Talk or Keystudio?

[Mr. Holland]

Which do you favour: the Talk album or the studio songs from the KTA albums? Vote in the poll, elaborate in a post.

[Soundwaveseeker]

Talk. For one reason alone if anything: "Keystudio" is a ridiculous title. It should have come out as a new album the first time around in 1997 under the title "Keys To Ascension" with the live album released the previous year as "Live From San Obispo". Just the word Keystudio reminds me of Sussudio (the Phil Collins song, playing on the overhead PA system at Walmart as we type), well, 'cuz it rhymes. And Keystudio sounds like a nonsense word, like 'Sussudio'. Of course it was recorded in a studio. 🙄

Talk is an underrated album. I like it better. That said, there's Keys material I simply adore, like That That Is - wonderful themes and sections.

[soundchaser09]

Well I consider the Keys albums separately, but if i were to put them together it would probably match my view about Keys 2, the superior album from those two projects. Talk meanwhile is superior to both, it has an overall stronger set of songs which, although long, feel more meaningful and consistent than the Keys material. Keys to Ascension suffers from a demo quality in the songs, I also feel that even the best material from Keys has moments where it loses me. It is of the classic prog style but not of the classic prog caliber, despite the lineup. Having said that, I enjoy Mind Drive, Footprints and Children of Light. That That Is has its moments too.

Talk- 7.5
Keys- 6.5

[pianozach]

Talk - 10
K2A - 7.5

[Old Frothingslosh]

Talk by a wide margin . Keys Studio has nothing on it that make me want to have repeated listens.

[Soundwaveseeker]

Keys has the Yes sound but Talk has the Yes spirit.

[Homemade Parachute]

Elaboration will have to wait until back on wifi, but Talk, because while I like the strengths of each, Keys2 does very little for me, so it’s 30 minutes of Keys1 material vs almost all of Talk I dig. Both have strong highs, but Talk has stronger lows, to these old Hoser ears…

[Oldie on the Goldie]

I still listen to and enjoy TTI, Footprints and CoL, but not Talk. Although I did like Talk, and probably still would if I ever put it on, there is something un-Yeslike about Talk that put me off it for awhile.

[pjt]

While I like parts of Keys, I like Talk as it is. Talk may be a polarizing album, but Keys is a "nit picking" one. Everybody is pointing out the small things it annoys them: the lyrics of TTI, the padded MD, the unfished Footprints and BMTTP, the mixing, etc.

Now there's a material to get the FFH treatment...

[madbear]

Talk, by a mile, tho i still find it hard to listen to Keystudio as an album per se anyway... it's basically a revisionist selection from a dodgy couple of live albums.

[Ash Armstrong]

Keys to Ascension as a whole, being a 4CD set, by light years over Talk, which I barely recognise as being a Yes album at all.

[Ceasar’s Palace]

I chose Keys, but by a small margin. Both albums needed a lot of editing, which I was glad to provide. Both albums failed in their attempts to go epic. Unless you have a couple of really strong themes, plus good ways of stringing them together: don’t do an epic!

[Kevin W]

Hmmm. An interesting one. I will have to listen to them back to back to decide. My instinct is to say Talk because Endless Dream is so good, but I love Mind Drive as well so it's probably a face off between the other tracks on each album that will actually sort it....

[YesWill]

KeyStudio by a large margin. One is a Yes album, the other is a Rabin solo project.

[pianozach]

KeyStudio by a large margin. One is a Yes album, the other is a Rabin solo project.

It's generally accepted that it was a Rabin/Anderson project. Rabin also gives a lot of credit to Kaye, saying he did "a lot" on the album, more than just play Hammond. Probably more like assistant producer.