CLOSE TO THE EDGE

I really have no idea how to "review" this album. I unabashedly feel that this album is perhaps the best music album of all time, any genre, any era. Okay, that's an overstatement, but it is truly great. This is maybe not the place to START for newbies to Yes and progressive rock in general, but after being introduced to prog with something like Roundabout, this should be the very next step. First, the musicians are simply stellar. Steve Howe never played better than here, and his leads are staggering. Chris Squire's bass is undulating, melodic, thunderous and more all at the same time. Bill Bruford is just unbelievable. And, Rick Wakeman, ridiculously proficient. As amazing and intricate and virtuosic as the instrumentation is, Jon Anderson's lyrics and voice are just as indispensable. Here is where he perfected the practice of using the way words sounded as an instrument without too much regard for logical meaning, and yet...and yet...there is meaning in many of the passages that have grown in my mind over the years. I think of "smiled a whisper" or a "seasoned witch" with affection and wonder, sometimes thinking I know what he means, and then maybe not. No one seemed to come up with these kind of strange couplings like Jon, and even he doesn't do it anymore either. A masterwork.