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65 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's Still Yes To Me, June 20, 2004
For most fans, Yes without lead singer Jon Anderson is a horror thought. But as history has shown, Anderson did leave the band after the tour for the "Tormato" album, with keyboard wiz Rick Wakeman in tow, and they were replaced by the duo known as The Buggles---vocalist Trevor Horn, and keyboardist Geoff Downes. Their only album with Yes, 1980's "Drama," is a surprisingly good album. While no one on God's given Earth can sing like Jon Anderson, Trevor Horn sings close enough (albeit in a *slightly* lower register), and he takes Anderson's place at the mic just fine. These days, Trevor Horn may be to Yes what George Lazenby is to the James Bond movies (i.e. he only made one, *and* he was filling a very large pair of shoes), but give the guy some credit: he was good! Geoff Downes, meanwhile, is a more than capable keyboardist for this classic English rock outfit, and he & Horn slot in alongside Chris Squire, Steve Howe, & Alan White very well."Drama" is a very short album---just 35 minutes---but in those 35 minutes is some great Yes music, the highlights for me being "Does It Really Happen?," "Into The Lens," and "Tempus Fugit," all top-notch, first-rate Yes rockers. Seriously, with all due respect to the great Jon Anderson, I would've been quite happy if the "Drama" line-up of Yes had decided to continue. And they might have---by all accounts, they were received quite well by U.S. audiences on the tour for the album. Unfortunately, British & European audiences were not so kind, and, subsequently, Trevor Horn got cold feet about continuing on as the group's frontman. Well, I can't really blame him. Yes broke up after the "Drama" tour was finished, with everyone splitting up to work on other projects---Horn becoming a producer, Howe & Downes forming the supergroup Asia, and Squire & White teaming up with Trevor Rabin for a project (hint hint), and it looked like Yes were finished for good. But come 1983, Yes roared back to life, with Jon Anderson back in the fold, for the smash album, "90125." But in the process, "Drama" has been sorely overlooked. I hope more Yes fans will check out this unfairly underrated album, and find out for themselves just how really good it actually is. Even without Jon Anderson, it's still Yes to my ears.
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Job in "Expanding and Remastering", March 16, 2004
The "Drama" album will always be somewhat of an oddity in the Yes catalogue, for no other reason that it is the only album in Yes' 35 years that does not feature leadsinger Jon Anderson. If, however, you can get beyond this, you will discover that "Drama", much like its predecessor "Tormato" is actually a lot better than belies its reputation.The "Expanded and Remastered" version of Drama (16 tracks; 79 min.) starts of with the original 6 tracks of the album. Among the best tracks: "Machine Massiah" is a return to the 10 min. epic tracks of earlier in their career, albeit with the guitars much more upfront. "Into the Lens" is an 8. min. romper (and later was redone as "I Am a Camera" by the Buggles). "Run Through the Light", a minor hit, is a super-catchy power-ballad. The bonus tracks go from the unnecessary (single versions of "Into the Lens" and "Run Through the Light") to the mildy interesting (instrumentals "Have We Really Got to Go Trough With This" and "Song No.4 (Satellite)", to the fascinating last 4 tracks. Those tracks are from the Roy Thomas Baker (famed for producing Queen era-"Bohemian Rhapsody") sessions with Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman from the Fall of 1979 that eventually were abandoned. It gives a nice insight to what might have been the "logical" successor to "Tormato", but assuming that these tracks in fact were the best from those sessions, it's easy to see why the band didn't pursue them. "Golden Age" is the standout song of the four. In all, I cannot give enough compliments to Rhino, which has done an absolute outstanding job not only with the "Drama" reissue, but with the reissue of the Yes catalogue in general. Lines notes, remastering, bonus tracks, it's all here. Even if "Drama" isn't on your top wish list of Yes albums, you'll nevertheless enjoy this particular reissue.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A better album than Yes itself will admit, August 2, 2004
After the lackluster "Tormato" went splat and Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman left the band, Yes made the unlikely move of adding singer Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes from the two-man new wave band the Buggles (of "Video Killed the Radio Star" fame) for this 1980 album. And while Chris Squire has referred to the Horn/Downes era as one of the low moments in the band's history, the one album that came out of it is actually very good. Horn makes an endearing attempt at Anderson's vocal style (though he strains at the high notes) and contributes his excellent production abilities, while Downes makes a credible keyboard wizard. Their new-wave sensibility helped perk up the beats back to rock tempo after the laziness of "Tormato", and by throwing a touch of pop back into the Yes mix, set the stage for the band's "90125" success. "Tempus Fugit", keyed by a tremendous Squire bass line, is one of the great Yes songs of all time, up-tempo and up-mood; in the Boston area, this song got Yes its most radio play since "Roundabout". By rights, it should be on any Yes "best-of" album. "Into the Lens" takes a core pop song (later simplified as "I Am a Camera" on the Buggles' "Adventures in Modern Recording" album) and surrounds it with a repeated, soaring Steve Howe guitar melody over a stutter-stepping rhythm section. "Machine Messiah" is another strong piece that allows both Howe and Downes to shine. "Run Through the Light", a relatively straightforward rocker, and the proggish "Does This Really Happen?" are weaker cuts. "Does This Really Happen?" gives Alan White a chance to play vibes. "White Car" is an excerpt from a longer keyboard piece (played in full on the tour) by Downes. Perhaps it's the lyrics that Squire thinks don't live up to the Yes legacy? Most Yes fans, myself included, have never had any idea what the heck Anderson was singing about -- these lyrics are no sillier than any of Anderson's.
This remastered version adds 10 bonus tracks, which are interesting but don't provide any hidden gems. "Have We Really Got to Go Through This" and "Song No. 4" are backing tracks Howe, Squire, and White wrote before Horn and Downes arrived. "Go Through This" sounded pretty good on tour after lyrics/vocals had been added, but here they both sound like the half-finished pieces they are. There are practice runs through "Tempus Fugit" and "White Car" and single versions of "Into the Lens" and "Run Through the Light". The biggest find is 4 cuts with Anderson and Wakeman from an aborted recording session with producer Roy Thomas Baker (Queen), in which the band goes farther down the "Tormato" road. The tracks sound tinny and weak compared to "Drama", but, who knows, big "Tormato" fans may turn out to love them. One of the cuts is an early take of "Run Through the Light" that sounds more techno than the version with the Buggles.
(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)
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