GOING FOR THE ONE

Boy, oh boy, this is a hard album to digest. I've never been a big fan of this one ever since the first time I spun the record back in the 70's. I know most YES fans pick this as the last classic the band recorded. I'm sorry, but I disagree, (Relayer is my choice). Here are my reasons: Steve Howe's guitar on "Going For The One", "Parallels" and on some parts of "Awaken" just grates! It's so high-pitched and nervous. I understood the reasons during "Gates Of Delirium" but here it's just annoying and drowns out the tunes. "Turn Of The Century" is a fine, but way too long. "Parallels" has that old sound, but seems compressed, like they were trying to throw everything together and make it fit under 6 minutes. I like "Wonderous Stories" for the simple fact that it has space between instruments. "Awaken" should have been the icing on the cake. It has it's moments, especially the break in the middle, but for some reason it just peters out. Also, when listening to the CD, (I have the Rhino re-master), where is Squire's bass? It seems buried under the avalanche of Wakeman's keyboards and Howe's wailing guitar. It's been at least 20 years since I heard this on vinyl so I can't compare it to the re-master, but for the life of me I'm missing that fat bass of Squire's all over the disc. Anderson's voice sounds fine over the course of the album, but I believe "Going For The One", with that crummy cover and songs that don't have the spacing and magic of the previous five showcased a band running out of gas and inspiration, leading to the worse 70's album they did, (you all know which...). It wasn't until "Drama" and some new blood, that they started to do go in a new and more exciting direction. So, 3 stars... good but compared to the last 5, no where near excellent.