Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!rex!rawdon From: rawdon@rex.cs.tulane.edu (Michael Rawdon) Newsgroups: alt.rock-n-roll Subject: Re: Yes' "Drama" Keywords: Good but flawed Message-ID: <1852@rex.cs.tulane.edu> Date: 17 Jan 90 22:45:46 GMT References: <75819@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Reply-To: rawdon@rex.UUCP (Michael Rawdon) Distribution: alt Organization: Computer Science Dept., Tulane Univ., New Orleans, LA Lines: 86 Summary: Expires: Sender: Followup-To: In article <75819@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> The Master writes: >>I recall someone talking last year about the album _Drama_ by YES; some >>people liking it, others hating it. >>Having recently bought and heard it, I give it an enthusiastic thumbs up! >>I find it better than _Fragile_ and _Close_To_The_Edge_ (Bleck!) > Ugh, I like it too, but to say it's better than "Close to the Edge" >is...oh well, each to his/her own tastes... _Close_ put me to sleep; the very quintessence of all bad aspects of art- rock, IMHO. >>Howe's guitar is some of his best, and while Trevor Horn's vocals aren't >>as good as Jon Anderson's in sheer tonal quality, he brings a lot of energy >>to the music that is lacking in Anderson's voice (except on _90125_). > On this I tend to agree. Howe is excellent, and the production >is the cleanest since 1974's "Relayer", and that's probably due to the >unsung member of Yes, Eddie Offord. Horn does bring energy to the songs; >at that time the band were having conflicts with Anderson because they >were writing hard-rocking tunes, but when Jon came in it would sound >"airy fairy" and the arguments would begin. This is not to say that >Jon can't be aggressive. Just listen to him belt it out on "Order of >the Universe" where he almost yells "You can't imagine it - how hard it >is to grow!". Jon sounds pretty aggressive on "Going For the One", >"Parallels", and "Release Release" too. Wasn't too impressed with the _ABWH_ album either, except for the "I'm Alive" piece. I'd say I don't think that energy is Anderson's strong suit, except that most of _90125_, especially "It Can Happen" (my fave YES song bar none) pretty handily disproves this. >>Excellent use is made of synthesizers, especially on "Machine Messiah", >>though it's not particularly better or worse than Rick Wakeman's, just >>different. > Alot of people dislike Downes, though I haven't found a good reason >why other than the fact that his stage setup is more there to visually im- >press the audience by having every keyboard in the book stacked up. I did like Downes' work on _Drama_ better than Kaye's on _90125_ (but then Kaye's work seems to have been almost deliberately mized down, if not out, on that album). >>The album works because of the feel of mystery it presents, rather than the >>overblown fantasy compositions spearheaded (apparently) by Anderson. A >>sense of restraint is apparent, and the album has more coherence to it, >>better unity of sound. > I don't know about "feel of mystery". It is an abandonment of the >fantasy stuff, but Yes confused their audience by using yet another Roger >Dean cover on an album with no fantasy element. I love all the songs on >the album, but as Chris Squire says, it was definitely rushed. "Into the >Lens" tends to slow down, speed up too much, and then stop suddenly; it's >disjointed although it's very good. "White Car" is a bit piece which >really shouldn't have been included, and "Run Through the Light" tends >to drag. The other three songs are the best on the album, especially >Chris cranking it out on "Does It Really Happen?" I found some of the tempo changes a bit rushed as well, but the only piece that didn't work at all for me was "Tempus Fugit" (wonder if I spelled that right! :-). "Into The Lens" seems like something that a REALLY weird video could have been made out of. I rather liked "Run Through The Light," as well, but feel that "Does It" and "Messiah" are the two best on the album. I think one of the eternal questions of rock music is: are songs like "White Car" worth putting on albums? It's not so much a song as a vignette, maybe a movement of a larger piece, but IMHO it fits in with the rest of the album rather well, just like some of the short pieces on the WHO's _Tommy_ and the acoustic numbers on JETHRO TULL's _Aqualung_ fit in well as album pieces, but rarely work as stand-alone songs. Other opinions on this? Who was Roger Dean? -- Michael Rawdon | Looking down on the smoke, on the factories Tulane University | 'Till the truth creeps up unseen New Orleans, Louisiana | They see themselves in the faces of their children rawdon@rex.cs.tulane.edu | And realize they too are part of the Machine ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- These opinions my own, and are not intended to represent any sort of objective truth, nor the opinions of any other individual or group. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------