CLOSE TO THE EDGE

I have to start saying that, in this month of december of 2006, it´s going to make a year since I truly started to hear progressive rock, and although i initiated my adventure in this world with another group, i decided this should be my first review, and I'll explain briefly. The first music I heard from YES wasn´t any from the prog scene, but it was Owner Of A Lonely Heart!!! Yup, truly surprisingly it was this one, and although i dont find this particular music bad, its not what YES know how to do best ( at least as progressive rock goes), so when my father told me that I should try to hear YES, I asked him: "But they're a pop rock number, How can they be linked to progressive rock?" Little did i know that when i acquired the album, I would be transported into a new world of music style ( at least for me). I'm a guy that since i had 6 i've been acostumed to listen to Jazz, being my father a Jazz musician, so the moment i adventured in the album Close To The Edge, at first i felt kind of different when i heard the beggining with the sounds of birds and all that atmosphere,and then the beggining with Steve Howe's guitar play (just brutal, this guy beats any guitar player that exists now in new rock bands, progressive or not) i remember thinking... "what the hell, this is kind of epic, strange to my ear" and at the same time, i was acostumed to the solo improvisation and virtuoso of the jazz players, it was rather strange, but it was awesome, and I was liking it! Steve Howe really is one of the best guitar players in the history of mankind, not the best, but one of them. At the same time, the piano work of Rick Wakeman, the bass of Chris Squire, just incredible, Brufford in the drums ( it would be his last album with YES) is truly too one of the best drummers alive and musician too ( as he would prove later with his works in the world of jazz rock/ fusion), and then Jon Anderson. Some people find unbearable to hear Jon Anderson's voice, but for me, it fits well the epic, kind of sound and truly, its a great and powerful voice in music people! There might be better singers, but he's too a damn good one ( at the age he has now keeping practically the same voice for more than 30 years isnt for everyone). As for the music Close To The Edge, its one of those pieces I cant stop from hearing it at least once every week, and I'm not going to explain it technically, since i lack patience to do it,and this review is getting bigger than I thought, but the work the group does in this track is excelent as musicianship goes. The next music And You And I, is for me a truly beautiful prog balad if you want to put it this way, but its (again) another epic-feels-like song and Siberian Khatru is the best way to end this magnificent album and one of the fan's favourites to listen live. As for conclusion, I would like to say that the Yes group for me, had (at the time of this album) one of the greatest line-up of rock music, and i feel sad to see that nowadays, people of my age(20) not in general of course, but at least here in Portugal, dont seem to recognize or even know the valour this groups had for the music history and evolution, not only YES, but Van der Graaf Generator, Genesis, King Crimson, Rush, Area, Gentle Giant, and other's I know from the seventies prog scene, which for me is a big sadness. Again, this album is a masterpiece as you might have seen in the other reviews (not all) and who am I to say the contrary? Just the feeling that I get while im listening to the album is worth the trouble I had acquiring it. I Thank these guys for having made music like this.