TALK

Talk is a kind of ´forgotten´ Yes album. It made no impact at all when it was released and even fans don´t usually mention much about this CD. Even if the line up was the the same as the highly commercial successful 90126 and Big Generator, the timing seemed to be wrong. After all it was the year of the grunge movement and I guess most long time fans were tired of so many personell and musical changes. After that frankesntein project called Union, people seemed to get fed up with Yes. And I can´t say I was not one of them. I only got this CD a few weeks ago. And I must say I was surprised by the good quality of this work.

Unlike a lot of latter day Yes albums, this one does not have a few good tracks in the beginning and then boring or repetitive stuff to fill it up. All the songs here are good and although the quality varies, none is really bad or even weak to my ears. Ok, this is not up to their classic stuff (except one, see more about it below) and the sound here is quite different. This is Trevor Rabin´s brain child: the guy wrote just about everything (Anderson and Squire do share some credits, but after reading the story behind this album on the book Close to The Edge, The Story Of Yes, I believe their contributions were minimal). Rabins also plays all the guitars, most of the keyboards, sings a little, does the production, programming and engineering. So it is no wonder that sometimes Talk sounds like a Rabin´s solo album backed by Yes. Considering the group´s last effords, that was not a bad idea.

I was not expecting much. Most of the sutff here is not surprisingly similar to their early 80´s output, but definitly Rabin seemed to be in tune with the times and the album is much more guitar oriented (the keyboards are always in the background). But they did produce one great song: the epic Endless Dream is one of Yes best tunes ever: a wonderful symphonic track in all its glorious 15 minutes. I agree with the reviewer who said that if it was recorded by the classic line up it would be feature in any best of compilation. This track alone is worth the price of the CD. But there is more, even if a bit AOR-like much of the time. Songs like State Of Play and Real Love are other highlights. And the remaining ones are all good, with some great vocal harmonies and very good playing. The down side of the CD is the drum sound: too mechanical for my liking. Production overall is quite good.

Conclusion: not one of Yes best albums, of course, but still much better than I thought. Different, but very good. A nice goodbye to the Trevor Rabin era. If you liked 90125 and Big Generator then you should not miss this one. Rating: 3.5 stars.