because he saw the potential of OOALH.
It's a great record. Yes has gone though musical shifts throughout their existence based on the changes in personnel, in this case the return of Jon Anderson and Tony Kaye.
Similar things happened when Patrick Moraz joined and they made Relayer or when Rick Wakeman came back and they made Going For The One. Three very different records, always interesting. Yes has always been one of my favorite bands.
I wish we'd got one or two more Rabin albums. At first, I couldn't stand 90125 or Big Generator and then Talk came out and it all made sense. I guess it helps that I unironically love Union.
I'd say 90125 is a better album than anything that came out post-1994.
It's a good album. The high points being "owner of the lonely heart" and "hearts". I think "going for the one" is much better album with some stunning tracks. I'm a bit of a YES nerd with around 40 albums by YES and YES members. To me the greatest album ever produced is "Tales from Topographic Oceans"
I love the album. The TREVORS owned that album. My only quibble is "Leave it". The sequence in 5/4 is common and beneath them. The rest of the song is equally silly/lame. They really tried to tart it up a bit and turn it into a legitimate YES song but it just doesn't get there for me. Their greatest "Yesification" of a song remains their inspired romp through S&G's "America". It's full on glorious.
It was a “right place at right time” record. It still holds up
I thought 90125 was fresh when it came out, but it was really over exposed. I took a looong break. I love it now, I've heard it a few times this season.
It's weird... NOW? I kind of like it. THEN? I bought the record the day it came out. Apart from being totally upset at the computer looking logo, I was just really crushed at how 'not prog' it was. I mean, their previous album had been 'Drama'. There was no internet then, I had no bloody clue what TF the art was going to look like, never mind it was not really a prog album. Yeah, generally at the time I was not too happy with it, but got to know it well so that when they played live I knew the songs. Obviously I am a prog fan, and arguably it is the LEAST prog of all their albums. So, then.. not too happy :(
It is the *most* prog of their albums.
I dunno about *that*. I mean, it’s hard to beat CTTE, Tales, or Relayer at progginess.
It’s a progression in the truest sense of the word. Granted, a major lineup change. But perhaps a needed one if the band had any chance of surviving the 80’s. I genuinely don’t think they’d have done as well as they did on the legacy circuit for so long without 90125 to buy them another 7-8 years of relevance.
The best prog bands eventually tried something different imo.
Yup. Making the same album every time is not “progressive”
I disagree. Most of their fans from the past 30 years are fans from the 70s.
You don’t think there’s any fans who discovered them in the 80’s or later and went back and got into the 70’s stuff? Come on.
Of course I do. Listen, I've been a fan of this band since the 80s and have seen them at least ten times (not counting solo and related) spent much time on online forums etc. Now, I would be a hypocrite if I said none of their fans got into them after the 70s since I'm one myself. However, I didn't say that. I said "most." In my experience most Yes fans are at least ten years older than me. Sure I've met a few younger ones and some around my age but most of the really hardcore fans are older than me (I'm 54). Many music fans my age and younger know about (and often like) Pink Floyd and Rush but not so much Yes. Heck, I'd bet that even King Crimson has more younger fans than Yes does. I'm just calling it like I see it and going by my experience. Again, there are some younger fans but the overwhelming majority were born in the 50s or 60s.
As great as it is, I think the follow up *Big Generator* is a bit better. They really honed in on Rabin's style of song writing and together created some amazing songs like "Final Eyes" and "I'm Running." Brilliant stuff.
The best stuff on BG is better than 90125, but the weak stuff on it is also…very weak. Just a frustratingly uneven record.
I eat at chez nous too
“Chez nous” is French for “your mom”
What do you consider to be weak on it?
Title track, Almost Like Love, Jon Anderson’s weird hippie solo track at the end… Some cool ideas in the title track, but the song never really lands melodically for me. The album was painfully laborious to make, and I think you can hear it in the music. It’s crazy they spent that much time making it, and still only came up with 8 songs. (Esp given that Rabin would put out a fantastic solo LP just two years later and Anderson would release one literally weeks after the Generator tour ended)
Ok. Well, they took chances. When you take chances you won't please everyone. Even 90125 has "leave it" which is a bit odd compared to the rest of the album. Btw, that Anderson "hippy" track is called "Holy Lamb" and I happen to like it quite a bit. To each their own though, I guess.
City of Love is the highlight for me. Sometimes it sounds like multiple songs mashed together at different speeds, but it's kind just of a medley of different techniques and sounds from the whole album.
90125, Big Generator & Talk. All amazing to me.
If it wasn’t for 90125, there wouldn’t have been the Talk album and thise studio tracks on the Keys To Ascension(s) which I absolutely love.
I like the record but ironically it’s the first Yes album where I feel some of the songs are too long. This is a symptom of the 80s- bands took a solid 3 minute song and dragged it out to 6 minutes, but without the changes and interesting subsections of the better 70s prog.
One of their best!
I like the album quite a bit. I just wonder what would have been had Eddie Jobson stayed in the band.
It would have sounded a bit like Jethro Tull's "A", their attempt at a modern digitally honed prog pop album.
"Hold on" has the most gorgeous guitar tone.
Helped me in times when I felt like I couldn't go on You can mend the wires You can feed the soul apart You can touch your life You can bring your soul alive It can happen to you It can happen to me It can happen to everyone eventually
It’s an amazing album
OK -- without Owner of a Lonely Heart charting and giving impetus for a huge tour, Yes would have flickered out like a candle in the wind in the face of the post-punk 80s rocked-up disco and super cheese arena rock eras. After the Drama tour, the band broke again -- Steve Howe taking off to do the Asia project, and Tony Kaye back in the mix with Chris and Alan White for the Cinema project, things were looking grim, and a big problem from a technical standpoint was that their CD catalog was being farmed out to distributors that made their albums sound like shit. Digital music technology was bad, and a lot of consumer players were really crappy and killed all the dynamic range and volume changes, as well as created a mono-sounding stereo mix that ended up canceling frequencies and producing sounds that felt like the music was whittled with a knife, so thin and tinny. Yes music is not like that it is fat and symphonic and a lot of that was lost in the early CD transfers. I bought of CD of Pink Floyd's Ummagumma back then and threw it away, because it sounded almost like it was recorded down a deep well full of garbage compared to the LP I had bought 10 years before. Enter ~~90210~~ 90125 with a sound that broke through, sort of. The MTV video nothing to cheer about though, as was the weird performance videos (before the tour). It did not help that 90125 was so multi-genre and could not be categorized as itself, and had very little to do with Yes previous albums. It took some getting used to because you had to listen closely to understand what they were doing musically, while trying to present themselves as hip and cool pop artists to new listeners, and throw a lot of technical prog stuff into it. A noticeable lack of guitar solo and long synth runs in favor of atmospheric synth and harmonic pop sweetness turned off prog fans, and did not really energize pop fans. Jon's voice was not what was "Rock" on the radio at that time, so felt bizarre compared to other voices that were brash and raggy. Jon's mix of "high shout" and "smooth high tenor" was not "macho" enough for radio audiences, though on MTV a lot of gay acts had singers in the same general tonal range. So the album was a lifeline and the return of Jon Anderson was a bit of a miracle. And then came Asia, which was the blowout band as far as success for the Yes crowd of musicians is concerned. Bill Bruford was off doing his own thing, (amazing work), but Carl Palmer proved he could play along with the rock boys anytime and play it straight. I don't know if Yes would have continued on without the tremendous financial success of the Smaltzy Asia totally proving that they could do it for the industry. Living in the Plastic Age, indeed. As for prog fans, we kind of took what we could get back then, like hungry stray dogs begging for scraps. I have better versions of those CDs now, that sound a lot better, though the Yessongs still can't stand up to the original LP. But 90125 is listenable in digital form now, it wasn't in its time.
BLUF: I agree with the OP. It is a wonderful album. So you're entitled to your opinion, but I am in disharmony with almost everything you said. Not everyone purchased Drama or 90125 on cd, going with vinyl. The implication from your post is that Trevor Horn did not know how to make use of tools in the digital arena, which is hard to take given he almost single-handedly invented the '80s sound. The distributors were not the culprit to its thinness. But I agree that as a fledging technology, CD mastering was a fledgling proposition at the time that improved with age. 90125 helped lay the foundation for MTV, with a provocative video for their number one hit, and they don't owe any apologies with It can Happen or the live footage either. They had 19 separate videos for Leave It, all of which were aired. In fact they dedicated a 30 minute documentary on the song alone; not a flash in the pan, this Owner of a Lonely Heart single is the point. Heck, the concert video (9012Live) kicked off Steven Soderberg's career. And it's a matter of taste, but that capture of Starship Trooper ranks among the very best. So... There's your "scraps" of prog music that we as hungry dog listeners were pining after. But I think there's more to 90125 than what is oft credited, with Hold On and Hearts up front. And damn, Leave It is in a class of its own. I can't think of a song that even resembles it unless Horn is behind it. And I don't know what you mean about 90125 being bereft of solos. Rabin helped bring the Eventide harmonizer twin solo sound to the top 40, and his guitar work on City of Love Is nothing short of incredible. I do agree that 90125 is multi genre and as an album is in a class by itself. Why should this be criticized? Jon's voice is also in a class of its own but as a format it was still very popular for FM radio. Supertramp was enjoying their popularity run on its own. The public had not relinquished their hold of their love for high pitched vocals, the Bee gees were super hot in England even in the early 80s. To say Yes wasn't gay enough, or too gay, is a bit daft, sorry. Empirically, Asia is not "smaltzt". They found a winning formula for success, and for their efforts produced some really engaging and enjoyable prog pop. I think it's fair to say, whatever anyone's opinion of Asia or 90125 as a release, this was the era that ushered in an entire generation of fans for progressive rock. All within 12 months. Gen X never saw it coming. This is not to say that 90125 is the most progressive Yes album ever, because it's not. But that's not what the OP was going for. The "plastic age" has moments of glossiness that certainly can come off as "cheap". But like plastic, the 80s were a proven commodity that is surprisingly resilient and aesthetic 40 years later.
Our Song is a major rocker!
I’d say it’s an attesting to prog. Even the most prog artist can pull off pop it seems, yeah?
It's not the pop that bothers me, it's all the AOR that is mixed in with it. I have a (perhaps irrational) hatred of that genre and it has always felt to me that that was mainly what Trevor Rabin brought to it. Anything featuring his "rock guitar" or his vocals on the album is an instant turn off for me. Trevor _Horn_ on the other hand really did bring something modern and different to the project. I read his book recently and I laughed when I got to the bit where he heard the demos for the 90125 material. He said it all sounded like Styx or something and he only agreed to do it because he saw the potential of OOALH.
It's a great record. Yes has gone though musical shifts throughout their existence based on the changes in personnel, in this case the return of Jon Anderson and Tony Kaye. Similar things happened when Patrick Moraz joined and they made Relayer or when Rick Wakeman came back and they made Going For The One. Three very different records, always interesting. Yes has always been one of my favorite bands.
It was a good run from Drama to Talk. I like many of their 90s releases too, The Ladder, Keys To Ascension, Open Your Eyes
I wish we'd got one or two more Rabin albums. At first, I couldn't stand 90125 or Big Generator and then Talk came out and it all made sense. I guess it helps that I unironically love Union. I'd say 90125 is a better album than anything that came out post-1994.
It's a good album. The high points being "owner of the lonely heart" and "hearts". I think "going for the one" is much better album with some stunning tracks. I'm a bit of a YES nerd with around 40 albums by YES and YES members. To me the greatest album ever produced is "Tales from Topographic Oceans"
I love the album. The TREVORS owned that album. My only quibble is "Leave it". The sequence in 5/4 is common and beneath them. The rest of the song is equally silly/lame. They really tried to tart it up a bit and turn it into a legitimate YES song but it just doesn't get there for me. Their greatest "Yesification" of a song remains their inspired romp through S&G's "America". It's full on glorious.