FRAGILE

First song on any album that wishes to be succesful must be THE song of the album, because the first impression is the most important...It is what you first hear,and you always compare the first song with the others on the album. Roundabout surely is THE song of the "Fragile". It has everything I ever wanted from a song.Killer intro and outro,solid foundation in drums and bass,smart keyboard and guitar lines, energic atmosphere thru the whole piece,strong songed vocal, kick ass solos, multi- vocal harmonies... Roundabout has it all...!!! And it's totally catchy song, I can listen to it anytime.As an addition, it's a great potential for live performance (that's why it's their concert standard for 35 years...) Anyway, a Yes classic,one of my top 5.

IMO,solo pieces are poorly executed.Howe did the best job with his "Mood for a day", which also became a part of his concert solos.

Wakeman did the worst possible thing by reducing Brahms' symphony to a 1:42 total time. It's fun to listen to a couple of times but if he had done anything else instead,...it would be better. :)

I really don't know what to say about "five per cent for nothing", make of it what you will...

"The fish" is an instrumental that gradually expands in arrangment to the very end.I don't know if that's supossed to be Squire's solo or what...? Anyway,in concerts they often used it in medleys or as an expanded and altered bass solo. I prefer the live versions.

"We have Heaven" is not meant to be played live. maybe in a acoustic set,but otherwise, it simply doesn't work.It has no length, energy, or space for other instruments to join in. But,they did it anyway. in Montreaux 2003, and they used playback...LAME

Ahhh,now... Band songs is what makes this album an essential... "Long distance runaround" - a song so simple I couldn't belive it!! The main riff is played by guitar and piano, and then the bass and drums join in. then, anderson's voice is covered only with piano and drums. meanwhile, the guitar and bass are playing the same line. They repeat this a couple of times, and Howe plays an outro with delay,and....that's it,the song is over (thought I'd something more to say...:))

"South side of the sky" - is not that simple, but it's still playable, and you can easily skin it to the bone. it's divided into 3 parts...the first part is a steady,solid beat with strong foundation in bass and Howe's genius guitar lines... The whole first section has exactly 6 chords if you listen to it very carefully. Second part starts with Wakeman's virtuoso piano playing and evolves into a multi vocal "game" in which Squire sings the lead. *note: There is no guitars in this section.It's like a jazz trio section with multi vocals.It works beautiful!!! The final section is in fact a buffed up reprise of the first part... This song is an excellent example of a classic composition of a song in "electric" age.

The final song of the album,the breathtaking "heart of the sunrise" is one of their many epics. It's a very complicated, demanding and chalenging piece in which the whole band works together like clockwork. Everyone is showing his skills at the same time and the results are amazing.Wakeman is using almost every weapon in his arsenal of that time (Hammond,Moog,Piano and Mellotron). The song is comparable with a classic form called "rondo" in which the main theme (love comes to you...) is repeated several times,and between the repetitions are other, different sections that have different keys, tunes,arrangments,states... Anderson really reaches his peaks with his singing on this album,and it's almost comparable with his work on "going for the one" album (IMO, the best presentation of Anderson's vocal abbilities)

As I already said,band songs is what makes this album an essential,so go out and buy it...But I belive that anyone who is reading this review already has it.If not,well...THIS IS NOT YOUR SITE, BWahahahaha!!! Until next time... P.S. Yes is the best!!!