‘Talk’ was the last of the Trevor Rabin era Yes albums. Released in 1994, it’s no secret the album suffered commercially at the hands of the grunge movement.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Yes
ALBUM: Talk
LABEL: Victory, London
SERIAL: 383-480-033-2, 828 489-2
YEAR: 1994
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: England
LINEUP: Jon Anderson – lead and backing vocals * Trevor Rabin – guitars, keyboards, programming, lead and backing vocals * Chris Squire – bass, backing vocals * Tony Kaye – hammond organ * Alan White – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 The Calling * 02 I Am Waiting * 03 Real Love * 04 State Of Play * 05 Walls * 06 Where Will You Be * 07 Endless Dream (a) Silent Spring * 08 Endless Dream (b) Talk * 09 Endless Dream (c) Endless Dream
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
‘Talk’ was the last of the Trevor Rabin era Yes albums. Released in 1994, it’s no secret the album suffered commercially at the hands of the grunge movement, and went virtually unnoticed during that year. And yet again, ‘Talk’ gets crucified by supposed Yes fans who think they know better. The Yes fandom community are the most highly misunderstood congregation in all of music.
They don’t make sense for the most part, talk in riddles and convert what should be simple talk into confusing rants of techno-babble. Let’s make it clear, anything that Rabin is involved deserves a mention here at GDM. The Rabin era which spans 11 years is one you’ll either loathe or love. I tend to fall into the latter category, and there’s nothing on ‘Talk’ which warrants me to change my opinion anytime soon.
The Songs
There’s some clever and quirky moments all the way through. ‘The Calling’ does its best to pry open the cerebral matter with its melodic jackhammer. I’ve always fancied this track, light and airy, a contender for radio it was at the time, whether anyone was listening was debatable.
‘I Am Waiting’ keeps to a simple structured motif for which the rest of the song wraps around it. The song builds energy and a crescendo is reached toward the end.. lovely stuff. ‘Real Love’ peddles in the direction of latter-day Genesis with a heavy-ended backbeat and a staggered arrangement. Not one of their best tracks. Rabin pulls out some guitar tricks for ‘State Of Play’, which is not really trademark Yes to be honest, and the different rhythm and tempo is a bit of a change-up.
‘Walls’ is one of the tracks which Yes fans absolutely hate, quite why I’m unsure. To me it sounds like The Outfield, so from a melodic rock viewpoint, it’s a fantastic track. So to all you Yes diehards, a two fingered salute to you. It was co-written by Supertramp‘s Rodger Hodgson, so it is slightly different. ‘Where Will You Be’ is a Toto like ethnic-inspired composition which could fit the new-age market to a tee. Didn’t really like this one, too long and aimless unfortunately.
The coup de grace on the album is the three-part ‘Endless Dream’, which could be an advance viewing of Rabin’s future soundtrack career. The song mixes up late 80’s prog wonders U.K with keyboard god Vince DiCola on the first instrumental sequence, the second part ‘Talk’ is a rich vein of form covering 11 minutes. Warm and tender cascading pieces make way for some aural bombast by the end. The third and final instalment (all of 1 min 50) introduces a choral section with vocal harmonies rolling over the top of a lush backdrop.
In Summary
A very underrated album, there might be two duds included but the rest is pretty damn good in my opinion. I love anything that Rabin is involved with, and the fact that he smoothed over a lot of the raw prog underbelly (for instance, reducing the bass thud of Squire and adding big sounding drums) gets my vote of confidence.
This would be his last involvement with the band, as a music career in Hollywood beckoned. Yes would go on to more personnel upheaval during the mid 90’s, including talk of an ‘originals reunion’. However, this was overshadowed by the ‘Keys To Ascenion’ album and subsequent tour, and another falling out with Rick Wakeman. Honestly, it reads like a daytime soapie!
Video
Entire Album (Select Tracks)
