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Album Details

• Artist: Yes
• Album: Magnification
• Label: Beyond Records
• Year of Release: 2001
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: gwhill on 2012-12-06

The type of progressive rock Yes creates has often been labeled “symphonic rock.” That general means arrangements that are built in the vein of symphonic orchestrations and approximate that sound with rock instrumentation. With Magnification, Yes took the title a step further by adding a symphony orchestra. While Yes did use some symphonic instrumentation on the Time and a Word album, Magnification’s usage was more fully integrated. The songs were created with the orchestral parts built into and functioning as part of the group sound.

Take away the orchestra and the music here was pretty easily recognizable as Yes music. The orchestrations, though, brought a different texture and feel to the album. In some ways, it seemed to inspire certain members of the group to put in stronger performances than they had on recent discs. The set had weak moments, and sometimes seemed to get a little over the top, but overall was quite a strong album.

Perhaps to its credit that orchestral twist made this album (while still recognizable as Yes) seem to stand apart from the rest of the catalog. It is still not easy to find direct comparisons to other Yes albums. This was, also, really doing what progressive seeks – progressing rock music. That made it a success on a different level. One might argue that the songs had a tendency towards poppier angles at times. Yet, in many ways the addition of that orchestration itself, made the music in a lot of ways more ambitious than anything the group had produced before. It would also be a fair argument to say that the end result was, in many ways, more true to the “Yes sound” than anything that had come from them since Going for the One. It’s a disc that stands pretty tall in the Yes catalog to this day.

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