The Ladder is a great album. Magnification is a pretty darned good album. I really like Tormato. I think 75% of Tormato is as good as anything they ever did. Only tracks 5 and 6 aren't great.
As for Open Your Eyes, it's a highly flawed album, but it has it's moments. As for that Yesfans rumor about "Jon and Chris were attempting
to woo Trevor back, replace Steve," that's the biggest pile of
ever. The truth is in 1996 Yes had finished the Keys to Ascension album and were planning a tour. But they were dragging their feet and the ever-energetic Wakeman was getting frustrated with the waiting around so he left that band - again. Suddenly, with tour dates looming and no way to support a Wakeman album without Wakeman, the band decided to simply take a side-project of Chris' and Billy Sherwood's and Yessify it. It wasn't a group project in the full sense of the word. Squire and Sherwood had demos and Yes simply reworked them really, really fast. So basically, it was a Sherwood solo album that got twisted up.
And for the record, I think that "Man in the Moon" is a great song. The worst Yes song ever is "No Way We Can Lose." Open Your Eyes has some strong stuff, such as "Somehow, Someway" and "Open Your Eyes." But it's got some of the weakest Yes songs with "Fortune Seller" and "The Solution."
Oh yeah, Talk. Talk is a masterwork. In my opinion it's the best Rabin album and one of the top six or seven Yes albums period. "Endless Dream" is the best Yes song after "Awaken." "The Calling" is phenomenal as well.