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Topic ClosedIs 90125 the most underrated Yes album?

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Epignosis View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 16 2011 at 15:26
Originally posted by Blacksword Blacksword wrote:

Originally posted by Epignosis Epignosis wrote:


Originally posted by Blacksword Blacksword wrote:

Originally posted by cstack3 cstack3 wrote:


Originally posted by Blacksword Blacksword wrote:

^^^ 90125 is how I discovered Yes.

My next purchase was Topographic Oceans. I chose that one next because I liked the cover artwork so much. You can imagine my horror and surprise when I heard it. It was a slow grower, but yes Rabin era Yes, specifically 90125 was my introduction to the band.

LOL  Good heavens, I can only imagine!!  Going from "Owner of a Lonely Heart" to "The Ancient".....!!
At the 35th Anniversary Tour in Chicago, there were many older fans like myself who also brought their kids along (teens, twenty-somethings etc.).    I watched the crowd throughout the show because they were so interesting...
When OOALH was played, it brought a loud cheer & the "kids" became visibly animated....so yes, I believe that OOALH and 90125 did bring some new fans back to Yes.   The kids responded well throughout the show, I think because the lighting and visual presence was so stunning, if not only for the music.  A sublime performance, one of the best I'd seen from Yes. 
Now, how much these new fans ever got into "Tales" is beyond me!
Genesis had a similar experience, when the "Duke" era band would pull out old classics....I had heard that their audience would go "Huh?" when "Apocalypse in 9/8" was performed.  I don't think the kids got into it quite so much as the Yes kids dug the band.  
It's always interesting to see how these bands attempt to woo the younger generations! 


Oh yes, it was quite a moment when I first put TFTO on the turntable. The vinyl went straight into the sung intro. Me and my friend sat there opened mouthed for a few moments before laughing our arses off!!

Looking back, I worked backwards with Genesis too. Well, sort of. I started with ATTWT, then Trick, then Genesis (shapes) Mama was in the charts at the time, and I loved it. But with Yes, I think they've produced gems in all their manifestations. TFTO sits in my Yes top 5 these days, along with Going for the One, Fragile, CTTE and The Yes album.
LOL That's a nice story!  TFTO is my favorite album of all time, but I did not have an "entry album" for Yes really.  My first experience with Yes was their Masterworks Tour (Kansas opened).  Yes played 8 songs in 2 hours.The next morning, "I get up, I get down" and "I still remember the talks by the waters, the proud sons and daughters" rang in my head, and I knew I had to discover more of this band (even though at the concert I was like, "Lordy, when does this song end?") LOLI wound up purchasing Yessongs from Circuit City, thinking it was a compilation with all these songs on there, but was initially disappointed that it was a live album.  Still, it was enough to get me hooked and familiar with many classic songs.I just wound up acquiring studio albums one by one.  I don't recall which one I got first.


Kansas opening for Yes! Sounds like one of those dream concerts.

8 songs in 2 hours Yep! Sounds like prog heaven.


I wish I could relive the concert now- it was an amazing set list:

1. Close to the Edge
2. Starship Trooper
3. The Gates of Delirium
4. Leaves of Green
5. Heart of the Sunrise
6. Ritual
7. Your Move / I've Seen All Good People
8. Roundabout

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 16 2011 at 15:29
By the way (on topic), 90125 is one of the greatest progressive pop albums of all times, and it rocks aplenty.  Four stars for me.  I love "It Can Happen" and the chorus to "Hearts" is majestic.

In fact, I like Rabin-era Yes just fine.  Talk is excellent as well.  Big Generator is okay. Union stinks though, even more so than Open Your Eyes.

I like 90125 and Talk way more than I like Keystudio, and that's saying something.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 16 2011 at 15:31
Also, in answer to the actual thread question, 90125 is not the most underrated.  That distinction belongs to either Time and a Word or The Ladder.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 16 2011 at 15:47
Originally posted by lazland lazland wrote:

Well, it's certainly not underrated here. I love it, and think it is a true highlight of the band's career.

However, there are people who think that anything that remotely smells like a commercial song, let alone sounds like one, is automatically a bad thing. It isn't, but it's probably best to ignore the snipers and carry on enjoying. 
 
Agree...totally not under rated here. It is a great album released during the 80's where most rock music was in some kind of transformation period.
Punk, new wave was taking all the cash. In those days commercial albums were paying the money, so why does anyone have a problem with Yes taking a piece of that pie? They deserved the commercial success (paycheck) that 90125 gave them and hoards of new fans from huge FM radio play.
 
To me when a band has a mainstream succesful album such as 90125, it makes new fans dig into the older catalog and discover their beginings.
To me its one of Yes's most complete albums musically, only the Yes Album comes close.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 16 2011 at 18:07
Originally posted by Vibrationbaby Vibrationbaby wrote:

Originally posted by giselle giselle wrote:

I agree it's more accessible, but it sounds like a band whose day is long gone and who don't know where they are. Nothing wrong with the playing etc (other than the usual Yes question of taste and excess) - this is a band of always high quality musicians after all - but for me, the albums following Fragile were all downhill, they had their day in the sun.


So Close To The Edge and Relayer were pieces of sh*t then?
No, far from it, but it was a downward slope. Fragile was as good as it got (IMO).
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 17 2011 at 01:00
Originally posted by Epignosis Epignosis wrote:

Also, in answer to the actual thread question, 90125 is not the most underrated.  That distinction belongs to either Time and a Word or The Ladder.

Your avatar frightens me, badly!  However, I must say that I'm quite impressed with your opinion. 

I would have guessed "Tormato" as most underrated, but it seems to get quite a bit of appreciation on this forum.   Good point regarding TAAW and The Ladder!  
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 17 2011 at 01:07
Haven't heard Talk and didn't like Time and a Word so much, don't know why. But if we go strictly by the ratings here or on the more general rateyourmusic.com, Time and a Word is ranked higher anyway than 90125. But on rym, 90125 touches 3.38 as compared to Drama's 3.56, which is much closer to what my own rankings would be for both albums (a near-4 for 90125 and sub-3.5 for Drama). On rym too, Time and a Word is rated higher than 90125, though the margin again is narrower.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 17 2011 at 10:11
I don't know about underrated, but I can chance a guess that it is perhaps their worst.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 17 2011 at 10:13
Originally posted by esky esky wrote:

I don't know about underrated, but I can chance a guess that it is perhaps their worst.

Eh, Big Generator is comfortably much worse than it.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 17 2011 at 13:24
Originally posted by rogerthat rogerthat wrote:

Originally posted by esky esky wrote:

I don't know about underrated, but I can chance a guess that it is perhaps their worst.

Eh, Big Generator is comfortably much worse than it.

Not to mention "Onion," errrr....."Union."  

Great live show, though!  

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 17 2011 at 16:01
Yes Tongue
I like referring to it as 90210...
Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 17 2011 at 16:35
I think it's a good album though i haven't been listening to it for a few years , maybe the problem is that  OWNER has been to much broadcasted , Big Generator has a few high times too
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 17 2011 at 22:15
Originally posted by Slartibartfast Slartibartfast wrote:

Yes TongueI like referring to it as 90210...



Me too.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 22 2011 at 18:10
90125 is one of the truly great albums of the 80s, though in a Yes-y vein (you sure as hell ain't gettin' any great philosophical insight or even coherent themes).

Owner Of A Lonely is just perfect, and there is not a song on the album which does not work out. Some of the lesser-known songs I've always liked a lot too, like City Of Love

Err-ERRRR, err-ERRR, City of Love, City of Love, City Of Love!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 23 2011 at 11:00
Originally posted by RoyFairbank RoyFairbank wrote:

90125 is one of the truly great albums of the 80s, though in a Yes-y vein (you sure as hell ain't gettin' any great philosophical insight or even coherent themes).

Owner Of A Lonely is just perfect, and there is not a song on the album which does not work out. Some of the lesser-known songs I've always liked a lot too, like City Of Love

Err-ERRRR, err-ERRR, City of Love, City of Love, City Of Love!
What do you mean by "just perfect"?
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 23 2011 at 15:05
Union is obviously the most underrated.  Half of it is very good.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 23 2011 at 15:23

Like it or not, 90125 is the main influence on the new Yes album, along with CTTE (apparently it's like a cross between the two).

And as if that aint enough 80's pop for ya'............ Rabin + Anderson + Wakeman is obviously gonna sound a bit like it!



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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 23 2011 at 15:33
Originally posted by ghost_of_morphy ghost_of_morphy wrote:

Union is obviously the most underrated.  Half of it is very good.
 
The point is, all of it should be very good while it is being overlooked. Half ain't gonna' cut it.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 23 2011 at 19:32
The debut is obviously the most underrated Yes album.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 24 2011 at 07:29
I don't really dig why people tend to hail 90125 a pop(ular) stuff. It does contain some wonderful hooks as Rogerthat puts it. A real youthful, freshy, exciting listening almost all through. The meaning of "progressive" has been changing through time: in  the late 60s / 70s it was long, complex, philosophical tracks mingling with jazz, like Formentera Lady, Supper's Ready and Close To The Edge; in the 80s it was shorter gags and songs with more discipline (!) and abstract power (Peter Gabriel, Laurie Anderson) mingling with the new wave, now it is also Mars Volta and DJ Krush in a way.
And by the way, some pre-90125 Yes pieces like Turn of the Century are not popular and twee..? Dear 70s-fans, just listen to the brilliant, crazy, provocative Mr. Rabin guitar solo on Owner of a Lonely Heart!!!
P.S. Can anybody tell me what the hell is AOR influence? I love abbreviations!


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