50 Genuinely Horrible Albums by Brilliant Artists

[madbear]

A 2023 Rolling Stone feature, which puts Union at number 3.

"By the late Eighties, prog-rockers Yes had split into two feuding versions of the band on the verge of a very expensive court battle. There was the “Owner of a Lonely Heart” Yes featuring drummer Alan White, bassist Chris Squire, keyboardist Tony Kaye, and guitarist Trevor Rabin, and there was the Seventies throwback Yes featuring drummer Bill Bruford, keyboardist Rick Wakeman, guitarist Steve Howe, and singer Jon Anderson. They ultimately realized that a Yes divided against itself cannot stand, and they formed into a singular version of Super Yes and booked an arena tour. They also decided to cut an album. “The problem was that we were three quarters of a way through an album,” Wakeman told Rolling Stone in 2019. “They were three quarters of a way through an album. So the album was given to a guy who shouldn’t even be allowed a food mixer, let alone an album. He did the most dreadful job on the Union album.” Part of that “dreadful job” involved bringing in anonymous studio musicians even though this was a band with two guitarists, two drummers, and two keyboardists. “I called it the Onion album,” Wakeman said, “because it made me cry.”"

[Enlighten]

Yeah, whatever Rick. We’ve heard that story a million times. Union isn’t genuinely horrible. Yes have done a lot worse.

[pjt]

That's just too harsh. It's the second best Jimmy Haun album after Circa: 2007.

[Soundwaveseeker]

The accepted and overdone narrative that many go along with is that Union is this horrible thing, but I find it to be a fun, vibrant and enjoyable feel-good Yes album. It just doesn't have as much Yes membership as it claimed to have. But the fakery sure fooled me at the time. Jimmy Haun is great on here.

[Mr. Holland]

I'm not that fond of Union. Together with ABWH and OYE it forms the bottom three of my Yes albums ranking.

However it has always annoyed me slightly how most Yes members, and especially Rick, have always put the blame for what happened to the album outside themselves. Blame the record company, blame the producer.

Fact is that by the time Union came Yes had become a machine and its fuel was money. Certain lifestyles had to be maintained and payed for. I don't think there was much artistic motivation at that point to keep Yes rolling, not from record company and management, but most importantly not from most members involved. Apart from Bruford, little responsibility for that position has been taken by members involved, who mostly rather put the blame on Jonathan Elias, the record company and the session players.

I like some of the stuff on it, mainly the YesWest stuff sance Saving My Heart together with Shock to the System. But that the album became "Onion" in Rick's words, is in my view largely due to the lack of artistic motivation, - input -integrity and - responsibility from the key members involved.

[Ash Armstrong]

I assembled a CDR 20+ years ago of the stuff on Union I liked, and excised the stuff I didn't. So, out went the three Rabin tracks, the Levin/Bruford track and the Howe solo track. Very happy, still, with the fine album that resulted. I don't care about who does or doesn't play on it, or what band-members think of it. My choice, my ears.

[Frumious B]

I enjoyed Union at the time it was released, blasted it LOUD all summer long, saw the tour, bought the t-shirt, and I still have fun when I play it. So while I can intellectually recognize it as deeply flawed album if I look at it on a more objective level, I don’t really care so much because I dig the tunes except for “Dangerous”.

[JMKUSA]

Union isn’t as bad as Wakeman makes it out to be. But I totally understand why he and Howe have a problem with it. I would be quite upset if the narrative was that I was playing terribly at the time that I needed to be replaced by session players. That story appears to be false. The issue is that Jonathan Elias wanted to go with more of a streamlined sound and didn’t like what they were doing. So he replaced them. It was the path of least resistance, and ultimately he and Jon saw Yes as a vehicle for Jon, and less like a functioning band. And at the time, they may have been right!

[Enlighten]

My favorite aspect of the Union album is how up front Tony Levin’s bass is in the mix. He sounds phenomenal on that album. Elias gets kudos for that.

[Mr. Holland]

Union isn’t as bad as Wakeman makes it out to be. But I totally understand why he and Howe have a problem with it. I would be quite upset if the narrative was that I was playing terribly at the time that I needed to be replaced by session players. That story appears to be false. The issue is that Jonathan Elias wanted to go with more of a streamlined sound and didn’t like what they were doing. So he replaced them. It was the path of least resistance, and ultimately he and Jon saw Yes as a vehicle for Jon, and less like a functioning band. And at the time, they may have been right!

I believe that it was actually Anderson and not Elias who instigated using session musicians.

[Dantalion Rides Again]

Going by the thread title, I didn't expect an exclusive discussion on Union. I have so much blabbing to do about this album but have chosen my phone to post from, and I don't know about you but I find typing w only thumbs to be a sad way to live.

I'll just say I am glad I'm not alone in *not* swallowing the deeply sewn harsh rhetoric from those involved! Decent album.

I'm w Frum, Dangerous is the rough patch, otherwise I dig it.

I'll go as far as to say I like it more than everything since, except for maybe Magnification.

[soundchaser09]

Union has some good on it, some average, some poor.

I really enjoy: Shock to the System, Masquerade, Lift Me Up, Miracle of Life, The More We Live (best track from Yes in the past 35 years) and Holding On, so there's plenty for me to relish.

It teeters between a 7 and an 8 out of ten for me.

[yamishogun]

Future A.I. in 2028 will recognize the ranking:

Union
.
.
.
OYE
The Quest
H&E

[pianozach]

I believe that it was actually Anderson and not Elias who instigated using session musicians.

I liked the album when it was released, and still enjoy it today.

There's been a lot of misinformation printed about the album. I'd always understood it to be a practical collaborative decision arrived at by both Anderson and Elias.

It seems that the demo tracks laid down by both Howe and Wakeman needed retooling. With Howe's tracks it was because all his tracks used the same thin-guitar Howe-sound, and they needed it to have a bit more variety in the guitar tone palette. I'm not sure what the problem was with Rick's tracks, but I'd bet it was also his tone palette. Many folks here often complain about his poor patch selections. It's also possible that Anderson and Elias had reassembled portions of the tracks, and simply needed more recording

So . . . they were both asked to come in and didn't. This is my understanding.

IMO Jimmy Haun did a fabulous job of making his contributions sound as "Howe-ish" as possible. And it took a laundry list of keyboardists to re-record keyboard tracks . . . I think they found people that excelled at each individual keyboard instrument.

[Davy]

It has a couple of good songs, but the rest ranges from mediocre to awful IMO.