Drama (Yes album)

Drama was released to a mostly positive critical reception, with most welcoming the band's new sound. It peaked at No. 2 in the UK and No. 18 in the US, though it became their first album since 1971 not to reach gold certification by the RIAA, and their first to miss the top ten there since The Yes Album. "Into the Lens" was released as the album's sole single. Yes toured the album with a 1980 tour of North America and the UK, and were met with some negative reactions from British audiences over the line-up change. The group disbanded at its conclusion; Horn would collaborate with Yes as a producer, while Downes would rejoin the band as a full-time member in 2011. Drama was remastered in 2004 with previously unreleased bonus tracks, and it was performed live in its entirety for the first time in 2016.

Recording[edit]

Drama was recorded in approximately three months at Townhouse with each band member credited for its production and Hugh Padgham, Gary Langan, and Julian Mendelsohn as recording engineers. The sessions began with Eddy Offord, Yes' engineer and producer throughout the 1970s, but several issues resulted in his departure as the album was being made;^[14] Downes said Offord "left in strange circumstances. It was a fraught and manic time",^[15] but he remained credited as producer of the backing tracks.^[16] In 2021, Howe revealed that he fired Offord when three weeks of increasingly erratic behaviour by the engineer culminated with Howe being asked to come down to the studio café immediately, where Offord was frying a pigeon he had apparently caught in the street in a saucepan with the intent of eating it.^[17]


Padgham, who had previously worked on a session with the Buggles, accepted Horn's invitation to get involved with the album. He recalled the difficulty in working with Yes during this time as the sessions were "full of dramas" with "so much tension around."^[18] The music was put together in several London locations; Howe put down his guitar tracks at RAK^[19] and Roundhouse Recording Studios and the rest was recorded at Townhouse and SARM East Studios.^[15] Howe recorded his parts in two weeks, saying: "I had total freedom. I went away and recorded 90 percent of the guitars on my own in a London studio and went back and presented it to the band. At first, people said 'Your guitars sound too bright and treble-y.' I said 'No, shut up and use them'".^[20] Horn spoke about his efforts to get the album finished: "I got married and two hours later, I was back in the studio. [We decided that] for our honeymoon, we were going to spend two weeks in Miami Beach ... it ended up as three days in Bournemouth and Steve came along, we had a good time actually." Horn and Howe completed the album's mixdown by themselves.^[21]