What was your initial reaction to the 90125 album?

[soundchaser09]

Hi all, given how far away from classic Yes this album was, what was your initial reaction when you first heard it?

[Homemade Parachute]

Well, it kind of *was* my introduction to Yes: it was a gift from a relative (on cassette!), and goddamn it felt like the future. I think I remember enough from the time to realize there was a history there (having heard some Yes on the radio), but not knowing anyone in the band, or that there even was a new person, it still felt like there was a break happening here, and a deliberate move into new territory. Clearly, not Roundabout. The next Yes album was Yessongs, which, in terms of polar opposites, there it is…

Anyways, from there I've always loved this album, both for what it is (the actual songs on it), and for what it represented for the band, which is an acknowledgement that it wasn't 1974 anymore. (Perhaps not so coincidentally, my two favourite Rush albums are Permanent Waves and Signals, which I also think very successfully embraced the reality of music in 1980 and 1982.)

Also, 90125 is still my second favourite Yes album cover, fwiw…

[Bill M]

I remember hearing the DJ on the radio announce that they are about to play a song from the new Yes album. I was happy that they reformed the band. When I first heard "Owner of a lonely Heart" (ditto for Leave It) I was wondering if this was really YES like the DJ said. As I listened, I started to recognize some of the elements of YES, most notably Jon Andersons voice.

[PeterCologne]

Anyways, from there I've always loved this album, both for what it is (the actual songs on it), and for what it represented for the band, which is an acknowledgement that it wasn't 1974 anymore. (Perhaps not so coincidentally, my two favourite Rush albums are Permanent Waves and Signals, which I also think very successfully embraced the reality of music in 1980 and 1982.)

Also, 90125 is still my second favourite Yes album cover, fwiw…

I can now see what Rush means to you. By the way, I like their electronic-phase from Signals to Hold Your Fire :-)

Good opportunity for a little best-album-cover-list, 90125 is my number 6

1: Talk
2: Tormato
3: Close To The Edge
4: Big Generator
5: Tales
6: 90125

[Homemade Parachute]

I can now see what Rush means to you.

I'm Canadian, it's The Law.

By the way, I like their electronic-phase from Signals to Hold Your Fire :-)

Very brave of you to admit, no one likes Hold Your Fire…

Good opportunity for a little best-album-cover-list, 90125 is my number 6

1: Talk
2: Tormato
3: Close To The Edge
4: Big Generator
5: Tales
6: 90125

Hmm, that's… an interesting list, he said with requisite Canadian politeness… There are, of course, many different ways of looking at covers, like whether they do their initial sales job, and stand out in the store (back when we had stores, that is), to how well they express some kind of identity for the band, or the music within, or any number of things. I like the Talk cover too, except for the signature being so large, and the way the actual title is pushed off to the edges in some godforsaken 90s scribbly font (is it Treefrog? If so, fuck you, Treefrog!). Close to the Edge is my #1, esp. on vinyl, just for hinting at what comes inside. Big Generator I like too, for the sheer boldness of it all, on lp and even CD, which was just becoming a thing. Tales I like more in idea than execution, which I find just a little bit static a kind of inventory of parts. Tormato, though, jeebus, maybe you had to be there, you know…?

(Probably not very interesting side note: I do find it interesting that books get re-covered and packaged all the time, but records, even when often rushed out the door with the cheapest, most rushed packaging possible, are somehow inviolable classics that can never be touched. There are lots of classic album covers out there, sure, and lots are just as clearly not-classics, but it's sacrilege to re-think them, unless you're Taylor Swift, I guess…)

[luna65]

I loved it, but I don't know if I was really comparing it to Yes that we all knew. In a way, sure, in that I was quite familiar with what came before but on the other hand this was a great-sounding record and really satisfying in a populist way. As I have stated, both in this community as well as publicly, even though I thought "Owner" sounded nothing like the Yes that I knew, I thought it was a great song. And that feeling extended to the album as a whole.

[PeterCologne]

Very brave of you to admit, no one likes Hold Your Fire…

Is it the Open Your Eyes of Rush?

Tormato, though, jeebus, maybe you had to be there, you know…?

I love the wit, the irony of that Tormato-cover and wish Yes had more of that instead of all those dull Dean-covers from ABWH till today.

[Homemade Parachute]

Is it the Open Your Eyes of Rush?

Maybe… I would say Test for Echo is the Heaven & Earth of Rush, but yeah, I think this works, as both have somewhat absent guitar players who complain about the record years later…

[Homemade Parachute]

I loved it, but I don't know if I was really comparing it to Yes that we all knew. In a way, sure, in that I was quite familiar with what came before but on the other hand this was a great-sounding record and really satisfying in a populist way. As I have stated, both in this community as well as publicly, even though I thought "Owner" sounded nothing like the Yes that I knew, I thought it was a great song. And that feeling extended to the album as a whole.

I only argue with the word "populist" here… I think whatever commercial success they had was a combination of contemporary songs and the Yes name — they never would have charted as Cinema, after all. But more to your point, I just love the songs as songs, no matter which band or whatever it was called, played them. It Can Happen, Cinema, Changes, Hearts… It is one solid, solid album.

[Old Frothingslosh]

I loved it at the time (11th grade), but as the years and decades go by, some it sounds really dated to me. I tend to reach for The Yes Album, Tormato and Talk most often nowadays.

[luna65]

I only argue with the word "populist" here… I think whatever commercial success they had was a combination of contemporary songs and the Yes name — they never would have charted as Cinema, after all. But more to your point, I just love the songs as songs, no matter which band or whatever it was called, played them. It Can Happen, Cinema, Changes, Hearts… It is one solid, solid album.

I use populist in the sense that it did achieve full commercial potential. And that was something which was desired. Not necessarily a primary aim, but I would absolutely posit that it was an ancillary one.

[Slugwart]

I had never heard any any Yes before hearing Owner on the radio. I remember I liked it but not enough to buy it. Then I saw the clip of Hold On from 9012Live on a late night music show, possibly Rock Arena, and I was blow away by it. I saw Tormato second hand at a market a couple of days later and brought it to discover Yes was more that just guitar shredding and the rest is history. I got 90125 a few days later and thought it was great but overall preferred Tomato. I do think that 90125 does still hold up well and has aged better than BG and ABWH.

[kkleinschmidt]

My initial reaction after hearing Owner on the radio the first time was excitement. Then came Leave It and the album and I was very happy with the change from Drama.

The tour is where I started to have my first doubts. I enjoyed the new material but of course some of Trevor's playing of the older songs didn't work for me and still doesn't to this day. I can't stand Big Generator but I love Talk and the Union tour was off the charts.

[PeterCologne]

kkleinschmidt
Slugwart

Big Generator is one of Yes' top three masterworks, as exciting as a jungle made of music!

[Susanne]

I didn't catch up with 90125 until quite some time later (having thought Yes no longer existed). My initial reaction was horror. It was so far from what I expected Yes to be, that it didn't make sense. (But I got used to it, eventually!) Earlier period still my favoutite.