Yes' "Relayer" underappreciated?
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Recommendations/Featured albums
Forum Description: Make or seek recommendations and discuss specific prog albums
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=83415
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Topic: Yes' "Relayer" underappreciated?
Posted By: fuyuakiworld
Subject: Yes' "Relayer" underappreciated?
Date Posted: December 11 2011 at 22:00
| Do you think it is, cause I do. Post your thoughts. |
Replies:
Posted By: The Miracle
Date Posted: December 11 2011 at 22:08
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It has a classic status around here and gets plenty of
coverage. Personally, it's my least favorite post-Time, pre-Tormato
album. Still very good though.
------------- http://www.last.fm/user/ocellatedgod" rel="nofollow - last.fm |
Posted By: Aussie-Byrd-Brother
Date Posted: December 11 2011 at 22:24
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`Relayer' at first comes across as a metallic, noisy, tuneless, clanking mess! Repeated plays show that's it's a very different, challenging and experimental work from the band. It's even a shock how dark some the lyrics from Anderson are. It's a shame Patrick Moraz never got to record another album with the band, he played some very interesting stuff on it.
I find, much like `Topographic Oceans' that, after you've listened to the over-familiar `Fragile', `Close To The Edge', `The Yes Album' etc a hundred times, `Relayer' (and `Topographic') provides endless new and fascinating moments to discover. |
Posted By: MoodyRush
Date Posted: December 11 2011 at 22:28
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It's personally my favorite album EVER. no biggie. ------------- Follow me down to the valley below. Moonlight is bleeding from out of your soul. -Lazarus |
Posted By: Horizons
Date Posted: December 11 2011 at 22:29
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My favorite Yes I think. Would be brilliant if Bruford was on it, no offense to White. ------------- Crushed like a rose in the riverflow. |
Posted By: Slaughternalia
Date Posted: December 11 2011 at 22:36
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I grew tired of Gates pretty quickly, but side 2 never ceases to amaze me ------------- I'm so mad that you enjoy a certain combination of noises that I don't |
Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: December 11 2011 at 22:53
...not to mention the brilliant cover artwork by Roger Dean! Probably my favorite Yes album cover.... |
Posted By: purplesnake
Date Posted: December 11 2011 at 23:13
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I definitely agree! It's my favorite yes album, one of my favorite albums altogether... I have the cover art on my door. When I first listened the Gates of Delirium, I kinda enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as I did after constant listens. At first it seems like a jumbled mess, but that's because it's a long piece. Therefore, to understand the theme and shape of the song, it needs quite a few listens. The fact is, it's not a simple piece. It's very complicated and very emotional. Once you have listened to it enough times, it can be quite magical. For me, as my favorite song, every time I listen to the Gates of Delirium it puts some sort of magical energy through me that just leaves me moved at the end. It's ever changing, there's variations in everything... I can't imagine how they could memorize a piece like that. But more than anything it's the beauty and emotion in the piece. I love Sound Chaser and To be Over as well... they contain some beautiful music with lots of emotion as well. I think Relayer's definitely underrated in terms of Yes - it's far more complex than Close to the Edge (and Tales from Topographic Oceans, which to me was just an attempt at making a ton of music without actually getting deep in any particular song). People should give it more chance (; |
Posted By: CCVP
Date Posted: December 11 2011 at 23:31
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I don't think it is underappreciated, but in fact other albums are more appreciated than Relayer. I, for one, list it as my third favorite Yes album, after The Yes Album (fav) and Fragile (2nd). -------------   
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Posted By: Progosopher
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 00:10
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Currently, it is the third most highly rated Yes album on the ProgArchives, and number 30 overall, which is no mean feat. I don't think that counts as underappreciated, although as my favorite Yes album it rates much higher to me personally. Nor do I particularly care that much where it falls in any top list. Those numbers just represent common denominators. As others have said, it is not an album that one can get into easily or quickly, but it is one whose dimensions reveal themselves on repeated listens. I suspect some detractors may not have the patience it requires to fully appreciate, but who knows? We don't all have to 'get it' nor do we all have to enjoy the same things to the same degree. The only thing that matters, as I frequently say, is how much you appreciate it when you listen to it. ------------- The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty" |
Posted By: octopus-4
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 00:39
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It's one of my less favorite Yes albums, but I have no "technical" motivations. It's so. Nothing else. ------------- I stand with Roger Waters, I stand with Joan Baez, I stand with Victor Jara, I stand with Woody Guthrie. Music is revolution |
Posted By: akaBona
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 00:42
AGREED!
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Aussie-Byrd-Brother wrote:Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 01:52
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Its a much more technical album and lacks the warmth of the best Yes music. GoD is pretty amazing but the side two just bores me. Too much technical rambling on Sound Chaser while To Be Over is just a pleasant track nothing earth shattering for me. Its a solid 4 star album although I would put Gates in the top 3 epics of all time (the others Suppers Ready and KE9 imo) |
Posted By: Easy Livin
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 02:50
Tell us more about your thoughts. Why do you think it is underappreciated?
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Posted By: DamoXt7942
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 02:53
 And Bob, I guess he might want to say so ... and, as I've done previously, a PA newbie cannot help posting something I imagine?  ------------- http://www.facebook.com/damoxt7942" rel="nofollow"> 
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Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 05:48
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I think it is appreciated just fine. My favourite Yes album by a very long way, and IMO Brufford would have ruined it - Alan White's druming is perfect. ------------- What? |
Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 05:50
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I might as well add also that it is my favourite Yes album and one of my favourite albums ever by anyone. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow"> 
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Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 05:55
Admin Ghost edit - I couldn't live with "underapriciated" in the thread title any longer.  ------------- What? |
Posted By: Chozal
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 05:57
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It is described in Aymeric Leroy's book Rock Progressif as a Yes masterpiece. It's my favourite Yes record with Close to the Edge. Probably underappreciated by a more mainstream fringe of the prog audience, but as it can be quite challenging there's no surprise in here. I think it's appreciated just how it deserve to be. ------------- https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Infinite-Progability-Drive/141225469388975" rel="nofollow - The Infinite Progability Drive , feeding you daily progressive/weird music for just a like <3 |
Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 05:57
I don't blame you. It was very irksome. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: tamijo
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 06:18
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4.34 avrage rating 267 reviews1217 ratings 56% 5 stars !!!!!!!!!!! Many other very good albums, would kill for that ------------- Prog is whatevey you want it to be. So dont diss other peoples prog, and they wont diss yours |
Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 11:05
| ^ Pretty much what I was just about to post. It is very well appreciated. |
Posted By: lazland
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 11:46
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It's extremely well appreciated. in fact, it's difficult to think of too many albums more appreciated. ------------- Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org Now also broadcasting on www.progzilla.com Every Saturday, 4.00 p.m. UK time! |
Posted By: The Doctor
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 11:58
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Relayer is probably my least favorite Yes album from the 70's (yes, that includes Tormato). I like Gates, but it's certainly not my favorite of their epics (Revealing Science, The Remembering, Awaken, CTTE and Endless Dream are higher on my list) and the other two songs really don't do much for me. So it probably is underappreciated by me as it seems to be highly regarded in prog circles. ------------- I can understand your anger at me, but what did the horse I rode in on ever do to you? |
Posted By: Blacksword
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 12:00
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It's very appreciated on PA as far as I can see.
I think it's pretty good. Three stars. ------------- Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy! |
Posted By: Moogtron III
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 12:00
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Like many before me have said: it is not underappreciated; plus it is one of my favorite Yes albums. I don't have the time to write good reviews, but I would give it 5 stars myself as well. |
Posted By: AlexDOM
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 13:06
| I love Relayer. |
Posted By: refugee
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 13:52
 I couldn’t agree more.------------- He say nothing is quite what it seems; I say nothing is nothing (Peter Hammill) |
Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 15:21
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I don't care about anyones ratings and if you are looking for us to tell you why you should appreciate it......then that tells me the album is too big for you.
Bottomline is you have to sit back and listen a few times and decide for yourself.
I appreciate everything I listen to, even if I end up not liking it, because I appreciate what the artist is trying to do for me. To me ratings don't equate to Appreciated or Underappreciated. -------------   
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Posted By: clarkpegasus4001
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 15:37
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It's my fave yes album......
------------- Tony C. |
Posted By: refugee
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 15:44
Andrew is a newbe here. He doesn’t reveal his age, but I guess he’s a lot younger than you and me. He obviously loves Relayer, so it’s meaningless to say that the album’s too big for him. I loved that album at the age of 17, and I still do. ------------- He say nothing is quite what it seems; I say nothing is nothing (Peter Hammill) |
Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 16:17
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^ Maybe he is older than all of us......we don't know at this point. That album was too big for anyone at any age as a first listen. To me it seems that those two words sometimes get used as another way to ask "why is it not good?" Which I don't think has anything to do with beign appreciated or not........just how I feel I guess.
I'm a vinyl guy, and am on my 2nd copy......I appreciate it so much that soon I will get a 3rd vinyl copy. -------------
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Posted By: The Doctor
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 16:26
 ------------- I can understand your anger at me, but what did the horse I rode in on ever do to you? |
Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 16:29
The OP likes it but thinks most people don't so by extension he believes that to be the case generally. He thought the majority here felt the same. He was wrong obviously.
------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: zoviet
Date Posted: December 12 2011 at 23:55
agree for Relayer. Its seriously genius work. as for Topographic im gonna go listen to it one of these days (i have the cd but didnt play it) |
Posted By: omphaloskepsis
Date Posted: December 13 2011 at 02:51
| Relayer is another shade of Close to the Edge. Roger Dean's use of a silver and gray monotone color palette seems cold, mysterious, and dangerous when compared other Yes/Dean collaberatioons. Relayer's cover art visually echoes the potent sounds resonating in the grooves of the vinyl. Roger Dean has gone on record before claiming Relayer to be his all time favorite Yes Album. |
Posted By: The-time-is-now
Date Posted: December 13 2011 at 06:43
Agreed. White made a great job on tales but fades a little bit on Relayer. To mE. -------------  One of my best achievements in life was to find this picture :D |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: December 13 2011 at 14:57
| White is a much 'harder' drummer than Bruford and that suites the tracks (especially GoD) perfectly. I just wish the sound mix was not so turgid.White's drumming gets lost in it a bit too much. The Yesshows version is better for me with a lot more clarity and you can hear how good White really was at that time. |
Posted By: Gerinski
Date Posted: December 13 2011 at 15:19
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One of my top favs and certainly not "underappreciated" in the prog circles.
As good as Bill Bruford is I do not miss him here, White did an outstanding job, and the same for Moraz.
For sure harder than other Yes great albums, it's funny Jon Anderson agreed to all that heaviness, but great anyway!
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Posted By: Mr. Maestro
Date Posted: December 13 2011 at 15:25
| I don't think Relayer is underappreciated; it's just less iconic than CTTE or Fragile. Clearly it's regarded highly, and I think it contains some fine music, on par with the two albums I just mentioned, but I think I see where you're coming from. When one thinks of the glory days of Yes, one usually thinks of CTTE - Relayer may be equal or even superior in quality, and regarded as such, but it's just not as well-recognized by non-Yes fans. |
Posted By: CCVP
Date Posted: December 13 2011 at 18:10
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL, didn't noticed that.  -------------
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Posted By: MattGuitat
Date Posted: December 16 2011 at 23:26
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Not on this site, but it is probably under appreciated to most other Yes fans. Though, most Yes fans are fanatics about the band, so it would be a mystery to me why they wouldn't listen to it enough to "get" it. Personally, its one of my top albums EVER. Funny story, I got my friend to listen to Yes (he had never listened to them before) and I put on Gates of delirium because I knew that he liked heavy music and when it was over, he said "Dude, that was the weirdest thing I had ever heard" (he didn't like it  ). Luckily, he enjoyed Siberian Khatru and Starship Trooper and even agreed to to do a Wurm cover with our rock band . Now,  .I also believe that Relayer features maybe the greatest guitar-playing on any record ever. The sounds and emotions that Steve can get out of his guitar are uncanny. AND, he uses almost no distortion!!!
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Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: December 17 2011 at 00:00
Very true......its a state of mind for me. Once worn out I like to replace them with a new one  -------------
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Posted By: Intruder
Date Posted: December 17 2011 at 10:17
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Actually, I think PA overappreciates Relayer.....and for good reason, if you're into a more metallic, less melodic Yes. There are some good bits, bit I'm a fan of the band up to Close, which I see as more akin to their earlier sound circa the Yes Album. Relayer rarely makes it onto the turntable these days....I've tried and tried to dig it and do like some of the jazzier parts, but it's far down my list of favorite Yes LPs. ------------- I like to feel the suspense when you're certain you know I am there..... |
Posted By: fuyuakiworld
Date Posted: December 17 2011 at 14:32
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Yes is one of those bands I'm very picky about. I only really like The Yes Album-Yessongs and Relayer (no TFTGO, though). But I don't see Relayer as "metalic", I think it's just more exsperimental. |
Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: December 17 2011 at 15:00
Great! I change my favorites on a daily basis it seems, depends on what's playing! As a guitarist & gearhead (in my icon, my bass was made by Hugh Manson, who is Steve Howe's luthier), I've always been impressed with Howe's dedication and focus upon his instruments on each album. On TFTO, he only used a single electric guitar, the Gibson Les Paul Junior! Basically a beginner's guitar with one single pickup, he evokes amazing tones! On Relayer, Howe bores into his heavily modified Fender Telecaster and pedal steel guitars to fantastic effect. In an interview with Fender, he says: "The guitars came in to play in 1974, when Yes recorded Relayer.
The main guitar across the whole album was my 1955 Telecaster®,
customized with a different toggle switch and a humbucker in the neck
position. The Dual Six Professional steel was used for “Soon.” " http://www.fender.com/news/index.php?display_article=20" rel="nofollow - http://www.fender.com/news/index.php?display_article=20 "To Be Over" is one of my favorite Yes songs by far, and Howe's playing evokes strong emotions. Squire was on top of his game on Relayer, and that was probably his best effort ever. White was outstanding, and Moraz pushed the band in terms of tempo, composition and improvisation. Not perfect, but not far from it. |
Posted By: Ytse_Jam
Date Posted: December 18 2011 at 11:03
| It's an awesome album, just below Close To The Edge |
Posted By: spknoevl
Date Posted: December 21 2011 at 09:51
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It seems to have grown in stature over the years. Twenty years ago most Yes fans seemed to hate it and the departure from the "classic" Yes format. ------------- http://martinwebb.bandcamp.com The notes are just an interesting way to get from one silence to the next - Mick Gooderick |
Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: December 21 2011 at 09:56
I've loved since its release more than 30 years ago. Of course i can't speak for other Yes fans. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: akaBona
Date Posted: December 22 2011 at 05:22
same here. love from the start! but I had friends who were big Yes fans and who though that it was too much, not classical Yes anymore.
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Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: December 22 2011 at 05:43
------------- What? |
Posted By: Slartibartfast
Date Posted: December 22 2011 at 06:35
Yes, but what if what he really meant was underapricoted? ------------- Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened... 
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Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: December 22 2011 at 06:38
I think the snakes ate them. ------------- What? |
Posted By: Ivan_Melgar_M
Date Posted: December 22 2011 at 08:51
Not so sure it's
under-appreciated , at least not here
Hardly an under-appreciated album, probably some diehard Wakeman fans don't accept that Moraz replaced their leader, but for most of the people I know Relayer is a unique masterpiece and IMO is in the same level of Close to the Edge. Iván
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