The Ladder is the eighteenth studio album by the English progressive rock band Yes, released in September 1999 on Eagle Records.

In October 1998, the Yes line-up of vocalist Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire, guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White, guitarist Billy Sherwood, and keyboardist Igor Khoroshev (brought in as a side musician for the tour), wrapped their 12-month world tour in support of their seventeenth studio album, Open Your Eyes (1997).

During their stop in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada during the Open Your Eyes tour in mid-1998, they visited Fairbairn; Howe said: "We all took to him amazingly well.

Fairbairn both nurtured and challenged the band, giving individual members his full attention when they were overdubbing parts and providing direction to them as a group.

"[5] Later in November 1998, Yes returned to Vancouver to write, rehearse, and prepare demos of their new material in Sanctuary Studios, which lasted until February 1999.

White recalled that the band had not done such a thing since they recorded Going for the One (1977) in Switzerland and felt such a situation benefited the album's progression.

[4] With two guitarists in the band at the time of recording, Howe played the lead guitars and Sherwood much of the rhythm parts and "a few of the breaks".

[13] Select tambourine and shaker parts were completed by Sherwood as White was absent from the studio due to a minor illness.

After returning from a conference in Cairo, Egypt, Raine-Reusch was asked to meet with White and Anderson and selected some world instruments to flesh out certain songs.

Raine-Reusch ended up playing a zheng on "To Be Alive", a didgeridoo on "Can I", a tamboura on "Nine Voices", and a finger cymbal known as a Ching, as well as other effects such as a bullroarer throughout the album.

[15] After two-and-a-half hours without an answer, Anderson and studio receptionist and manager Sheryl Preston drove to Fairbairn's apartment, broke in after they found an untouched tape on his doorstep, and discovered his body in his bed.

Howe said it sounds as if Anderson invented a new language for it and recorded the phrase "Ooh wop" as part of the backing vocals.

[15][20] During the writing phase, Fairbairn suggested that the band record a track about someone, which made Anderson think about Bob Marley, one of his favourite musicians.

[18] Anderson has given a different explanation to the song's meaning, in which it concerned nine tribesmen in Africa who sing at the time of the Harmonic Convergence, a global meditation event that occurred in 1987 that he had previously sung about on Big Generator (1987).

He recognised the band were looking back at its 1970s output yet looking forward to create a "new definition of 'The Yes Sound'" which he welcomed, particularly with "Homeworld (The Ladder)", an example of how the group "can unquestionably still tackle the sprawling, multi-themed rock numbers that were once its bread and butter".

However, Warburg thought Yes continues to struggle to "define itself" yet blended its progressive 1970s and pop-oriented 1980s sound better on The Ladder than Open Your Eyes, and Anderson's "New Age blather" and "airy optimism" in his lyrics hurts the music at times.

[21] In the following month Gene Stout, for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, wrote The Ladder "is a bright, optimistic album" with an unusual combination of orchestral rock and reggae textures and styles.

"It Will Be a Good Day" reminded Baert of "The Revealing Science of God" from Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973) and "The Messenger" of Fragile, and noted "If Only You Knew" as a rare "believable love song" by the band that comes off as authentic.

[22] Longtime supporter of the band and biographer Chris Welch praised Fairbairn's "sensitive, disciplined" production and Plotnikoff's engineering gave a "cohesion, clarity, structure and a strong live feel to the album".

He thought each song had its own unique identity yet "seemed linked to a common cause", and pointed out that the band's sparing use of instrumental power enhanced the music.

All music by Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Billy Sherwood, Chris Squire, Alan White and Igor Khoroshev, except where noted.