90s/00s Yes - Where do I begin?

[Orbert]

Most bands used to put out an album every year, and with the limited capacity of an LP, you only went with your strongest material.  Now that albums are twice as long, everything's on there, including weaker stuff that wouldn't have made the cut back in the 70's.  There's a push to fill the CD, and even I have fallen into that trap.  If I buy a CD and it's "only" 60 or 65 minutes of music, I don't quite feel ripped off, but I feel like they could've given me more.  Never mind that this is still nearly twice as long as any album from the 70's.  It doesn't help that they took three years to make the album "and this is all we got".  It's too easy to get spoiled by pretty much anything.

Anyway, I think my point was that the reason why I don't play later albums straight through is because they're so damned long and contain too much filler.  I know, I can always hit the Skip button, but that's too much work!  Something I've thought about (and actually done once or twice) is creating my own cut of the album, leaving off the weaker tracks that I'll skip anyway.  Unfortunately, the purist in me finds this wrong.  I'm now playing "my version" of the album, not the one the artist intended.  Even if I always skip those same couple of tracks anyway.  And talk about too much work.  I could just put on Relayer or Close to the Edge and enjoy 40 minutes of non-stop perfection.

[RoeDent]

I'll ask again, as no one seems to have answered it: Is there a booklet with the Essentially Yes box?

[IDontNotDoThings]

From a Google Image search, it looks like every disc is in its own sleeve, & there's one booklet for every album.

[Orbert]

No, what you're looking at are the individual CD sleeves plus the one booklet that comes with the set.  Reviews on Amazon range from Bad to Worse (nearly 60% give 3 or fewer stars out of 5), and some specifically point out the lack of liner notes for individual albums.

[IDontNotDoThings]

I couldn't tell you then. I don't have the set, I just saw that image.

[Orbert]

Whenever I'm considering buying something, I'll check online reviews if at all possible.  Sure, there can be extremes at each end of the spectrum, but sift through a dozen or so, and patterns emerge.  This set is basically four later albums which didn't sell very well, plus a single-disc version of a double live CD that also didn't sell very well.  Reviews all agree that the packaging is beautiful, but most also agree that that's about where the good news ends.

I can understand jumping on a chance to get four albums at a decent price, and if the booklets and liner notes aren't that important to you, then this could be a good deal.  But it sounds to me like you want the liner notes, and several reviews complain about the lack of them.

The music is of course the most important thing, and The Ladder, Magnification, and Talk are all considered hidden gems, better albums than their sales would indicate.  I still think Open Your Eyes gets unfairly maligned.  I like that one as much as any of the other three.

[KevShmev]

I liked Open Your Eyes a lot when it first came out.  I still like most of it - the first eight tracks, minus Man on the Moon, are all still good - but nothing on it is even close to being one of their best songs.  Overall, it's a mostly solid collection of tunes.  Just throw Man in the Moon in the abyss forever. 

[RoeDent]

Hmm...OK, I'll have to think about whether I want to get the individual albums, or sacrifice having liner notes for the sake of getting all 4 albums in one go.