The Battle of the Yes-West Albums!

[Esthe]

[Ceasar’s Palace]

BG for me. Curious to see who dares to vote for Union...

[Homemade Parachute]

BG for me. Curious to see who dares to vote for Union...

90125 for me, but ask me tomorrow… Having said that, the YesWest material on Union is pretty damned strong: Miracle of Life and More We Live are A-1 tracks sadly overlooked by the Union debacle…

[cybrkhatru]

90125 for me as well. Talk is #2, Generator is #3, although I love all three.

Union I enjoy as well, but not as much as the others.

[soundchaser09]

I love all of em my preference is actually chronological

90125 9/10
BG 8/10
Union 8/10
Talk 7/10

[Soundwaveseeker]

90125: the most popular album of YesWest
Big Generator: my favorite album of Yes West
Union: the bonus album of Yes West. It's only three songs, though strong material, it's not a whole album so it would come in last anyway.
Talk: the best album of Yes West.

[Gtkgasman]

90125.....

[Mr. Holland]

Definitely Talk. It's actually my fifth favourite Yes album. After Talk, it's Big Generator and then 90125. Al three albums sit within my top 10 Yes albums.

[pianozach]

90125 and Talk tie for #1, Big Generator is #3.

I love Union, probably more than Big Generator, but I don't really consider it a YesWest album. 3/4 of the tracks are ABWH (the band), which I also love. Speaking of ABWH (the band), I generally consider their studio album to be a Yes album, since Yes themselves consider it to be one (as listed on the poster included with the 35th Anniversary 3-CD set. So I'll include ABWH (the album).

But ranking all FIVE albums would push BG to #5. I'd have to make ABWH and Union a tie for 3rd.

Because, in spite all the negativity that Union generated, I always thought it turned out just dandy, even if it is a bit lengthy.

1. Talk
1. 90125
3. Union
3. ABWH
5. Big Generator

[Chris2210]

Talk isn’t a bad album.

[Imperatrix]

90125.
Then comes Talk.
After that is Big Generator.

Union’s okay, but…🤷🏻♀️

[Esthe]

It seems to be a tie between the album that propelled Yes back into the mainstream, 90125, and the fan favorite Talk. Hopefully one of them pulls ahead before everyone loses interest in this poll.

[Homemade Parachute]

It's definitely interesting… The way I think of them, which is totally subjective, is like:

- 90125: where Anderson kind of adds "fairy dust" at the last minute, but it works: not intended to be a Yes album, by calling it Yes they successfully reinvent the band for the decade ahead, and make in my not so humble opinion the biggest leap forward in the band's history (TYA/Fragile/CttE were more incremental). And it's my second favourite Yes album for it.

- Big Generator: the Difficult Second Album™: mostly really good songs, some maybe more AOR-is material (ALL, say), but lots of conflict, trying to both recreate the magic formula, but also change up the writing (I think the most Tony Kaye writing credits so far?). I recall the clip of Rabin from the Yesyears video where he talks about wanting to bring in more or less finished demos, and not really listening to a lot of input from others at that point. Maybe that's just how he worked as a mostly solo artist up until then, and it took him some time to trust the process of writing with others? Also, too many songs with "love" in the title — sorry!

- Union: three Rabin "demos" with (to me) an unclear amount of input from the rest of the band. But awfully good demos…! And one very good Squire/Sherwood tune…

- Talk: the Anderson/Rabin union, where maybe they finally write together rather than apart, but sideline the rest of the band in some ways. I really wish there had a been an album after this, which could build on the foundation Anderson and Rabin got going here, but with more Squire, White, and Kaye, but so it goes… Yes, the band of missed opportunities…!

[luna65]

three Rabin "demos" with (to me) an unclear amount of input from the rest of the band.

There's some deliberate obfuscation going on for sure.

[Homemade Parachute]

There's some deliberate obfuscation going on for sure.

Wasn't "Deliberate Obfuscation" the abandoned album title for TfTO…? I can picture the Roger Deal cover already…