Search - Yes :: Definitive Rock

May I be the first person to say: NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

myxoplik | United States | 01/24/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I'm a sicko of a Yes fan. I own all their albums on vinyl, bought them again on cassette in the 80s, and bought them again on CD in the 90s. But I've got to draw the line somewhere.



How many freakin times can a band re-release the same "greatest hits" with a different cover? When I was notified by Amazon of a new Yes album, I jumped all over it thinking, "the boys are back for the first time in 7 years!" But no, it's more like "the boys have released their 7th greatest hits CD in 7 years."



PLEASE DON'T ENCOURAGE THIS SORT OF BEHAVIOUR! Don't buy this album or it'll just make them do it again, and again, and again. If we all boycott future Yes greatest hits albums, then maybe they'll be forced to actually WORK for their money. I think we'd all enjoy that for a change. WHO'S WITH ME??"

Not for the diehard Yes fan

Ben E. Woodham, Jr. | Prattville, Alabama USA | 01/25/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

""Magnification", Yes' last studio effort shows that the boys still have what it takes to produce brilliant, inspiring, and worthwhile music. (IMHO "In the Presence Of" ranks right up there with the all-time Yes greats.) However, we don't need yet another rehashing of the past (no matter how great the music is). Members of Yes: please give your long-time fans at least one more album of new material to further assure your musical legacy. I gave this CD a rating of two stars because it could be valuable to new fans, but it will not satisfy the hard-core Yes fans who need some fresh original music from their favorite group."

A Dissenting Opinion, and Another Perspective

The Recordchanger | Kettering, Oh, USA | 05/08/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I have to comment after seeing these one star reviews. First of all, this should not be viewed as "a new Yes album". It's not intended to be that. It is also not intended for longtime Yes fans who have all the original albums. If you look at the title (and which word in the title is highlighted) and you read Chris Welch's liner notes, it's clear this is a package designed by Rhino to be marketed to the neophyte. It's clearly aimed at someone who doesn't know Yes, and probably doesn't own any of their records. It's meant to provide an introduction to the band with the hope that if someone who buys it likes what they hear, they'll be compelled to seek out the original albums. This is an age old practice in the music business and it's been going on since almost the very beginning - certainly the beginning of the rock era.



In that context, the album succeeds. It's a great collection of some of the band's finest "rock" (light on the progressive side) recordings, and it's comprehensive as well in that it spans more than 30 years of the band's history. I loved collections like these when I was growing up because I was on a limited budget (and this thing is relatively cheap) and it was a good way to score a lot of great music for not a lot of money. You got liner notes that educated you about the band, and more often than not, I wound up buying more records by the band in question.



So let's be fair. Even if you don't like the concept, or the packaging or feel cheated because there are really no new songs, or because this has music you already own, is it fair to assign a one star rating to a CD with more than 2 1/2 hours of the best music of the past three decades? I'll dock them because maybe they've gone to the well once too often lately with these collections. But I think they did what they set out to do. And if I met a 14 or 15 year old kid who said to me, "Which Yes album should I buy if I only have the money for one?" I would have no problem recommending this one to him."