Doing a 180: Yes, Drama

Rhino has made it a point to reissue classic albums on 180-gram vinyl on a regular basis. This is the latest to get that treatment. You're welcome.

In the Yes discography, Drama stands alone: it’s the only album by the band to feature Trevor Horn as lead vocalist. If you’re a fan of The Buggles, then this is a very good thing indeed. If you’re a fan of Jon Anderson, then it’s understandable that you might be slightly more hesitant to dive into the proceedings. You might be surprised, however, at just how close to Anderson’s voice Horn was able to hew at various points during the album, thanks in no small part to the backing vocals by Steve Howe and Chris Squire. As for the music, having Geoff Downes taking over on keyboards went a long way toward covering the absence of the also-departed Rick Wakeman.

Although the album’s lone single, “Into the Lens,” got no farther than Bubbling Under status, stumbling before ever actually making it onto the Billboard Hot 100, Drama itself was praised for managing to defy the odds and sound like a Yes album even without Anderson and Wakeman, who were certainly two key aspects of the band’s sound. Alas, it would prove to be their last album before taking a hiatus, and when they returned with 90125 in 1983, Horn was sitting in the production chair rather than with the band, and Anderson was back in place as lead singer.

That “alas,” by the way, isn’t anything to do with Anderson coming back, which would inspire cheers from any Yes fan worth his or her salt. It’s simply a matter of wondering what music we might’ve gotten if Horn and Downes had continued onward in the lineup. But if we got nothing else out of the band’s various lineup changes in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, at least we got Drama.