Yes - Talk (1994) #Review

Hi friends, this time I present a very special album for me. Since it has been one of my dad's favorites for years, and since I was little I've heard it, since we have it in physics, and that's why it's considered a relic for both of us. Because it has a very eighties sound despite being from the mid 90's, and a melody and feeling that brings back many memories, and to my much nostalgia. Yes it has been a band that has marked me enough in my life, its music will always bring me good memories and it will make me happy. And that's why I come to recommend them, an album with a happy sound but quite nostalgic and symphonic. Categorized under a label that I do not consider entirely accurate, as progressive rock, because despite being a pretty good record for me, I do not consider it totally progressive, its sound resembles me more to the rock of the eighties, happy and symphonic. With very touching and moving refrains. Another thing that I want to emphasize at the beginning is the peculiar voice of Jon Anderson, so melodic and symphonic, it is really good and gives his particular touch to Yes.

Yes, there was not a good time for those times, with so many changes in the training and many criticisms in the previous album. In 1994 he decided to publish "Talk", with the lineup commanded by Jon Anderson (Voices) along with Trevor Rabin (Guitars and keyboard), Chris Squire (bass and vocals), Tony Kaye (hammond) and Alan White (Drums). This album in its time received enough critics for its slight distance to the progressive sounds that Yes showed in its first albums, and sincerely if it had those changes, but for me it maintained a very characteristic sound of Yes and a quite good symphony, that makes for me, one of the best albums of the 90 (It is a totally subjective decision). Despite its somewhat repetitive and somewhat simple refrains in some sections, I find the music in this album fascinating, which for me is totally high quality symphonic rock.

This album starts with The Calling , a perfect and happy song to start this album, it has a very good melody and a dynamic that lets us know the intention of the album from the beginning. It is a very good theme, although somewhat repetitive for the long, with an interesting guitar at the end. Then follow one of my favorites I Am Waiting , a really sentimental topic. With a very good guitar, and a few changes of rhythms that catch enough, after a beautiful calm, the drums open a beautiful melody created by the voice of Jon Anderson. With a different dynamic starts Real Love , where the guitar sounds pretty good, with pretty good hard rock style, to make way for one of those catchy choruses that already showed us the previous 2 songs.

With a rather peculiar beginning, State of Play begins another theme similar to the previous ones, between calm and joy, with a very sentimental chorus, or that shows at every moment the voice of Anderson. Maybe the best known success of the album Walls continues, which is not bad, with a sound very similar to the hits of the 80's, and a chorus that you will not stop humming, despite the incredible , the simplicity of the song can get boring. Maybe the most strange track of the album Where Will You Be , sounds a bit far from the others, with small harmonic arrangements very interesting and a little heavier, it's not much to my liking the truth, it's the one I like the least.

The last part of the album is the most progressive and ambitious that we will get on the album, it is a fairly high quality composition. It is a single song, called Endless Dream , which is divided into three parts, an instrumental introduction, a progressive development and an instrumental end. It begins with the instrumental Endless Dream: I. Silent Spring , which I consider quite good, with enough changes of rhythms, that they have enough strength and relevance to the drums. Continue the longest part, and the best of the album without any doubt, called Endless Dream: II. Talk , which starts with a very sweet and pleasant piano, to be accompanied by the voice of Jon Anderson totally angelic, evolving every moment, with a pretty successful guitar, opens us to a rather cheerful chorus, which then will be submerged in distorted experiments, which make us believe that we listen to another album, to again take us to a very ambient sound, with quite a few synth effects. All this great amount of feelings, brings us this song, to close with a totally solemn and good voice of Jon Anderson. Finally this marvel culminates with the small instrumental Endless Dream: III. Endless Dream to help us get down from heaven that we took the last song.

Finally I can conclude, that the beauty of this album for me has no limit, I highlight above all the feeling and the agility of the voice of Jon Anderson, it is one of my favorite voices. And that the band maintains a sound, very cheerful and dynamic throughout the album, which is really engaging and enjoyable. After so many years listening and analyzing it, I can only criticize the lack of "progressive" in almost the entire album, for which many labeled it. In some cases, it seems to me that it was not necessary to create such long tracks, only to fit in as a progressive group, because if there is not a considerable evolution, the song can get boring. That feeling can be felt in some tracks of the album, which are quite good, but their sinuous sound in the long run, can bore. So honestly it is not an album that I consider progressive rock, except for a few minutes, I consider it for me, a jewel of symphonic rock.