Drama- Rating out of 5?

[Yorkshire Square]

Four stars I think. It has faded a very little in my estimation in recent years and I'm not sure why. Maybe I'm just getting old. Still a solid album and some great playing. The first insight into a real alternative Yes but subsequently overshadowed by 90125. I wouldn't have written that five years ago.

[Oldie on the Goldie]

I share the sentiments of Mr. Square on this one. I hated Drama when it came out, but have warmed to much of it since.

[Ant45]

Me too to some extent. I didn’t actually hate Drama but I never really rated it because of the vocals. It would be easy to put all the blame for that at Trevor Horn’s door but it’s actually mainly a writing issue. There are far too many points on the album when it sounds as if he is straining but that’s because the notes he is being asked to sing are too high. The band should have written songs which were within their current vocalist’s range and not those which were within Jon Anderson’s range. The most noticeable example is the vocals towards the end of Machine Messiah. The notes are so high that Jon Davidson doesn’t even attempt them when he sings it and he sings alternative notes. It sounds good on the Yesterday and Today version but that’s because it’s well within the range of the vocalist.

That’s not to say that Trevor Horn is completely blameless on the vocal front. ‘I yam a camera’ and ‘sons and dotters’ grate with me as does the fact that the emphasis on ‘Machine’ is on the second syllable rather than the first but that’s another writing issue. They should have called it ‘Motor Messiah’

All that put aside, there is some superb playing on the album and most of the songs are very strong contributions to the Yes canon. The more and more albums Yes make the more and more I appreciate the strength of the songs on Drama. So it gets a 4 from me overall.

(The fact that they lined up on stage to sing White Car in such a cringeworthy manner always put me off that song in particular.)

[Chris2210]

…I think this is Chris' and Alan's second best album (after Relayer) as rhythm section. They play so incredibly tight, which can actually be much harder than something more structually complex…

Do you want to elaborate on that? Because on the face of it it’s counter-intuitive. I think the four-square nature of particularly the latter half of the album is one factor that makes it feel for me so thin and forgettable.

As I’ve said elsewhere I think FFH is a much stronger, more consistent album in spite of the fact Drama does have the odd moment or two of brilliance. I do however find Horn’s peculiar delivery always mildly irritating - even where he’s simply coaching David to mimic that. I prefer the latter’s voice and his natural, more conventional singing style.

Drama is very much in the lower end of the catalogue for me. There are bits I enjoy but they’re not plentiful and they’re counterbalanced by those I find annoying or simply unmemorable.

[Mr. Holland]

Do you want to elaborate on that? Because on the face of it it’s counter-intuitive. I think the four-square nature of particularly the latter half of the album is one factor that makes it feel for me so thin and forgettable.

As I’ve said elsewhere I think FFH is a much stronger, more consistent album in spite of the fact Drama does have the odd moment or two of brilliance. I do however find Horn’s peculiar delivery always mildly irritating - even where he’s simply coaching David to mimic that. I prefer the latter’s voice and his natural, more conventional singing style.

Drama is very much in the lower end of the catalogue for me. There are bits I enjoy but they’re not plentiful and they’re counterbalanced by those I find annoying or simply unmemorable.

Well, in my own experience as a drummer (self taught, an adequate one, but nothing spectacular if I may be own reviewer) in a more complex structure there is often room for some improvisation, you can be a bit more loose and it isn't that noticeable in the sense that it screws up the song, compared to when it concerns a song with a really tight rhythm section part, but less complex, you really have to be right on the money all the time or it will be much more noticeable in the overall picture when you aren't.

[Chris2210]

This may sound simply facetious, but like a drum machine?

I’m afraid I think the idea that a very technically proficient bassist or drummer can be sloppier because they’re not tied to a very strict meter not terribly convincing. I’ve not practised either discipline but it certainly sounds to me to be a lot trickier to play off-beat - especially where there are shifts and very complex rhythms going on around you and still manage to hold things together. Far less skilful musicians keep standard time - even at a fast pace. Pull off a solo figure in among a complex passage and I think a fuck-up would stick out like a sore thumb.

[Ash Armstrong]

'sh-e-e-e-e-e-lt-er'.

I'm with Chris on this one. Drama isn't an album I pull out of the box very often. Some strong playing from the principles but the music itself I don't find especially interesting, and chunks of it I find grating.

I was walking down Castle Street in Hinckley, the main shopping street in the town, when a friend caught up with me and told me that the Buggles had joined Yes. That was probably around springtime 1980. I was horrified, as many of us were. You see, in the UK the Buggles were regarded as a novelty act, a bit of a joke. We didn't have MTV, thankfully. The idea of a synthetic, and synth-pop studio, outfit like that hooking up with our Yes was ludicrous.
Yes, I know how highly Horn has come to be regarded subsequent to that, particular across the Pond, bordering on reverence, and although I don't share any of that regard and have no interest in what he's done and still does, I can appreciate he has carved out for himself a successful career. I still wish fervently he had not done so in association with Yes, then or since. Despite his success and regard, that novelty outfit tag is still very much there.

[Soundwaveseeker]

Video Killed The Radio Star is still seen as a novelty tune somewhat, but most of the rest of the album is actually a bit more musically involved and has more going for it than one would think. The Age Of Plastic album isn't too far away from DBA actually. The second Buggles is more on the synth pop side though.

[Ash Armstrong]

video killed the radio star is still seen as a novelty tune somewhat, but most of the rest of the album is actually a bit more musically involved and has more going for it than one would think. The age of plastic album isn't too far away from dba actually. The second buggles is more on the synth pop side though.

dba?

[Soundwaveseeker]

I think so. Buggles & Downes Braide Association, not too far apart in spirit. But that's just me, my taste. Pictures of You gave me a bit of a Buggles/singer & a keyboard player vibe. DBA closer to Buggles than Drama or any other Geoff Downes project.

[Gilly Goodness]

dba?

dirty bugger association.

[Ash Armstrong]

Ah, of course. Me being thick and slow. Sorry.
I listened to some last year, maybe the year before (?) with no great expectations, and those expectations were fully realised. I found it very dull. Competent, but dull. Not my thing.

[RelayerI]

'sh-e-e-e-e-e-lt-er'.

Enough on it's own to warrant all vinyl copies be melted into plant pots and CD's be repurposed as coasters.

[pjt]

Enough on it's own to warrant all vinyl copies be melted into plant pots and CD's be repurposed as coasters.

The only track I usually skip, but not because of the "shelter" part, but the Paris session leftover part. Radar Angels is not a bad tune.