9012Live: The Solos (1985)


  
1. Hold On 2. Si 3. Solly's Beard 4. Soon 5. Changes 6. Amazing Grace 7. Whitefish

 

Not a bad record in terms of quality, yet the whole idea and formatting of this album seems ridiculous. The “new” lineup of Yes only had one album, and one tour at this point. That being said, a ‘live’ album at this point would definitely had been a stretch. Had they replicated a typical Yes show on a live album, however, it would have been much better than what we have here.

As the title says, the bulk of this short album is made up of band member solos. You couldn’t call everything here a solo necessarily. These are mostly instrumental jams with one instrument taking up the forefront of the song. None of the solos are particularly stunning. The Chris Squire-Bass Guitar showcase Whitefish is pretty impressive, but do we really need an eight-minute bass solo on a thirty-three-minute record?

They include two of the better songs from 90125, but this almost seems forced. Again, though, the whole thing seems forced. Interestingly, this release came out right around the time compact discs started hitting the market. A compact disc would have allowed them about 74 minutes of material on one disc – more than double the length of what is here. Had they included more songs while throwing in these solos, it might have been a bit more memorable.

All in all, a pretty irrelevant record.

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