Yes: Union (1991)

 

After the success of the first ABWH album, the band headed back in to create a follow-up. A lot of songs were demoed and recorded but they didn’t quite have a single. So Jon Anderson called up Trevor Rabin, who was still in the official Yes lineup, and asked if he had a song to kick over. Trevor agreed, but not without conditions. And so it came to be that ABWH and Yes came together to form a sort of Mega Yes, for an album called Union. The ABWH material was remixed and bolstered by a trio of Rabin-led Yes songs, as well as one outstanding track from Chris Squire & Billy Sherwood. 

However, it must be mentioned that this album was a total sham. At no point were there all eight members of the band on the same track. At most, Anderson lent his vocals to Rabin’s songs, and Squire added harmonies to the ABWH songs. That was it. In fact, thanks to producer Jonathan Elias, you are not always hearing Wakeman & Howe’s parts, as others were brought in to redo them. A total fiasco, drummed up in a boardroom, designed to sell. And it did. “Lift Me Up” was a pretty successful single and the album made a respectable dent in the charts. 

The thing is - and I might be biased as this album came out during my junior year of high school and was an album that I played to death - but this is actually quite a good album. A few songs could be better, but the one-two punch of the opening “I Would Have Waited Forever” and “Shock To The System” find ABWH exploring more commercial territory, and doing so quite well, while “Miracle Of Life” sees the Rabin-led Yes going into a more prog direction (that intro is one of the raddest things to grace a Yes album since “Sound Chaser”). “Without Hope You Cannot Start The Day” has a vibe that carries over a bit from the first ABWH album, and is magnificent, while “Take The Water To The Mountain” sounds more like a solo Anderson song, and is a lovely way to close out the album. “The More We Live - Let Go”, from Squire & Sherwood, is a beautiful, thoughtful, underrated song, but then Rabin’s “Saving My Heart” is one of the corniest pop songs the early ‘90s had to offer. ABWH’s “Silent Talking” points the way toward the late ‘90s Yes sound but that same lineup’s “Dangerous” is no doubt the most dated song on this set. 

It would be easy to slag this album on principles alone but, the thing is, Union sounds and plays really well. There might be far too many cooks in the kitchen but there are some true hidden gems on this album and it deserves to be acknowledged more.