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TODDLER 
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 Topic: Is 90125 the most underrated Yes album?
Posted: March 10 2015 at 11:49 |
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I believe that the commercial influence was on the Trevor Rabin agenda, songwriting and control over the Yes situation in the 80's. He was a polished songwriter and crafty enough to obtain success internationally from 3 or 4 songs that were melodically appealing to the 80's housewife who didn't like Progressive Rock. The style of songwriting was based around the structure of catchy melodies fused with Progressive Rock ,unlike the previous situation with Jon Anderson writing Folk melody that was commercially viable, but was also Avant Garde and developed easily by Anderson during the in the madtimes. I believe Rabin was a skilled writer with the same background of interest that evolved from 10CC or Supertramp.
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geekfreak
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Posted: March 06 2015 at 12:37 |
well I`m one whom isn't a fan of this YES Album. but funny I`m totally avid fan of BG... 
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zwordser
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Posted: March 03 2015 at 21:10 |
I'm one who also thinks it may be a little underrated, But I have the bias...It was also my first Yes, and as a teen I used to love it and listen constantly. When I hear it now, everything except Owner of a Lonely Heart (which was way too overplayed on the radio back then) sounds great and quite proggy enough for my ears. Especially like Changes and Cinema.
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tricksiebzehn
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Posted: March 01 2015 at 11:41 |
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Yes is not underrated, so no Yes album by Yes can ever be underrated, even not 90125...
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cstack3
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Posted: February 22 2015 at 15:33 |
Not discussed has been the economic impact of the recording "90125" upon the bank accounts of the members of Yes!
They were basically running on fumes, financially, and may not have survived to give us any more recordings or live tours without the rather miraculous lift that "90125" gave to their bank accounts. I've read this in more than a few places.
It took me a while, but I quite enjoy "90125," particularly "It Can Happen." A very fine Yes song.
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Star_Song_Age_Less
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Posted: February 22 2015 at 14:07 |
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^^Very much so. When that album came out I was still a kid, and I had grown up (thus far) listening to my dad's prog music collection among other things, and it startled me when I loved this album (esp. "Endless Dream") right away but he was dissatisfied with it. He didn't dislike it, but he was disappointed, whereas I wanted to listen to it over and over and over again. I loved that rattle-your-ribcage feel of the guitar combined with the creative songwriting.
And yet this power is missing for me in 90125. It made no positive impact on me then, and now when I try to listen to it I have to struggle not to just give up and turn it off. Weird - both Rabin...
Edited by Star_Song_Age_Less - February 22 2015 at 14:07
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Dellinger
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Posted: February 22 2015 at 14:05 |
 CPicard wrote:
I rented 90125 in my local library last year. I tried more than a couple to deal with this record. Come on, guys, let's admit it: it's not that everything is awful on this album, but it can't compete with the 70's Yes material in strict terms of writing!
90125 sounds like a ton of other 80's rock music made to conquer the FM waves: "Owner of a Lonely Heart" is rather poor from a musical point of view, "Changes" offers no surprise... And I can't even remember the music of the other songs, all of them being as forgettable as a Foreigner anthology!
To re-estimate Drama is something to be done (even if I don't enjoy a lot, but it's not bad), but 90125 is so generic that it can't even be seen as an alternative to, let's say, Boston or Journey!
And for something completely different, Heaven and Earth sounds a Mike Oldfield album.
Er, I meant: a modern Mike Oldfield album (those having listened to Man on the Rocks know what I mean).
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Well, that "Man on the Rocks" song, as well as "Nuclear" are much better than anything on "Heaven and Earth" for me (even if completley not prog and unlike what I'm used from Oldfield).
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Dellinger
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Posted: February 22 2015 at 14:02 |
Star_Song_Age_Less wrote:
^Generally agreed, but I think Talk breaks completely away from that '80s feel and winds up in a more mature (and less hokey) area of classic rock... and agreed, "Endless Dream" is fantastic. I love those wild bow bow bew BOW bew bow bow bow BOW sounds in it. So different.
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I believe that song is the perfect blending of modern (for the time) music and prog.
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Star_Song_Age_Less
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Posted: February 22 2015 at 13:51 |
^ Hear, hear! :)
Bitterblogger wrote:
What I find though, on this site, is that this tends to show the real divide between some of the fans of Steve Howe and those of the band as a whole. Trevor Rabin is, IMHO, mostly underrated. |
Strongly agreed. I love Steve Howe and Trevor Rabin. They're totally different guitarists, but both are wonderful in different ways.
omphaloskepsis wrote:
I think "The Big Generator" or " Talk" is Yes's most under rated albums. And, I feel ABWH is a masterpiece. Besides the "too many cooks in the kitchen disaster of the Union album", I have to say, I love 80's thru early 90's Yes. Trevor Rabin's Yes and ABWH are so much better than ASIA. Yet, I have difficult time with every Yes album after Magnification.
I
understand Yes fans going for the #1 band of all time, and
expecting the sister of "Fragile", Close to the Edge, or Relayer. But
if prog music is a progression, then I would have to say that Yes
progressed thru the 80's, and the Yes regression
started somewhere in the late 90's. Since the late 90's I've been
listening to an excruciating slow motion train wreck, with hope
inspiring sweet notes such as '\Magnification interspersed in between the album wreckage. As
an epicurean, if the music makes me happy I like it, whether it's
close to edge or not. I try not to spoil my listening experience with
comparisons to The Yes Album... How do I listen? I pretend it's a new
band and I listen. And, that's why I love the Trevor Rabin Yes. If
the Rabin era "Yes" had stuck with the name "Cinema" they wouldn't have
sold as many albums, but "Cimema" wouldn't have incurred the wrath of so many Yes fans in the long distance run around. 
Squire and Anderson used Trevor to chart new territory. And yet, I
feel Steve Howe may be the best guitarist of all time. It's not Trevor
Rabin's fault that he replaced Steve Howe for a dozen years of Yes
songs!  Would you have preferred Steve Howe's Asia songs and guitar licks to Trevor Rabin's? Yes?  No? 
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 Definitely not, Steve Howe played it weirdly safe in Asia. I never could figure out how a group full of such talented musicians managed to produce such unbelievably tame music. Rabin all the way in that comparison. I agree with that post so much - I don't care if the band changes, just if I like what I hear. I listen to many genres of music so I also don't mind if they move away from prog. A lot of my favorite music is definitely prog-related but not proggy at all (i.e. Kate Bush). Rabin doesn't sound "proggy" but that doesn't make it worse.
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richardh
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Posted: February 22 2015 at 03:03 |
Dellinger wrote:
Star_Song_Age_Less wrote:
^Yeah, I tried a few days ago to listen to 90125 in the car in the hope that I had misjudged it, but it was agonizing to sit through even in that setting. I'm not a fan of "Owner of a Lonely Heart" but I still feel that it was actually the best thing on the album, and that's not saying much... too bad "Cinema" was so short, it could have had the makings of a good intro.
As far as the most underrated Yes album, though, I don't think it is 90125 because I run into so many people who LOVE this one. From what I've seen I'd think the most underrated one is Talk. It's this very satisfying blend of classic rock and prog, but it never, ever, seems to be even mentioned... whereas 90125 gets talked about all the time.
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For me, most of Talk is very similar to what Yes did with the other 2 Trevor albums. But "Endless Dream" alone is enough to mark this album as my favourite from this line-up, and the most proggy. |
All the Rabin era albums sound different to me. The appeal of Talk is a much Alan White as anything, Unleash the beast! Endless Dream especially.
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emigre80
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Posted: February 22 2015 at 00:19 |
omphaloskepsis wrote:
Would you have preferred Steve Howe's Asia songs and guitar licks to Trevor Rabin's? Yes?  No?
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Actually, I do. I find Rabin's work with Yes to be kind of heavy handed and obvious, whereas the Asia songs are at least kind of fun and a bit lighthearted. I was listening to the 2006 Asia concert from Tokyo the other day, and the solos on Heat of the Moment are a pleasure. Not profound (okay, it's Asia after all and profound was not the point) but certainly enjoyable.
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CPicard
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Posted: February 21 2015 at 18:19 |
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I rented 90125 in my local library last year. I tried more than a couple to deal with this record. Come on, guys, let's admit it: it's not that everything is awful on this album, but it can't compete with the 70's Yes material in strict terms of writing!
90125 sounds like a ton of other 80's rock music made to conquer the FM waves: "Owner of a Lonely Heart" is rather poor from a musical point of view, "Changes" offers no surprise... And I can't even remember the music of the other songs, all of them being as forgettable as a Foreigner anthology!
To re-estimate Drama is something to be done (even if I don't enjoy a lot, but it's not bad), but 90125 is so generic that it can't even be seen as an alternative to, let's say, Boston or Journey!
And for something completely different, Heaven and Earth sounds a Mike Oldfield album.
Er, I meant: a modern Mike Oldfield album (those having listened to Man on the Rocks know what I mean).
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omphaloskepsis
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Posted: February 21 2015 at 12:53 |
I think "The Big Generator" or " Talk" is Yes's most under rated albums. And, I feel ABWH is a masterpiece. Besides the " too many cooks in the kitchen disaster of the Union album", I have to say, I love 80's thru early 90's Yes. Trevor Rabin's Yes and ABWH are so much better than ASIA. Yet, I have difficult time with every Yes album after Magnification. I understand Yes fans going for the #1 band of all time, and expecting the sister of "Fragile", Close to the Edge, or Relayer. But if prog music is a progression, then I would have to say that Yes progressed thru the 80's, and the Yes regression started somewhere in the late 90's. Since the late 90's I've been listening to an excruciating slow motion train wreck, with hope inspiring sweet notes such as '\Magnification interspersed in between the album wreckage. As an epicurean, if the music makes me happy I like it, whether it's close to edge or not. I try not to spoil my listening experience with comparisons to The Yes Album... How do I listen? I pretend it's a new band and I listen. And, that's why I love the Trevor Rabin Yes. If the Rabin era "Yes" had stuck with the name "Cinema" they wouldn't have sold as many albums, but "Cimema" wouldn't have incurred the wrath of so many Yes fans in the long distance run around.  Squire and Anderson used Trevor to chart new territory. And yet, I feel Steve Howe may be the best guitarist of all time. It's not Trevor Rabin's fault that he replaced Steve Howe for a dozen years of Yes songs!  Would you have preferred Steve Howe's Asia songs and guitar licks to Trevor Rabin's? Yes? No?
Edited by omphaloskepsis - February 21 2015 at 13:02
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Bitterblogger
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Posted: February 21 2015 at 04:38 |
When it came out, I was just glad Yes hadn't died, especially since I was interested to see what this unknown Rabin and a re-introduced Kaye would provide. I got more than I expected. And it was EVERYWHERE, even in DANCE CLUBS(!) A monster of a seller. But that's 30 years ago. Today, I appreciate that it gave them a shot in the arm, but listen only to a few tracks with any real pleasure: Cinema, and Hearts. What I find though, on this site, is that this tends to show the real divide between some of the fans of Steve Howe and those of the band as a whole. Trevor Rabin is, IMHO, mostly underrated.
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Star_Song_Age_Less
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Posted: February 12 2015 at 21:36 |
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^Generally agreed, but I think Talk breaks completely away from that '80s feel and winds up in a more mature (and less hokey) area of classic rock... and agreed, "Endless Dream" is fantastic. I love those wild bow bow bew BOW bew bow bow bow BOW sounds in it. So different.
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Dellinger
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Posted: February 12 2015 at 21:11 |
Star_Song_Age_Less wrote:
^Yeah, I tried a few days ago to listen to 90125 in the car in the hope that I had misjudged it, but it was agonizing to sit through even in that setting. I'm not a fan of "Owner of a Lonely Heart" but I still feel that it was actually the best thing on the album, and that's not saying much... too bad "Cinema" was so short, it could have had the makings of a good intro.
As far as the most underrated Yes album, though, I don't think it is 90125 because I run into so many people who LOVE this one. From what I've seen I'd think the most underrated one is Talk. It's this very satisfying blend of classic rock and prog, but it never, ever, seems to be even mentioned... whereas 90125 gets talked about all the time.
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For me, most of Talk is very similar to what Yes did with the other 2 Trevor albums. But "Endless Dream" alone is enough to mark this album as my favourite from this line-up, and the most proggy.
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Star_Song_Age_Less
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Posted: February 11 2015 at 22:49 |
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^Yeah, I tried a few days ago to listen to 90125 in the car in the hope that I had misjudged it, but it was agonizing to sit through even in that setting. I'm not a fan of "Owner of a Lonely Heart" but I still feel that it was actually the best thing on the album, and that's not saying much... too bad "Cinema" was so short, it could have had the makings of a good intro.
As far as the most underrated Yes album, though, I don't think it is 90125 because I run into so many people who LOVE this one. From what I've seen I'd think the most underrated one is Talk. It's this very satisfying blend of classic rock and prog, but it never, ever, seems to be even mentioned... whereas 90125 gets talked about all the time.
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TradeMark0
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Posted: February 09 2015 at 18:26 |
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It depends on what you value in music. 90125 has nothing that I value, so I don't really care how it's rated
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cstack3
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Posted: February 06 2015 at 20:23 |
Tom Ozric wrote:
Heaven And Earth is the most underrated Yes album........ |
I actually listened to it once, and my head didn't explode!
Considering most of the reviews, you may have a point - however, I don't hear much of enduring quality on H & E.
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micky
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Posted: February 06 2015 at 17:08 |
Flight123 wrote:
I liked 90125 when it came out; I thought Yes did an excellent job to reinvent themselves but it has not worn well with time...
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yeah... I wouldn't call it the most underrated... I'd call it the most unappreciated Yes album. Drama is the one I'd tag more with being the most underrated Like or hate the direction they took, if one was to look at the album simply for what it was, rather than what it WAS NOT, it was a great album. Old fans loved it, and those oblvious or simply too young to know or appreciate their 70's output got into the group.. and a great many later gravitated to the 70's albums. Genesis made great albums in the 80's as well, but at the cost of alienating many past fans. Yes reinvented themselves.. yet kept many old fans. It was still... Yes.
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Is 90125 the most underrated Yes album?
