After the blockbuster success of 90125, the heat was on for Yes to craft the mother of all follow-ups. Trevor Horn was brought back in to produce but, after butting heads with Trevor Rabin one time too many, he split and left them to it. Rabin tinkered endlessly on this album, and a creative rift grew widely between Anderson and Rabin, whose grip on this lineup continued to tighten, which would lead to Anderson leaving the band for the second time.
This album gets a lot of shit, and is often ignored, but really it is a fantastic album that is squarely of its time. Again, they flirt with pop, on the album-opening “Rhythm Of Love” and the catchy “Love Will Find A Way” (both sizable hits at the time), while they get in Floyd territory with the majestic “Shoot High Aim Low”. “I’m Running” was salvaged from the 1981 XYZ sessions, and turned into a brilliant Yes epic, which brilliantly follows the equally epic “Final Eyes”, a love song that, while a bit cheesy at times, harkens back to an early Yes sound and could have been a single. Alan White offered up the upbeat “Almost Like Love”, a hyperactive soul rave-up, and Anderson’s closing “Holy Lamb” is one of his most beautiful offerings to this world.
This was the band’s current release when I first got into Yes, in 8th grade, and this album is one of those that shaped the era for me, and offers nothing but the fondest of memories. I get why some of the more “selective” fans may not dig this but I absolutely adore this album.
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