Screen13

Let's just say that I think that as musicians, they're great on a technical level. It's great when you hear bands who's musicians seriously sound like their minds are all in serious synch with one another, which is possibly something that fans hear. Their respect is seriously well deserved, and there are several instrumental passages, including those on Topographic Oceans, that slam into some good groove I like until that voice pops up. The Classic Yes era (stopping with Going For the One...Tormato really stank up the joint!) was something that was more listener friendly than something I'd rather much hear like King Crimson (where both bands share a Drummer in the legendary Bill Bruford).

(NOTE: Yeah, I have a weak spot in my music listening with crappy and cheesy B Movie soundtracks, but maybe that's where I have some fun...but moving on)

Maybe I'm more applauding the taking of the challenge or even the fact that it's an album that splits listeners right down the middle with a Grand Canyon Gap between which dropped the Mystic act that defines Yes for a while. Still, for whatever reason, it still remains an interesting listen that does not make me feel like I'm in a room with a group of Hippies thinking about how wonderful things are and being mellow with one another on a mystical plane or something like that.

In Westway to the World, Paul Simonon of the Clash expressed some of my feelings of Yes about hearing those birds twittering from the headphones (I'm trying to remember what song it was, maybe something from Topographic or Relayer). I can imagine for a number of Yes fans, hearing a cold album without those birds chirping and someone singing in an annoying high register about how wonderful things can be and instead hearing someone else who sings in a slightly lower register singing lyrics which were pretty dodgy attempts at being more edgy is a nightmare, but it's that thought which brought me to like Drama.

I like the fact that they earned their fans through hard work and a unique style, a fact that seriously brings a lot of respect. It's just not my style, though.