Yes - Yes-today [2CD Set] (2002)

Yestoday is, actually, anything but. It's not clear when, but somewhere along the line the Recall label went from putting together many excellent double discs -- one, for example, with nearly all the important material from American hip-hop acts in one hell of a Tommy Boy compilation with all the major 12" singles -- to becoming a label that licensed dodgy material and tried to make it representative. This Yes double disc compiles tracks from the full-lengths Open Your Eyes and The Ladder, and selections from the live set cut at the House of Blues. Open Your Eyes has been reviled by most hardcore Yes fans as benign and beneath contempt. Dominated by Billy Sherwood despite Steve Howe's re-joining the band, it is, in places, more of a pop album than anything from the Trevor Rabin era. It does introduce audiences to Russian keyboardist (along with Steve Porcaro) Igor Khoroshev, who remained with the band into the 21st century but was fired before Magnification for his backstage behavior at concerts. Tom Brislin was hired to replace him. All of this aside, the material from the live recording and from Ladder is mostly very fine, and even a couple of the better cuts from Open Your Eyes cut the mustard. That said, any serious fans of the band already have these recordings, making this reissue all but pointless. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide