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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I've heard the thunder underground, May 6, 2005
Big Generator might be the most underrated album in the Yes catalogue. It's by far their best album featuring Trevor Rabin. Tensions in the band were running high while recording this, and it shows through in the album's disparate musical styles. I will concede that it seems somewhat overproduced at first, but the end result is so great that it's not really an issue.
"Rhythm of Love," one of the better Yes pop songs, kicks things off. It's kind of like a marriage of Eddie Van Halen's guitar and The Beach Boys' harmonies, which seems odd, but it works very well. "Love Will Find a Way" is one of the most notorious Yes songs for its line, "I eat at Chez Nous," and yeah, that does kind of tarnish the song. But it's inoffensive. The title track recalls "Owner of a Lonely Heart" a bit too much, but I still like it. "Final Eyes" is an emotional power ballad featuring some of Jon Anderson's best vocals ever. The rocker "Almost Like Love" and the gentle "Holy Lamb" are enjoyable, but neither are really noteworthy.
The album's best song, and one of the best songs Yes have ever done, is "I'm Running." It's some of the most exciting seven-and-a-half minutes ever in rock music. The song moves through many moods, from light Latin to dark and heavy, and then in the climax, both. And the vocals. "I'm Running" has the greatest vocals of any Yes song, bar none. The harmonies in its last minute are awe-inspiring; I've never heard anything like it. The airy, dreamlike "Shoot High Aim Low" is Big Generator's second highlight. It's slower and simpler than "I'm Running" but still packs a punch. The interwoven and seemingly unrelated vocals of Trevor Rabin and Jon Anderson are great, as are Rabin's guitar solos (one acoustic, one electric).
Big Generator is a great combination of some sleek pop tunes and a couple of weighty, intelligent masterpieces. No rock fan should be without it. Now, if only Rhino Records would take the initiative and give this a much-needed remaster...
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Re-master this album at once!!!, November 26, 2006
Big Generator is a great album, but it seriously needs a sonic overhaul. Why re-master 90125, but not Big Generator? As for those idiots who'll say this album sucks or isn't really YES, ignore them and check it out for yourself. Both Yes and Deep Purple seem to have this problem in common. You know, ignore the "recent" stuff, `cause their greatest music was back in the 70's. I personally enjoy it all, due to an open mind and open ear.
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26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
brilliant follow-up to 90125, but hated by YES purists, March 20, 2001
I love listening to Big Generator straight through, and it didn't leave my cassette player (remember them?) in 1987 & 1988. This album is dominated by Jon Anderson and Trevor Rabin influence (love songs, top 40 format) and is understandably disliked by the Yes purists who view 1974's Tales From Topographic Oceans as good music... so to each his own. But if you liked 90125, you will like Big Generator as well. RHYTHM OF LOVE, leading off the album, sounds like it might have BEEN on 90125, with good hook, powerful drums and guitaring in a hard rock (for the 80s) fashion. The title track BIG GENERATOR is a little weak but it gets you to the album standout, SHOOT HIGH AIM LOW - which is actually two songs in one. Rabin's moody guitar work sets a memorable tone for this song in which Anderson and Rabin alternate on the lyrics, telling actually two stories which converge as on in the chorus (hey for you old time Yes fans, this is as artsy and creative as it gets). ALMOST LIKE LOVE ends the first side in an upbeat tempo with horns and Anderson's high pitched voice sounding like something that could have come from his excellent solo album "In the City of Angels". The second "side" (again, pre-CD terminology) starts with the memorable radio hit LOVE WILL FIND A WAY, which is pure Rabin genius, starting with classical strings and fading into his powerful guitar and lyrics, helped out by Anderson on the chorus. FINAL EYES is a beautiful, Anderson-led long form song about love, support, etc. - great 12-string guitar work and vocals. I'M RUNNING is hard to classify - overall a good song - but has an odd interlude that almost sounds like a Mexican circus, a curious tune. The album ends with the lovely HOLY LAMB, a fitting finale asking for peace in the ecology, and in life, with great guitar work and keyboards in the background fading out. This album was the end of the Rabin-led commercial lineup and Yes would dissolve into 1989s Anderson Bruford Wakeman and Howe, and Rabin's BRILLIANT solo album I CAN'T LOOK AWAY, and eventually reunite on UNION. But BIG GENERATOR is like a bookmark of how Yes was in the 80s, love em or hate em, after 90120 this is the onbe to get - a great listen.
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