Open Your Eyes- Rating out of 5?

[soundchaser09]

Did you actually like this one- or is it still Close Your Ears for you?

[Chris2210]

It’s very much at the bottom end of Yes albums. I half like one song on it. I find it dreadful to contemplate how truly awful most of it is.

[Gilly Goodness]

3.

3 great songs to open then train falls off the track.

[soundchaser09]

3.

3 great songs to open then train falls off the track.

thats one way of putting it i enjoy the title track, universal garden, fortune seller, man in the moon and the solution the other stuff not so much but a 3 from me as well.

[pianozach]

I had to give it a "2".

When it first came out, I would have given it a "1", but I appreciate it much more now than I did then.

You know that "harshness" that everyone says they hear on TALK? I don't hear THAT, but I sure as heck heard it on OPEN YOUR EYES. Still do.

When it was first released, it sounded to me as though that although Rabin was no longer with the outfit, they wanted desperately to have a YesWest-sounding followup, so the album sounded derivative to me, an imitation.

Nowadays my opinion has softened a bit; I still hear that, but it just doesn't bother me. All those stacked vocals are actually pretty nifty, and there's some very nice bass playing. I don't really miss not having a large Howe presence.

[Soundwaveseeker]

What hasn't been said about OYE? I have more of an ear for it now, but I agree that it starts out ok, but by the second half it kinda fizzles out. Here's the good the bad & the ugly:

GOOD:

Production - glossy, bold and energetic. Jumps right atcha.
Harmonies are top Yes harmonies, on par with ANY Yes harmonies from ANY era.

I find these tracks to be Yes enough for me: title track, Universal Garden, The Solution, Wonderlove (I know I'm in minority with Wonderlove), maybe Fortune Seller

BAD:

They had half an album of strong material, but were up against the deadline - the other half of the album is slapped together and the cracks smoothed over with some sort of sonic wood putty.

The cover is just a logo, it's ok but a full Dean better.

I find these tracks weaker: Somehow Someday, Love Shine, From The Balcony
The other tracks, No Way We Can Lose, New State of Mind and The Source are either ok or tolerable. It's Yes, so there's nothing there that I actually hate, but I acknowledge that OYE isn't the finest Yes moment.

THE UGLY:

Some may find Man In The Moon to be ridiculous. I don't have as much revulsion to it than a lot of Yes fans do, but that repeatin' riff does crawl into your brain and infects it with alien spores. Try getting that tune out of your head once you've heard it. It's on a permanent loop, and may cause damage to the cranial cavity.

I give it a 3. It's Yes, so there's value in it. But it's a flawed ride. I pull it out when in the mood for it, but I have to be in the mood for it.

[Frumious B]

I voted for 2, but I actually give it a 2.5.

[rabin105]

i gave it a 5 sorry this was 100% one of my favorite albums growing uop and even still I listen to it and go wow great riff's great harmonies great everything honestly!

[Dantalion Rides Again]

I gave it three, I have always championed this album. I kind of wanna give it 4 but am trying to temper my enthusiasm for it with some reality. It's got some less than great songs (I'm thinking Love Shine & Man In The Moon, mainly) ... I pretty much like the rest just fine, maybe some Jon lines that I wince at here and there. I forgive most of that because I'm used to suffering wincing to mine the gems from Jon's lyrics. Maybe they're not Jon's, doesn't matter. I dig the overall sound of the album, and its vibe. The Ladder came out and I remember a friend of mine being so relieved that it was a step in the right direction from OYE, but for my money I think I like the OYE album just as much.
⭐⭐⭐

[Oldie on the Goldie]

Fortune Seller is the only song I really enjoy from this one, although Universal Garden and From the Balcony are OK. As someone said earlier, there is a harshness to the sound on this album that puts me off.

[Ant45]

I can’t say that I like a single track on it. I can happily listen to every other Yes album from start to finish. Some are better than others, the spectrum ranging from CTTE down to H&E but there are none on which I have to skip tracks. Open Your Eyes is the opposite - I try and give it another chance from time to time, the last time listening to the tracks in random order but I really can’t abide it. I gave it a 1 on the grounds that a 0 was not available as a score.

[Ceasar’s Palace]

2 stars. We all seem to know what the good and the bad tracks are. I’ll say this in its defence: the band is playing all the songs, the good, the bad and the ugly with equal conviction. Thankfully The Ladder would build on the strenghts of this album and not the weak points.

[alex peters]

A 2 from me and a generous 2 at that

[pjt]

I don't know. Really don't know. I like it more than its own merits. I like the Sherwood tunes, the Chris Squire Experiment tunes, the newly composed tunes, and I just hate Music From the Balcony and Wonderlove, and I just tolerate No Way We Can Lose. So mixed bag, but it gets a 4 because I like what I like, and of course just to spite all the hysteria it got on a.m.y.

[Ash Armstrong]

It's just naff. Not worth bothering with.