Magnification is a fascinating experiment on Yes’ part. Following 1999’s The Ladder, keyboardist Igor Khoroshev left the band, and when they reached out to Rick Wakeman (again), he blew them off, so for the first time in their history, Yes were left with nobody on keys. They were a guitar-bass-drums rock band, reduced to their core of Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, and Alan White. Well, clearly that wasn’t gonna get the job done, so for the first time since 1970’s Time And A Word, they brought in a full orchestra to accompany them.

Still, the album is one of the band’s most stripped-down efforts, ever. Most of the songs are midtempo rockers, with a lot harder guitar and a lot more interaction between Howe and Squire than is typical. White slams the rhythms home instead of frittering around the kit, and the orchestra has a surprising amount of muscle; the string stabs on “Spirit Of Survival” sound like something from a James Bond movie soundtrack. Squire takes the lead vocal role on “Can You Imagine,” which is surprising and cool. The album’s two epics, “Dreamtime” and “In The Presence Of,” come back to back at the end of the album; the former sounds uncannily like what Opeth are doing in 2015, while the latter is a sweeping, epic ballad. Magnification was Jon Anderson’s final studio album with Yes, and honestly, it’s probably their best one since the ’80s.