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One of my favorite later Yes albums, "90215" may sound
a bit dated because of Trevor Horn's (another former member
of Yes and member of the Buggles as well as producer for
the Art of Noise, ABC and other bands) 80's production touches
but the material is strong enough to survive those elements
that date it. Besides, something that "dates" an album isn't
necessarily a bad thing unless it distracts from the songs
or only gussies up weak material neither of which is the
case here. ***
"90215" came about when guitarist/vocalist Trevor Rabin
formed a new band called Cinema with Squire, White and Horn.
Squire recognized that the album bore a remarkable similarity
(no surprise) to Yes particularly when Rabin decided that
the band needed to bring in a vocalist and front man since
carrying the guitar duties and vocals were a bit too much
for him at the time. Enter Jon Anderson two years after
the break up and the last Yes studio album "Drama" (which
didn't even feature Anderson but in a touch of irony DID
feature the producer of this album Trevor Horn replacing
Anderson because they had a similar vocal range) which turned
this band comprised almost completely of Yes veterans into...Yes.
***
With Horn's nice production "Owner of a Lonely Heart"
became the band's biggest hit finding a huge audience with
a clever video on MTV and receiving signficant airplay.
Suddenly, Yes found themselves popular and RELEVANT at the
same time within the changing face of music. They were no
longer 70's dinosaurs in the eyes of a new 80's audience
but, in many respects, a band reborn. ***
The songs throughout primarily composed by newest member
Rabin alone or in collaboration with the other members (with
the instrumental "Cinema" surviving from the earliest sessions
and recorded live) still have the distinctive flavor of
the band's past albums reworked within a new context and
sound. This is a terrific album and manages to transcend
the 80's trendy touches that characterized Horn's work as
a producer at the time. ***
This remaster by engineer Steve Hoffman sounds richer,
smoother without being brickwalled or compressed. He does
a marvelous job of bringing out the production style of
Horn as well as more detail and richer sound. While the
original CD sounded quite good this emphasizes Anderson's
vocals more than the previous CD versrion released back
in 1985. As usual Hoffman works ONLY with the original master
tapes here. I know there are many people who are bugged
by Hoffman's purist approach to remastering (he tends to
err on the side of trying to replicate the sound of the
original master tape as much as possible without giving
in to the current trends of louder, dynamically weak releases)
but when he does his work well he does a brilliant job of
translating the albums he works on to the CD format. I should
note that "90215" is being issued in a limited edition release
of 5000 copies on a gold CD. Is it worth it? Absolutely
particularly if you have a superior stereo system but even
if you don't there will be subtle differents that will make
you appreciate this prog rock classic album in a new way.
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