TIME AND A WORD

Compared with Yes' debut album TIME AND A WORD shows considerable improvement in Jon Anderson's songwriting (with some help from Chris Squire on "The Prophet") but the album lacks unity, and it's easy to see why it didn't turn Yes into stars. It would have been stronger if Peter Banks' lead guitar had been left in the foreground more often, and if that dratted, cheap-sounding orchestra had been left out. Alternative recordings of some of this material (made for the BBC) prove that Yes simply had no need of an orchestra. The instrumental middle sections of "Then" and "Everydays" sound far more powerful when both hammond organ and lead guitar can shine without orchestral intervention. As things stand, Tony Kaye is the soloist who dominates TIME AND A WORD. He opens both the original A-side AND the B-side with church-organ style chords, and on 'Then' he delivers what must be his most exciting solo ever! On the other hand, Peter Banks is responsible for the album's undisputable highlight: the superb guitar solo in 'Astral Traveller', one of the two pieces (the other one is "The Prophet") that give the clearest indication of where Yes music was heading for.