Yes "The Ladder"

The Ladder is the eighteenth studio album from the English rock band Yes, released in September 1999 on Eagle Records. Their only studio album recorded with six full-time members and with keyboardist Igor Khoroshev, recording took place after their 1997–98 tour to support their previous album, Open Your Eyes (1997). The band relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, working with producer Bruce Fairbairn who died during the album's mixing stage.

The Ladder received a warm reception from critics who saw the album as a return to creative form from the band. It reached a peak of No. 36 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 99 on the US Billboard 200. Three singles were released, "Homeworld (The Ladder)", "Lightning Strikes", and "If Only You Knew"; the former was used in the 1999 real-time strategy computer game Homeworld by Relic Entertainment. Yes supported the album with their 1999–2000 world tour, and guitarist Billy Sherwood left the group at its conclusion.

Following guitarist/keyboardist Billy Sherwood's guidance of the last project, Yes decided to bring in an outside producer, Bruce Fairbairn, to give the music the benefit of objective ears. By the time the band had decamped to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to record The Ladder, Igor Khoroshev had become the group's official keyboardist, with Sherwood sharing guitar duties with Steve Howe.


Although the sessions went off successfully, with all concerned very pleased with the end results, the project ended with Fairbairn's sudden death in May 1999. Fairbairn died, according to Chris Squire, just before the completion of final vocals and mixing on The Ladder. Yes subsequently dedicated the album to their late producer upon its September release.

Concurrently with the release of the album, Yes licensed the use of "Homeworld (The Ladder)" for use as the ending credits theme for the Sierra Studios PC game Homeworld, of which a digital preview was included with The Ladder. The re-issue included in the 2006 box set Essentially Yes also includes this preview.

Hyped as a "return to form", The Ladder (Eagle EAGCD088) generally pleased most of its listeners and longtime Yes fans, performing slightly better than Open Your Eyes by reaching No. 36 in the UK and No. 99 in the US.