YESTERDAYS

This compilation is not one with much meat on its bones for the vast majority of listeners. Apart from the opening track "America", which is an incredible prog cover of a Simon and Garfunkel tune that features some of Steve Howe's best heavy riffing on record, all of the tracks come from the band's first two albums. These two albums, "Yes" and "Time And A Word", are both far different from the catalog that most Yes listeners are familiar with, consisting largely of jazz rock and psychedelic music as opposed to the symphonic and progressive music that they're best known for. Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman are also nowhere to be found, instead having the guitar and keyboard parts played by Peter Banks and Tony Kaye, respectively. Given the availability of 7 of the disc's 8 tracks on the first two albums, there isn't much point in going out and buying "Yesterdays" unless you want to hear "America" or are a fan of the Roger Dean album cover and wish to keep it on your shelf as wall art.

Having said that, "America" is also available on the Yes compilations "The Best of Yes" and the exhaustive "In A Word" so unless you're a very big fan of Roger Dean's art, just get the music off of other releases.