Stereogum Article by Phil Freeman
I'm not sure if this list and article was inspired by the sad news about Chris Squire's Leukemia diagnosis the other day, but if so, I can follow why.
The list this guy ranked and wrote about there is of course another 1 of these *lists* and has some baffling things about it like The Ladder, Tormato and especially Drama being as low as they are while Talk and Big Generator (and the highly overrated 90125 in my minority opinion) being as high as they are.
But I'll credit it for at least ranking Relayer as high as it did and also I can't disagree with putting Yessongs on top.
So I'm deciding to do a ranking of my own, but I'm not including the live albums; but I can just say I find Yessongs one of the best albums Yes ever released and best live albums ever. And Yesshows to be an album I do like, maybe because it has both "The Gates of Delirium" and "Ritual" on it.
However I am including Keys to Ascension 2 namely since it includes a studio recording of one of my favorite Yes tracks in the epic "Mind Drive."
Some of the others like Keys to Ascension, the BBC Sessions and a few others like the Remixes, etc I either have not heard, nor even if they include music that was not released on 1 of the proper studio records, and/or live. Or it just has not been in my listening experience all that much at this point.
21. Open Your Eyes
20. Heaven and Earth
19. Union
18. Big Generator
17. 90125
16. Fly From Here
15. Magnification
14. Talk
13. ABWH
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12. Yes
11. The Ladder
10. Tormato
9. Time and a Word
8. Keys to Ascension 2
7. Going for the One
6. The Yes Album
5. Close to the Edge
4. Tales from Topographic Oceans
3. Fragile
2. Drama
1. Relayer
Solo Records (short list)
These are probably my 4 favorite solo albums from members of Yes. I own many others, but like Phil Freeman's comment about so many of them, I'm not going to rank the rest as it gets too scattered then. I don't even own any Flash or Strawbs or you name it if you want to take more than 1-degree of separation (like UK..who I am a fan of though, or Asia who I'm not really into anything by..or Patrick Moraaz solo and other collaborations, which include work with The Moody Blues, etc).
4. Bruford - One of a Kind
3. Steve Howe - Beginnings
2. Jon Anderson - Olias of Sunhillow
1. Chris Squire - Fish Out of Water
I do not own, nor have heard any of Rick Wakeman's solo records sans for the White Rock record. Although by many accounts the Six Wives LP is his best, also maybe not coincidentally like Squire, Anderson and Howe (or even Steve Hackett for that matter), his 1st solo record.