TIME AND A WORD

This album here, is a definite improvement over the previous album. It's still not amazing or anything, since there's still a lot of meh songs on here, but the good songs on here are really good. The band was still trying to find their way, Peter Banks was still a member after all, but the music here serves as a direct precursor to the material on "The Yes Album" from the following year.

Even though this album is an improvement on the last, there's still some cons. For some reason, there's string and orchestral accompaniment on most of the album, which can get pretty obtrusive in most cases. Another thing is that the production on this album is really inappropriate for the type of music this is, the album can sound like a Sinatra record at times.

This album really does have its moments though. The best songs on here are "The Prophet", "Astral Traveler", "No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed", and "Time And Word". The third song I mentioned in that list is actually a Richie Havens cover, but Yes really make it their own on here. "Astral Traveler" and "The Prophet" are the most direct precursors to the band's later material on here. Also, "The Prophet" is probably my favorite cut off of the whole album. The title track is love ballad, though a tastefully done love ballad. Some other decent tracks are "Then" and the Buffalo Springfield cover "Everydays". Overall this is a significant improvement over the debut.

3.5 stars