FRAGILE

Yes's Fragile is an all-time classic of progressive rock, for historical reasons if nothing else. It contains the full version of "Roundabout," one of the early milestones in the genre; it's the first Yes album with keyboardist Rick Wakeman, and it's the first Yes album whose cover was painted by Roger Dean.

It's not perfect, though, and it isn't even the best Yes album; the group would improve upon Fragile less than a year later with the release of Close to the Edge.

The biggest threat to Fragile's status as a masterpiece is the concept of four ensemble pieces interleaved among five individual tracks, each showcasing the talents of one member. Wakeman's plan was to use the song he eventually named "Catherine of Aragon," which he recorded with the rest of the instrumentalists in the band: guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Bill Bruford, and bassist Chris Squire. Because he couldn't have earned royalties for this composition if it were released on a Yes album at that time (a situation apparently remedied by the time Close to the Edge was released), he wisely withheld it and released it on what became a very successful solo album. "Catherine of Aragon" would've fit very nicely on Fragile; instead Wakeman played a Brahms piece, multitracking several keyboards. In isolation, it's boring and bears little relation to the rest of the album. Luckily, it's less than two minutes long. Vocalist Jon Anderson's effort "We Have Heaven" is a similar case: interesting idea, repeated a few too many times. And at thirty-five seconds in length, Bruford's "Five Percent for Nothing" doesn't detract from the album, but neither does it add any value.

Howe's "Mood for a Day" is reasonably good, and works well as a bridge between its predecessor ("The Fish") and successor ("Heart of the Sunrise"). Yet it is not nearly as good as "Clap," his solo turn from the group's previous album.

Of the individual-member showcases, the best is Squire's "The Fish," which is essentially the second half of a medley with "Long Distance Runaround." "The Fish" is a largely instrumental song whose atmosphere resembles that of the middle section of "South Side of the Sky" and the closing part of "Heart of the Sunrise" - - in other words, it meshes with the main part of the album. Over time, of course, I've gotten used to "Cans and Brahms," Anderson's "We Have Heaven," "Five Percent," and "Mood for a Day" as parts of the song sequence of Fragile, and although I may quibble about them, they only account for about six and a half minutes of the running time - - and the remainder of Fragile is fantastic.

The four full-band songs are fantastic. Amazingly, my least favorite of the "core four" songs is the excellent "Roundabout," partly because of overexposure, I suppose, but also because the other material is so strong. "Long Distance Runaround / The Fish" and "South Side of the Sky" are both five-star Yes songs, and the mini-symphony "Heart of the Sunrise" is one of Yes's best songs ever. (I consider the top echelon to be "Close to the Edge," "Gates of Delirium," "Yours is no Disgrace," and "Heart of the Sunrise.")

Bottom line: with the inclusion of the "showcase" tunes, Fragile isn't quite as good as Close to the Edge or Relayer. Nonetheless, and without reservation, I consider it to be a five-star "masterpiece."