Los Angeles Times
Calendar
Sunday, September 28, 1980

YES RIDES A
NEW WAVE
BY STEVE POND

"DRAMA " Yes. Atlantic SD 16019.

Here is the New Yes: the Buggle-
ized Yes, the band in which two
new - wave whiz kids have re -
placed stalwarts Jon Anderson and Rick
Wakeman. It's "Roundabout" meets 
"Video Killed the Radio Star." It s a shock to
Yes fans, an equal surprise to Buggles
fans.

  And what does it sound like? Look at
the front cover for a clue. It's another
kitschy, dramatic land-and-seascape by
Roger Dean, who's done most of Yes's
previous covers. And the music follows
suit. This is in many ways the most tradi-
tional Yes album in years, a way of
showing anxious fans that the New Yes
can sound just like the old model.

  Maybe that attitude bred conservatism
in the ranks, or maybe the new members
are too cautious to assert themselves.
Whatever the reason, keyboardist Geoff
Downes and vocalist Trevor Horn stay
safely in the background, letting veter-
ans like guitarist Steve Howe and
bassist Chris Squire shape the music.
Where 1977's "Going for the One" moved
agressively into new territory and the
subsequent "Tormato" stalled on even
more adventuresome ground, "Drama"
sticks to familiar tune.

  Horn and Downes do make their pre-
sence known: Downes' keyboards emit
dit-dit-dit Morse Code patterns where
Wakeman favored richly textured
washes of sound; Anderson's often over-
bearing mysticism is gone from most of
the lyrics and the chorus to "Into the
Lens," for example, is the kind of
sprightly electronic new-pop that the
Buggles specialized in.

  But those are isolated instances in, for
the most part, an album of typically frag-
mented Yes suites. Even Horn's singing
is at times uncanny: Backed by the old
hands, his high-pitched voice could be a
dead ringer for Anderson (once thought
to have one of rock's truly distinctive
sounds) .

  This is a singularly inopportune time
for Yes to tread water. These days, it's
getting harder and harder to summon up
any kind of enthusiasm for the "progres-
sive rock" bands that simply are no lon-
ger progressive. If this genre is still via-
ble„and mutated offspring like Peter
Gabriel have proven that it is„it won't
be saved by oldtimers flailing away at
their long-since-codified formulas. 


Transcribed by yesman 
[*agressively* is an error of the L.A.Times]