Talk Germantown MD

Talk

Yes

Victory Records, 1994

http://www.yesworld.com

REVIEW BY: Jason Warburg

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 12/10/2001

It seems every band that survives for even a fraction of Yes'incredible run -- now in its fourth decade -- goes through peaksand valleys. Welcome to the valley.

Mind you, the arena-rock 1980s edition of Yes - of which Talk was the last, dying gasp - was not without itsredeeming qualities. At its best, the creative tension between theband's old guard, in the form of singer/lyricist/space cadet JonAnderson, and the new, in the form ofguitarist/vocalist/leather-pantsed showman Trevor Rabin, resultedin music that was interesting in ways beyond the ken of most other80s rock. The problem was always this: Yes wasn't invented in 1983when Rabin and bassist/vocalist/keeper of the flame Chris Squirejoined forces; by then it had a storied 15-year history ofchallenging musical convention, a legacy to which the morecommercially-inclined Rabin was a most uncomfortable heir.

By 1994, Yes's notorious revolving-door lineup had reached apoint perhaps best described as "last man standing." Creativetensions between Rabin and Anderson had simmered through two studioalbums until Anderson quit in 1988 to form his own band of Yes-men,the eponymous Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe. A subsequent legalbattle over the name "Yes" resulted a merger between the two groupsinto a kind of "Mega-Yes" that toured eight men strong in 1991, butthe companion Union album, stitched together from separate sessionsundertaken by the two factions, was a botched mess. In theaftermath, Anderson was apparently convinced to throw in with Rabinfor one last stab at commercial success with the 80s lineup, whichalso included Squire, Tony Kaye on keyboards and Alan White ondrums. The rest of the band basically gave Rabin free rein for Talk; he produced and was the primary writer and player onevery song.

The result was an album that tanked, a tour few people saw, aquick exit by Rabin and Kaye, and the revival of the "classic Yes"lineup featuring Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman. Why, you ask? Well,let's take it song by song. Or perhaps more appropriately, blow byblow.