Talk was a mild commercial success upon its release, reaching No. 20 in the UK and No. 33 in the U.S, and received a poor reception from music critics. "The Calling" and "Walls" were released as singles that charted at No. 3 and 24 on the U.S. Hot Mainstream Rock chart, respectively. The album was supported by a 1994 tour that covered North and South America and Japan. At its conclusion, Rabin and Kaye left the band in 1995. Carson has high praise for the album but thought it was made "at the wrong time".
In March 1992, Yes completed their Union Tour which had eight band members on stage—singer Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire, guitarists Steve Howe and Trevor Rabin, drummers Bill Bruford and Alan White, and keyboardists Tony Kaye and Rick Wakeman. For the band's next project Phil Carson, a former Atlantic Records vice president and long time fan of the band, approached Rabin to produce a Yes album for Victory Music, an independent label he formed while he worked for JVC. Carson wished for the album recorded with the 1983–88 line-up of Rabin, Anderson, Squire, White, Kaye, the same group that made Yes's two most commercially successful albums—90125 (1983) and Big Generator (1987). As Rabin and Wakeman got on well during the Union tour, Carson suggested Wakeman be involved on the album. Howe thought it was "silly" of Carson wanting to have Yes continue as a group minus Bruford and himself. By mid-1993, Wakeman opted out due to management and contract issues.
After signing a record deal with Victory, work on Talk began with Rabin writing "a lot" of material which he then developed with Anderson at a motel in San Clemente, California where Anderson had been staying. Rabin rented a room for "a week or two", working with just an acoustic guitar and two ghetto blasters for playing his demos and recording vocals. This marked the first time since Anderson's return to Yes in 1983 where he was involved in the song writing from the beginning. On 90125 and Big Generator, he was involved at the later stages which limited his input. Rabin spoke about the importance of working closely with Anderson this time round: "[On] 'Big Generator' ... I could feel the frustration in Jon that, although he was involved, it was basically me writing the songs and Jon trying to work on top of them ... So I realised, the best possible way is, if Jon's the singer, then I need to work really closely with him to provide him the best possible platform to sing on ... The two of us really worked hard as a team on it, which led to its being a better album for us". Squire made sure to reduce his input in order to have Rabin and Anderson collaborate successfully, resulting in a reduction of writing credits; he was "very happy" with the material they wrote.
Talk was recorded and mixed at Rabin's home studio in Los Angeles, California, known as The Jacaranda Room. Additional recording was made at A&M Recording Studios in Hollywood. Rabin took charge of the album's production, opting for digital non-linear recording techniques rather than traditional recording tape. His co-engineer Michael Jay linked four Apple Macintosh computers, each running the digital audio workstation software Digital Performer developed by Mark of the Unicorn. Rabin and Jay wrote notes on what fixes or new functions were needed to complete the recording process, and the software developers would write code to implement them. Rabin stressed that the instruments heard on the album were "real" and feature live instrumentation, but recording them onto a hard drive allowed their sound to be manipulated in an easier way than tape. Having recorded in this fashion, Squire preferred the sound he got from his bass on the digital method than previous systems. He used his Rickenbacker bass, a Tobias four-string bass, a custom made Meridian bass, and Rabin's Casio computer guitar that was run through a synthesiser. In its unedited form, the album took up 3.4 GB of memory. Production was delayed for a short while following the Northridge, California earthquake on 17 January 1994 to protect the equipment from damage caused by subsequent tremors.
The album's cover was designed by German-American graphic artist Peter Max. The album's sleeve contains the message: "dedicated to all Yes fans".
On 16 March 1994, Yes held a Talk premier party broadcast hosted by Bob Coburn at the Hard Rock in Hollywood, California. This was followed by a release party broadcast on 21 March 1994, the day Talk was released. The album was a mild commercial success, reaching No. 20 in the UK and No. 33 in the US, their lowest charting album in the US since The Yes Album in 1971. Anderson and Rabin blamed the bankruptcy of the Victory label which caused a lack of promotion. Two tracks were released as singles—"The Calling" and "Walls"; both peaked at No. 3 and 24 respectively on Billboard's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Carson spoke of the album following its release: "[It] was probably one of the best albums they have ever done ... But of course it was totally at the wrong time. It sold around 300,000 around the world but nothing like that it should have done."
In 1994, Yes released Yes Active, a CD-ROM containing the album and various interactive bonus material including interviews and band performances.
Talk was reissued in 2002 which combined "Endless Dream" into a single track and included "The Calling (Special Version)". In 2006, Talk was released as part of Yes's 2006 album compilation box set Essentially Yes on Eagle Records.
Talk was supported with a 1994 tour of North and South America and Japan. Rabin supervised the development of Concertsonics, a quadraphonic sound system that allowed people seated in selected seats to hear the concert's soundboard mix with headphones and personal radio by tuning into a specific FM frequency. Rabin was pleased with the band's performances, describing the tour as his "most satisfying" with the band. The tour included a performance of "Walls" on Late Show with David Letterman on 20 June 1994. According to Rabin, host David Letterman "was driving one day and 'The Calling' ... came on the radio. He stopped the car and apparently called his producer to get the album".
After the tour's conclusion, Rabin and Kaye decided to leave the band.
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