I don't think I've ever done this for the greatest prog band of all time, so here it goes:
EARLY / PETER BANKS YEARS
1969 YES! - Classic heavy organ sound. 6.75/10
1970 Time and a Word - Similalr to last album but slightly better. 7/10
STEVE HOWE YEARS
1971 The Yes Album - Goodbye Peter Banks, enter Steve Howe. Songs getting much longer and better. 8/10
1971 Fragile - It's a real musical journey and a true concept album. Roundabout, South Side of the Sky, Heart of the Sunrise all shine. 9.5/10.
1972 Close To the Edge - Coined as one of the greatest prog rock albums ever. With 3 epic songs, the title track is a masterpiece. Side two "And You And I" and "Siberian Khatru" are up there as fan faves. 10/10
1973 Tales From Topographic Oceans - 4 sides = 4 very long songs. A very very spiritual and complex album but it would be nice to have the odd shorter song. 9/10
1974 Relayer - There is no greater epic prog song than "Gates of Delirium" at 21:50 it's the masterpiece of masterpieces. The other two 9min songs aren't as strong and pretty mellow but Gates makes up for anything. 9.8/10.
1977 Going For The One - Back to shorter songs except for the amazingly mellow "Awaken" at 15:31 at the end. I like 4 of the 5 songs on here a lot. 8.75/10.
1978 Tormato - They took a dive with this one. Kind of a hoaky album with "On the Silent Wings of Freedom" being the best track of all 8 of them. 6/10
BUGGLES
1980 Drama - Goodbye Anderson, Howe, and Wakeman. Hello Buggles! That said, I love this album. Lots of hooks, fast, and fun. Lots of lead vocal harmonies with Horn and Squire. 8.5/10.
TREVOR RABIN YEARS
1983 90125 - Welcome back Anderson. Oh, hello Trevor Rabin, you American you. Horn now producer of Yes and Asia. Much more poppy and catchy. It peaked at #5 in the U.S. "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" is on this one. 7/10
1987 Big Generator - Over written and over produced. Rhythm of Love and Love Will Find A Way are good Trevor Rabin songs. Anderson not primary it seems. 5/10
1991 Union - Let's get everyone who's ever been in the band and make an album... but not necessarily together. That said, I still like this album and listen to many of the songs to this day. Rick Wakeman calls it "Onion" because there's too many layers and he hated it. 6.5/10
1994 Talk - Another Trevor Rabin dominating album but it's an improvement. Roger Hodgson actually makes a guest co-writing stint on "Walls". "Endless Dream" is pretty long and good. 6.5/10
STEVE HOWE RETURNS
1996/7 Keys to Ascension 1 and 2 -- I don't have them as it's mostly live songs on first side with studio songs on 2nd side. I should probably add to the collection. No rating but Howe returns so it's better.
1997 Open Your Eyes -- I don't mind this album. "The Solution" at the end at 23:47 is really a 15 min song with silence and a produced rerun of all the vocal harmonies from the entire album. Dumb. I like the title track though. 5.5/10.
1999 The Ladder -- Better than the last album and they add Bill Sherwood to the 6 man line up. 6/10
2001 Magnification - But no keyboard player so they used an orchestra. This is a beautiful album. 8.5/10.
2011 Fly From Here - Goodbye Jon and hello Canadian Benoit David! And welcome back Trevor Horn producer and Geoff Downes on keyboard! I love this album, a lot. Actually the song "Fly From Here" was originally written by Horn and Downes back as a Buggles song. Steve Howe is a magician on this album and there's a wide variety of song styles and singers. 9/10.
In summary:
Between 1971 and 1977, YES was at their best. You'll not find a true Yes fan who'll disagree with that.
1. Close To The Edge
2. Relayer
3. Fragile
4. Tales From Topographic Oceans
5. Fly From Here
6. Going For The One
7. Drama, Magnification
8. The Yes Album
9. Time and a Word, 90125
10. YES!
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