Seconded. Talk would be the place to start, but I almost always prefer going chronologically, so maybe start with Union if you're curious.
It's important to understand that post-80's, there's not much consistency with the Yes albums. This is partly due to the lineup changing even more than ever before and partly due to the band only reforming on rare occasions to create a new album. Those two factors affected each other as well.
1991 Union was promoted as both Yes factions together, but a glance at the credits reveals that it's actually most of what was originally going to be the second Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe album, a Howe solo piece, and some leftover RabinYes tunes filling it out. And that's exactly what it sounds like.
1994 Talk - After the Union tour, which unlike the Union album was incredible, Bruford rode off into the sunset, Howe went to find some Vegan food, and the remaining members were keen to create a new Yes album. Wakeman and Rabin in particular were looking forward to working together, but Phil Carson from Victory records wanted only the 90125 lineup. Talk is therefore the third and final "YesWest" or RabinYes album, but even that is deceiving. Once the basic tracks were laid down, Trevor Rabin digitized everything and completed the arranging, engineering, and production on his computer. This also included overdubbing keyboard, bass, and guitar parts himself, and literally creating tracks by digitally editing pieces of other tracks. The result is an album that's more a Rabin solo album than a Yes album (although some would say that that's true of 90125 and Big Generator as well).
1996 Keys to Ascension
1997 Keys to Ascension 2 - If the liner notes are to be believed, the "classic" 70's lineup (Anderson, Squire, Howe, Wakeman, White) made a pact to reunite 20 years later and make a new album. The first KtA album was two CDs, mostly live material from a reunion gig at San Luis Obispo, but two tracks of new studio material. KtA 2 is one disc of each. Collectively, the two albums represent a marketing failure of the highest order. Most fans have rearranged the tracks to create a 2-disc live album and a single CD of new studio material including two "epics". Also, the live material is heavily (and sometimes obviously) overdubbed.
1997 Open Your Eyes - This album began life as a Conspiracy (Chris Squire - Billy Sherwood) album, but eventually became a legitimate Yes album. Alan White was already the drummer, and Jon Anderson and Steve Howe were both brought on board. Billy Sherwood played some guitar and most keyboards, with additional keyboard work provided by studio musicians. This album and KtA 2 were released within a month of each other, leading most fans to wonder what exactly was going on with Yes in terms of lineup and direction. KtA 2 seemed to favor the 70's sound and more adventurous arrangements, while Open Your Eyes was a clear step towards more concise songwriting and arrangements.
1999 The Ladder seemed to split the difference. Some songs have extended instrumental sections reminiscent of "classic" Yes, while most are shorter, but seem to have some progressive influence. This is the only Yes album with a six-person lineup (Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Billy Sherwood, Chris Squire, Alan White and Igor Khoroshev).
2001 Magnification is the only Yes album (officially) with a four-person lineup. An unfortunate incident with keyboardist Igor Khoroshev led to his departure from the band, and Billy Sherwood did not seem interested in continuing to be a named member with second-class rights within the band. This left them without a keyboard player, so Magnification is four-piece Yes plus an orchestra. The symbiosis works better than one might think, because the songs were written with the orchestra in mind, where it would be filling in the spaces, and even taking over for a few sections.
2011 Fly From Here - After another extended break, the band reformed yet again. Fly From Here features a five-part title suite which is a reworking of a song cut from the 1980 album Drama. In fact, returning for Fly From Here are Geoff Downes on keyboards and Trevor Horn producing, and the singer at the time was Benoît David who IMO sounds very much like Trevor Horn. This album is similar to Drama in terms of sound, for obvious reasons.
2014 Heaven & Earth was the first album with singer Jon Davison, who sounds the most like Jon Anderson of all singers other than Anderson himself. The songs are generally longer, but mostly feel like simple songs padded out with endless repeats rather than the instrumental excursions found on true prog albums. This album is favored by very few long-time Yesfans.
Topic: 90s/00s Yes - Where do I begin? (Read 1958 times)
