GOING FOR THE ONE

I gave this CD another spin today, thinking that sooner or later I'd fall into line with all the people here who've given this album such great reviews. Once again, I came away loving "Turn of the Century" and seeing equal amounts of success and failure in the remainder of the album (with the exception of "Parallels", which has very few redeeming qualities). The title track, while catchy, suffers from a poor and noisy arrangement. The similarities to earlier tracks plagues "Wonderous Stories" (most notably "And You & I"). The longest piece, "Awaken", has some nice parts, but loses points due to Rick Wakeman's cheesy choices of keyboard sounds. All of these problems are augmented by Jon Anderson's increasingly vacuous and uplifting lyrics (he was New Age before the term was even coined). I guess part of the reason I became so enamored with Progressive Rock in the 70's was the cynical outlook conveyed by most of the lyricists, and Anderson gradually moved away from that. "Turn of the Century" is so different from anything else Yes had done up to that point. The lyrics are straightforward and tell an actual story! The instrumental break gets bogged down, but doesn't last long enough to ruin the piece. And Howe's acoustic guitar work approaches perfection. I wouldn't bother keeping this album if not for this track.