Yes studio albums countdown thread! (# 01 featured!)

[DragonAttack]

15 Time and a Word (#10)

14 Fly from Here (NR)

13 The Ladder (#12)

Basically, my bottom 11 could be in any order.  There's no hate or dislike, just a 'meh' kind of attitude towards them.

[devieira73]

I love The Ladder (my #7). The 2 prog songs and the production are excellent. I love Nive Voices and the middle of the album  has very good, sometimes great, pop prog songs. In context of Yes music, I feel like this album is one hour of pure guilty pleasure to me, really.

[pg1067]

So...that means (at least) two albums I ranked won't be in the consensus.  I'm virtually certain of one, but it'll be interesting to see what the other is.

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12. Time and a Word (15)
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DNR:  Fly from Here, The Ladder

[Zydar]

Looks like I have to check this one out too.

[Dittomist]

I had Fly From Here at #8, mostly due to that incredible title track. I had the pleasure of listening to it for the first time while driving down 101 on the coast, and it fit the majestic scenery so well. Into the Storm is another song I really like. But I was annoyed when I found out that Yes was re-recording that album because it seemed really disrespectful to Benoit, who I thought sang beautifully.
The Ladder didn't quite make the cut for me.

[Orbert]

I was annoyed when I found out that Yes was re-recording that album because it seemed really disrespectful to Benoit, who I thought sang beautifully.

Same here.  Total slap in the face to Benoit.

The Ladder didn't quite make the cut for me.

Same here, for reasons given above.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

The Ladder barely made it in at #14. It's not an album I revisit very often, but it is an enjoyable listen once in a while.

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14   The Ladder
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12   Fly From Here
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10   Time and a Word
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[KevShmev]

12 Tormato

Highest Finish: 4 (devieira73)
Appeared on 12 of 17 lists

Unranked by me, and I could have gone 20 deep and I still wouldn't have ranked it.  I couldn't believe how crappy this was when I finally got it in the mid 90s.  It's not even like the songwriting is bad, as I later got into Onward thanks to the stellar live version on one of the Keys albums, but the way this album was produced and mixed sounds so damn ugly.  I admittedly have not listened to this in full since the 90s and have no intention of doing so again.  It was that bad.

[The Letter M]

12 Tormato

Highest Finish: 4 (devieira73)
Appeared on 12 of 17 lists

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17   Time And A Word
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13   Tormato
12   Fly From Here
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09   The Ladder
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Tormato somehow ended up in 13th for me. Of their first ten albums, it's definitely one of the few I rarely go for but it's not entirely awful for me. There's some good ideas on here but I've always agreed with the opinions of some of the band at the time that the album needed more time in the oven because it came out half-baked.

-Marc.

[Mladen]

I had Tormato at #13. It's actually listenable and definitely not terrible, there are some amazing moments throughout the album. However, out of eight songs, I do not consider a single one of them truly great. Just let that sink in.

[romdrums]

Of these first four, I've only ranked Time and a Word, and I had that at #13.  Sweet Dreams and Astral Traveller are cool, and the title track is decent.  You can see where they want to go but they're not quite there yet.  These other albums though, are weak, in my opinion.  The Ladder has its moments, particularly with Homeworld and New Language, but the rest is kinda blah.  Tormato has Arriving UFO and Circus of Heaven on it, so that automatically disqualified itself from the competition, no matter how good Onward is.  Can't believe they followed up Going For the One with this album.

[HOF]

I like Tormato and don’t think it’s a particularly awful sounding album, though there are some tracks that are worse than others and I could see it maybe having been a bit rushed. Onward is really great though. It definitely sounds better than Going for the One!

[devieira73]

My Yes list is indeed a bit in the Bizarro World, since I like more their music when it's more rocking or acessible. I know that Tormato (my #4) isn't very well regarded by the fan base, I recognize the sound production could be better (but I don't think it's that far from GFTO) and it isn't so proggy as the previous albums, but I always loved every song of it and the fact that is one of the more energetic Yes albums.

[Stadler]

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18   The Ladder
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12   Time and a Word
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10   Fly From Here
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7   Tormato
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The Ladder: I listened to it once a couple years ago while painting my living room and I actually liked it a fair amount.  But I think ultimately Orbert has it right: 

I know a lot of people like this one, but I have trouble with this album.  There are a couple of really nice moments in some of the songs, but overall most of the songs just don't work for me.  Jon's world music influence bugs me, and the shorter poppy songs are sometimes cringeworthy.  It's like they wanted to get back to the prog, but kinda forgot how, meanwhile Jon Anderson was taking "his" band in whatever direction he felt and the result was a mess.

I never did cotton to Jon's world music inputs.  It is what it is, it's certainly better than "Open Your Eyes" or "Heaven and Earth", but that isn't saying a whole lot.

Tormato:  "Half-baked" is right.  When it's on - IT'S ON.  It's definitely got great moments - Future Times/Rejoice; Madrigal; Release, Release; On The Silent Wings of Freedom - and it's got good moments - Don't Kill the Whale; Onward - but it's got the two worst songs in the Yes catalogue - Arriving UFO; Circus of Heaven.  I actually listen to this a fair amount (being a bookend to GFTO, such as it is) and it deserves a little more respect than it ordinarily gets.

[Mladen]

Arriving UFO is a good representation of the messiness of the album. Jon sounds great on it, there are some nice melodies in there, Howe and Wakeman sprinkle some of their magic on the top as well, but overall, it's truly silly and doesn't end up going anywhere.

[Orbert]

I like Tormato more than most, but it does come across a little weak, especially following Going for the One, which I think is magnificent.  But as always, I try to evaluate it in a vaccuum.  That is, don't compare it to the rest of the catalog, don't compare it to what other bands were doing at the time, but consider when it came out.  In the late 70's, sci-fi was a thing.  Close Encounters, Star Wars, UFOs.  I actually like the "live" break in Release, Release.  I think it's cool.  Onward is great, of course.  And it finishes strong with On the Silent Wings of Freedom, one of my all-time faves.  So overall not the stinking pile that some make it out to be.  Somewhere in the middle for me.

[devieira73]

I listened again the album today and only Circus of Heaven I don't like much. Arriving UFO is really cool, also love it! Yes, I still love the album as a whole.

[pg1067]

12 Tormato

Highest Finish: 4 (devieira73)
Appeared on 12 of 17 lists

Unranked by me, and I could have gone 20 deep and I still wouldn't have ranked it.  I couldn't believe how crappy this was when I finally got it in the mid 90s.  It's not even like the songwriting is bad, as I later got into Onward thanks to the stellar live version on one of the Keys albums, but the way this album was produced and mixed sounds so damn ugly.  I admittedly have not listened to this in full since the 90s and have no intention of doing so again.  It was that bad.

I had Tormato at #9.  Arriving UFO and Circus of Heaven are clunkers, and Madrigal is kind of an odd duck, but everything else is really good, with RR, Onward and Wings being great.  Whale is also a favorite of mine, but that's largely because of the Yesshows version and the fact that I got into Yes around a time that the subject matter really resonated with me.


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9. Tormato (12)
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12. Time and a Word (15)
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DNR:  Fly from Here, The Ladder

I recognize the sound production could be better (but I don't think it's that far from GFTO)

In some respects, it's better than GFTO, because the shrillness of the guitar and some of the keys on GFTO isn't there on Tormato.

[Dittomist]

Tornado ranked pretty low on my first draft but the more I listened to it, the higher it got and it ended up at #6! It's mostly a fun and quirky album, but it also has what is perhaps Yes' prettiest song ever: Onward. I'm glad that you guys also appreciate that one!

[The Letter M]

Tornado ranked pretty low on my first draft but the more I listened to it, the higher it got and it ended up at #6! It's mostly a fun and quirky album, but it also has what is perhaps Yes' prettiest song ever: Onward. I'm glad that you guys also appreciate that one!

Fun and quirky? Perhaps, one might say, it's got some twists? 

-Marc.

[DragonAttack]

15  Time and a Word (#10)
14  Fly from Here (NR)
13  The Ladder (#12)
12  Tormato (NR)

I'd purchased everything from 'The Yes Album' onwards by this point (plus 'Yesterdays').  It was great to relax to with the headphones on, while being anywhere from zero to half baked at the time.  Wow, was this disappointing.  A few weeks later, that new 'Jazz' album by Queen was going to be so much better to listen to than this. It was, but that's not saying much.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

I am absolutely shocked that Tormato made the top 15. I'm not sure what you guys are hearing that I'm not, but the album is just one big clunker for me. Granted, I do like it more than 4 other albums, but that isn't saying much and it isn't much more...

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18   Tormato
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12   Fly From Here
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[KevShmev]

11 Big Generator

Highest Finish: 5 (romdrums)
Appeared on 13 of 17 lists

I ranked this 7th and will forever stand behind it. Damn fine album, warts and all.  The two hits were played on MTV early and often back in the day and quickly became favorites, and when I got this on cassette, the greatness of deep cuts like Shoot High Aim Low and I'm Running was more than apparent.  The title track and Almost Like Love could have both used a bit of tweaking and been much better, but I don't mind either.  The loudness of the snare drum is a bit much as well in the mix, but it's still a good sounding album overall.  There is a segment of the fanbase that will never give much love to anything the band did with Trevor Rabin, but for the more open-minded folks like myself, this album is more than worthy.

Favorite songs: Shoot High Aim Low, Love Will Find a Way, I'm Running, Rhythm of Love and Holy Lamb

[Mladen]

I had this one at #15. The opener is good, the title track is powerful, the rest is fairly listenable. Not a particularly good record, but that just goes to show that there are six Yes albums that are worse than this.

[Stadler]

I'm a huge Yes fan; I really am.   For a while, they were a "whenever they come around" band, regardless of what the album was. In hindsight, the Rabin albums are SO strong.  Not the best in the catalogue, but so consistently high in what I like that they really resonate, even decades later.   I love this record.  "Rhythm of Love" is something I have to be in the mood for, but when I am I love it (it's ACTUALLY progressive!); the only real dud on the record, and it's not, is "Almost Like Love".

It gets ragged on, but I LOVE "Love Will Find A Way" (though, oddly, the one line "I eat at chez nous" bugs the crap out of me for some reason).  One of my favorite Yes songs.  The opening riff is killer, and the chorus sticks in your head.



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[romdrums]

I will gladly fly the flag for this record all day, every day.  It was the first Yes album that I purchased, and actually, one of the first albums I purchased period.  I think I was 10 when I got this.  My dad was a huge fan of ELP, Genesis, and King Crimson, and kind of into Yes.  The only Yes album he had was 9012Live: The Solos.  Weird, I know!  There was something about BG that grabbed me from my first listen.  Alan White's drumming was one of the first things that grabbed me. He lays down a real solid foundation throughout, balancing heaviness and ferocity quite nicely. Adding in Chris Squire's bass work and Trevor Rabin's guitar work, they would have made a fantastic power trio if they had ever decided to go that route.  All that heaviness is balanced by Rabin's (and kinda Kaye's) keyboard work and sound choices, and Jon Anderson adding his vocals on top made for a near perfect record in my eyes.  In fact, I was just listening to it with my son this morning as I was taking him to day camp.

[The Letter M]

11 Big Generator

Highest Finish: 5 (romdrums)
Appeared on 13 of 17 lists

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18   Big Generator
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13   Tormato
12   Fly From Here
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BG ended up in 18th place, and yes, I like TAAW more than it. It's got a couple of good tunes but I could never get into it the way I did 90125 and Talk, at least as far as the Rabin albums go. I tried and tried but just have never been able to connect with it fully as an album.

-Marc.

[devieira73]

BG is my #8 and is my least favorite Rabin era album! Well, I truly love that phase.
Despite having some problems to get some weirdness in the arragements of the title track and still thinking that the chorus of Shooting High is a bit boring (although instrumentaly all the song is great), I think the album from Almost Like Love  to Holy Lamb is pure gold.

[KevShmev]

I ranked Big Generator 7th, and it was my 3rd highest ranked album they did with Rabin.

[HOF]

Big Generator is not a great album IMO, but it does have some high points. The Rhythm of Love and Love Will Find A Way are great songs. Shoot High, Aim Low and Final Eyes are also pretty good. Holy Lamb is a fine closer too that maybe harkens back to 70s Yes a bit.

[Stadler]

Im not a huge Kaye fan - he didn't impress me at all the two times I saw them on the 90210 tour - and while I had my suspicions before this album proved to me anyway that he was not up to the level of musicianship that Yes usually accounted for.  Kaye reportedly wasn't really keen on the approach to this album - putting pieces together rather than starting with completed song structures - and Rabin reportedly played a lot of the keyboards (certainly most if not all of the synths) and this continued on Talk, where Rabin played almost all of the instruments outside of drums and bass (and even then, he played a lot of bass, since also reportedly, Squire was doing some side sessions for the "Great COKE-Cola Company of Los Angeles" (as Sabbath put it).

[KevShmev]

Tony Kaye is a weird one.  His "dirty" organ sounds are a reason I think The Yes Album is so great, but it's clear that the band wouldn't have gone in the directions they did on the follow-ups had he stayed in the band instead of making the move to Wakeman.  And his input on the Rabin-era albums always seemed pretty limited.  I saw the band live on the Talk tour, and I barely even remember him or anything he played.

[Trav86]

I had Tormato at 11 and Big Generator at 8. I’m a big fan of the Rabin years. I think BG a great album because I’m a sucker for 80s synths! I tend to hold the 80s albums from Yes (Genesis too) in higher regard than most fans.

[pg1067]

11 Big Generator

A big letdown from 90125.  After four years (a virtual eternity in those days), this was the best they could do (particularly the bass)?  Nonetheless, the two singles are good to very good.

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9. Tormato (12)
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12. Time and a Word (15)
13. Big Generator (11)
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DNR:  Fly from Here, The Ladder

[romdrums]

Im not a huge Kaye fan - he didn't impress me at all the two times I saw them on the 90210 tour - and while I had my suspicions before this album proved to me anyway that he was not up to the level of musicianship that Yes usually accounted for.  Kaye reportedly wasn't really keen on the approach to this album - putting pieces together rather than starting with completed song structures - and Rabin reportedly played a lot of the keyboards (certainly most if not all of the synths) and this continued on Talk, where Rabin played almost all of the instruments outside of drums and bass (and even then, he played a lot of bass, since also reportedly, Squire was doing some side sessions for the "Great COKE-Cola Company of Los Angeles" (as Sabbath put it).

Tony Kaye is a weird one.  His "dirty" organ sounds are a reason I think The Yes Album is so great, but it's clear that the band wouldn't have gone in the directions they did on the follow-ups had he stayed in the band instead of making the move to Wakeman.  And his input on the Rabin-era albums always seemed pretty limited.  I saw the band live on the Talk tour, and I barely even remember him or anything he played.

Tony Kaye was mainly in the band to give it additional credibility in calling it Yes (Look! 3 found members in the band!).  He did not get along with Trevor Horn at all, so he wasn't really in the studio whenever Horn was around. I think the Chris Welch book talks about how Trevor Horn kicked him out of the studio during both the 90125 and Big Generator sessions, and by the time Talk came around, Trevor Rabin just did all of the non-Hammond keyboard parts from the word go.  So, it's easy to see how Trevor Rabin contributed so many keyboard parts just to get the albums done.