Are The Yes Album, CttE and GftO the best 3 of Yes

If I listen to Fragile just for the music and the flow of the entire album I don't think about band members taking solos. Don't think about that. Cans and Brahams..Mood For A Day are interspersed between songs. The instrumentalist aspect to that is part of the overall contents and concentrating on making the pieces fit alongside of the songs. I think they did an excellent job at putting it together.

I happen to like Topographic a lot. Literally it's characteristics whether spiritual or not are intriguing in some strange way. I like the cover and I sort of like the concept though I have to be in a certain mood to actually enjoy anything about it. It certainly doesn't reach everyone. The music certainly isn't commercially viable and it doesn't reach out to kiss everyone. Some people are appalled by it. It wasn't written in a style that would sooth everybody . It's not Supertramp .

I guess if you spent the night in a cabin during a massive snow blizzard the album would come to life.

The Yes Album, Fragile, and Close To The Edge are outstanding accomplishment! It's not a math test but certainly they were creating a style of writing that would be influential for years to come. Going For The One has certain tracks that are a must to hear..however a few of them I can do without.

Relayer was exactly as Jon Anderson described it..a very Grey album. Patrick Moraz was described as playing a very schizoid type of style. At this point the band were taking a darker direction in music.

Steve Wyzard wrote: Jacob Schoolcraft wrote: It wasn't written in a style that would sooth everybody . It's not Supertramp .   Supertramp? Soothing? This is kind of like saying that Pink Floyd's "Goodbye Blue Sky" or King Crimson's "Islands" are soothing. Just because something is on the quieter end of the spectrum doesn't make it "soothing". Please listen to (in their entireties) "Asylum", "Ain't Nobody but Me", or the post-indictment cataclysm that closes "Crime of the Century". Yes, the band did do some pop material later in their career, but even that could only very rarely be described as "soothing". I'm sure somebody somewhere would even describe "The Remembering" as soothing.

People who are fanatical whores for sing-song melody tend to go for songs like "Sister Moonshine" or "Dreamer" which has probably been used for children's movies . Supertramp are a great band no doubt...but I see people who go for Supertramp's Pop sensibilities finding The Remembering revolting..and perhaps even to the point of outright saying..."WTF is that?? "

Zappastolethetowels wrote: CttE, Fragile & Relayer for me

David_D wrote: David_D wrote: It may seem so, but I can tell that The Album and CttE are my Yes fond-ofs while I find Fragile overrated.  Today, I say (in chronological order): The Album Fragile CttE as after new listenings to Fragile, it has clicked for me with this album, so I even like a lot the shhh! vocals.

paisanojac wrote: The answer to your question is subjective to each person since we all have opinions, tastes, likes, etc.  Here are the Prog Archives ratings for all 24 YES full studio albums (I'm including ABWH and KeyStudio). 1.   Close To The Edge  4.68 2.   Fragile  4.46 3.   Relayer  4.38 4.   The YES Album  4.32 5    Going For The One  4.06 6.   Tales From Topographic Oceans  3.92 7.    Drama  3.77 8.   Magnification  3.73 9.   KeyStudio   3.59 10.  Fly From Here  3.42 11.  Mirror To The Sky  3.39 12.  Time And A Word  3.35 13.  YES  3.29 14.  The Ladder 3.27 15.  Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe  3.21 16.  Fly From Here Return Trip  3.19 17.  Talk  3.08 18.  90125  3.05 19.  Tormato  3.01 20.  The Quest 2.89 21.  Big Generator  2.57 22.  Union  2.52 23.  Heaven & Earth  2.30 24.  Open Your Eyes  2.06 ------------------------------------- Those above ratings tell the story for me also....but it is subjective as many have pointed out. I  own the first 7 rated ones... (and of course the first 2 lps they recorded but rarely play them)

Edited by dr wu23 - October 08 2024 at 15:06

Jacob Schoolcraft wrote: Relayer was exactly as Jon Anderson described it..a very Grey album. Patrick Moraz was described as playing a very schizoid type of style. At this point the band were taking a darker direction in music.

Hugh Manatee wrote: David_D wrote: No wonder, as "The Gates of Delirium" is about the absurdity of The Vietnam War.  Not quite. You might be getting it confused with "Yours is no Disgrace". "The Gates of Delirium" is loosely based on Tolstoy's "War and Peace".

David_D wrote: But the more I listen to Fragile, the more am I happy about its joyfulness and prefer it to Relayer's dark moments, and at the same time, some of Relayer can seem rather poppy to me.