Great, and not so great, Yes CD tandems

[YesNY]

What two Yes CDs do you think are a good tandem to listen to together? Do you think it would sound good if you had the CD player randomize tracks between the two CDs?

What Yes CDs do you feel are not a great match together?

Does it make much difference what release of a CD you are listening to? (ex: Atlantic or Rhino, etc)

If you are listening to Yes mix on a CD or MP3 player do the variations in volume detract from your enjoyment of the music? Anybody know of software or hardware to narrow those volume differences?

The reason I ask these questions is the other day I was relaxing, lying down to listen to some music. I put on the Going For the One CD, to be followed by the Fly From Here CD. After GFTO was over and the CD changer switched over to FFH, I nearly jumped up when that CD started to play. It was so loud! I am thinking that maybe FFH is mixed and mastered at a much higher volume in comparison to the GFTO CD (the one on the Atlantic label, not the Rhino label), but I also got to thinking maybe it just isn't a good Yes CD tandem in the first place.

Thanks!

[pianozach]

I've actually done this. Usually they're albums that were originally released back-to-back.

And it will usually be a 'clean' shuffle: Album A Track 1, Album B Track 1, etc.

I got a lot of mileage out of Union. One must remember that Union itself is its own Yes shuffle, merely adding three "YesWest" tracks and a Conspiracy track to 10 new ABWH tracks.

That said, I've got

ABWHUnion: Obviously, these albums have a lot in common, as Union is a mostly ABWH affair.

This one doesn't follow the 'clean' shuffle rule, as ABWH has 9 tracks and Union's got 14. Not only that, they both have some tracks that are 'linked', or at the least, have some serious 'flow' going on that encourages some tracks to be kept together.

So, the track list went one from ABWH, two from Union, one from ABWH, two from Union, another one from ABWH, another two from Union, then switching to alternating one from each with the following exceptions: I kept ABWH's Order of the Universe and Let's Pretend together, and kept the last three tracks (Holding On, Evensong and Take the Water to the Mountain) from Union together.

Also did a Big 90125: Again, an obvious connection.

Had to keep Cinema and Leave It together as they're linked. Added the three YesWest tracks from Union and the Big Generator Remix from The Ultimate Yes collection. And there's the four of the five 90125 bonus tracks - Make It Easy, It's Over, It Can Happen (Cinema Version) and Leave It (A Capella Version). (I find the extended version of 'Owner' a useless track.)

Also made a TalkUnion playlist by mixing in the three YesWest tracks from Union to Talk. Broke my own 'in order' rule on this one for a better flow, moving Talk's opening track The Calling to the middle of the list:

Lift Me Up (U)
I Am Waiting
Real Love
Saving My Heart (U)
State Of Play
Walls
The Calling
Miracle Of Life (U)
Where Will You Be
Endless Dream suite

Also made a Magnification + playlist: Magnification plus the new tracks from The Ultimate Yes collection.

I created an OYE + as well by adding the Banks, Moraz and Howe tracks from Tales From Yesterday.

I've got a Union Revised list, which merely adds Love Conquers All from YesYears in-between Masquerade and Without Hope.

I also made a Union/Turbulence shuffle, as many of the tracks from Union were pirated from Howe's solo album.

And, of course, I made a Yeggles shuffle, using Fly From Here, Drama and the single Run With The Fox. I opened with the entire FFH suite. I also used the long version of Hour Of Need instead of the regular version.

But reviewing my track list for this I find that I inexplicably dropped three of the Drama tracks - White Car, Run Through The Light and Into the Lens, which has an astounding Squire solo during the extended playout.

OK, that's fixed.

But on top of these duplex tandems, I've got a few triplex playlists, the most interesting of which is

901TorDram. One would think that these three chronological Yes albums with fairly different line-ups wouldn't tolerate a shuffle. I mean, Tormato, with the Classic Yes lineup, Drama, with the Yes/Buggles lineup, and 90125, with the YesWest lineup?

Surprisingly, these three have a lot in common. Obviously, the shuffle 'rule' was instantly compromised due to Drama having only 6 tracks to 90125's 9 tracks and Tormato's 8 tracks.

Yep, we're jumping from Wakeman's cheesy Tormato patches, to Geoff's modern pop sound, then off to Rabin and Kaye for 90125. There's also three vocalists; JA, TH, and TR - four if you count CS, who sings lead on Run Through the Light.

But Howe's playing on Drama is surprisingly compatible with Rabin's playing on 90125. If anything, there's quite a difference between the Tormato Howe and the Drama Howe. But all three albums still have White and Squire, while JA and SH are on two (and not the same two).

My second Triplex playlist is Close to the Topographic Relayer. These Shuffle up quite nicely - two albums with three tracks, and TFTO with four. So I started with TfTO, then started alternating between the remaining 9 tracks - sue me - it starts and ends with the first and last tracks from Tales. Works out nicely, but at around 160 minutes, it's pretty long.

And the last Triplex list is FlyMagLadder. Ladder and Fly have 11 tracks each, Magnification has 10 tracks, so they shuffle pretty well. They're the last three Yes studio albums. Stylistically, they also hang together surprisingly well.

[YesNY]

Also did a Big 90125: Again, an obvious connection.

Had to keep Cinema and Leave It together as they're linked. Added the three YesWest tracks from Union and the Big Generator Remix from The Ultimate Yes collection. And there's the four of the five 90125 bonus tracks - Make It Easy, It's Over, It Can Happen (Cinema Version) and Leave It (A Capella Version). (I find the extended version of 'Owner' a useless track.)

Also made a TalkUnion playlist by mixing in the three YesWest tracks from Union to Talk. Broke my own 'in order' rule on this one for a better flow, moving Talk's opening track The Calling to the middle of the list:

Lift Me Up (U)
I Am Waiting
Real Love
Saving My Heart (U)
State Of Play
Walls
The Calling
Miracle Of Life (U)
Where Will You Be
Endless Dream suite

I put all four together and this is the Best of Yes West CD I got:

1. Owner of a Lonely Heart
2. Leave It
3. It Can Happen
4. Final Eyes
5. I'm Running
6. Love Will Find a Way
7. The More We Live Let Go *
8. Saving My Heart
9. Lift Me Up
10. Miracle of Life
11. The Calling
12. I'm Waiting

* I count The More We Live Let Go as Yes West, but we can differ on a small point like this.

I haven't listened to it in a while but I seem to recall variations in volume a bit of a problem with it. That is one thing radio still has going for it, the control of wild variations in volume from song to the song.
By the way, I listened to most of Talk last night. Trevor Rabin was really into a soft/loud thing at that time. Nothing as bad as Peter Gabriel's "Darkness" (Yikes!) Maybe a tiny bit akin to Robert Fripps's soft/loud thing in early King Crimson days.

[downbyariver]

The Yes Album and Fragile go really well together. I also think Fly From Here actually fits in well with those two albums (Though not quite as well, obviously!). Despite all the years and personnel changes that separate the first two albums from the third, I think the third in some respects is sort of "in the same mold"- i.e. Yes as classic rock (versus prog epics or 80s-prog-pop or whatever). They sort of work in the same vein. You could add Close to the Edge instead of Fly from Here depending on where your mood is- Close to the Edge is more prog epicy, but captured different veins of similarity with the first two albums than Fly from Here.

Obviously, as someone mentioned, 90125 and Big Generator are another good pairing. I think Drama actually would be the third album I'd place with those two. I know Talk is the obvious choice because the lineup is the same, but I think the music took a different direction. I also know that Drama isn't the obviously choice because the lineup was singificantly different, but I think you get the beginnings of an 80s music influence (probably similar trends in terms of the type of music that they were listening to or developing from/with, what the studio was pushing for, and what was available or popular in terms of instrumentation and production techniques) there and Horn's involvement in Drama as the lead singer and then as the producer of 90125 and Big Generator contribute to that.

Oddly enough, I don't think Drama and Fly From Here really sound that similar to each other. I like them both, they just don't sound similar to my ear, despite the Horn-Downes connection with both, and both not having Anderson as lead singer. Different types of albums.

[pianozach]

And the last Triplex list is FlyMagLadder. Ladder and Fly have 11 tracks each, Magnification has 10 tracks, so they shuffle pretty well. They're the last three Yes studio albums. Stylistically, they also hang together surprisingly well.

Oops. At the time I made the playlist they WERE the last three Yes albums. FFH was released since then.

[YesNY]

Oops. At the time I made the playlist they WERE the last three Yes albums. FFH was released since then.

Do you mean a OYE/Ladder/Mag mix?

[pianozach]

Do you mean a OYE/Ladder/Mag mix?

Ah, hell.

Just losing my mind.

FlyMagLadder are still the last three Yes albums, unless I'm really out of touch.

I doubt that OYE/Ladder/Mag would sit well as a shuffle, but it's worth a try.

Here's a new game - What three Yes albums are the MOST dissimilar?

I'd say Yes, OYE and Tales.

[Strawbs]

GFTO/Tormato.