THE YES ALBUM

This is Yes' breakthrough album. This is where everything came together for the band. This album contains some of the groups best compositions. This is basically when Yes, became Yes.

There's significantly less songs this time around, but that's because most of the songs on here are longer and complex. The obvious highlights here are the four fan favorites: "Yours Is No Disgrace", "Starship Trooper", "Perpetual Change", and "I've Seen All Good People". Coincidentally, those four tracks take up most of the album and they're the high points. These really are masterpieces of progressive rock music.

"Yours Is No Disgrace", the opening track, is structured as a jam session bookended by statements of the main theme and melody; the song also has some philosophical lyrics about war. "Starship Trooper", the albums best song in my opinion, is a structured as a suite in three movements, which are all unique in their own way. "I've Seen All Good People" is a suite in two movements, with a stomping, folky first movement, and and a funky second movement. "Perpentual Change", the album's closing track, is pretty standard by prog standards, but it's really well executed.

The two remaining tracks, "The Clap" and "A Venture", are a bit weaker than the rest of the album. "The Clap" is an acoustic guitar piece performed solo by Steve Howe, and it's sort of inspired by flameco, country, and jazz guitar styles. "A Venture" is a pretty conventional song by Jon Anderson with jazzy piano work by Tony Kaye. The overall consensus with these two songs is pretty okay. They aren't meh or anything, but they aren't as fantastic as the other four songs.

Overall the album's really, really great.

4.5 stars