CLOSE TO THE EDGE

With no doubt Yes best album and recorded in Yes's most classical line up.....From start to finnish a true masterpiece and one of the towering achievements of Progressive Rock.....A great inspiration to legions of bands...and countless tried to overdo or repeat.....without anyone ever succeding.

The first time I came in touch with this songs was when I brought the Yes Years box....In there Close To The Edge and And You And I were both presented....Later on I heard these songs again when I brough AWBH's live album. It was not untill the first Keys To Acension CD that I also began to listen to Siberian Khatru....So over the years Im more used to all the live versions than to the studio album itself....Especially since ever since se3veral of the songs appeared on countless live albums.

However...I eventually began to play the album itself...and rank it now as one of my all time favorite Progressive Rock albums.

Its indeed true....that if you listen to an album like this carefully you begin to realize how much mellotron there has been squeezed into this album. This is something that I did not realize untill recently....I always halied King Crimson and Genesis as the greatest prog masters simply for their mellotron use....but Yes should be added to that list. The Mellotron is more suddle and not as overblowing as lets say Epitaph, In The Court Of The Crimson King, Silent Sorrow In A Empty Boat or Dancing With The Moonlit Knight, but always greatly present throughout the entire album. (Another example of suddle Mellotron use is also Heart Of The Sunrise).

What always stays with me is the middle part of Close To The Edge, that could be clasified as the organ solo......Indeed Wakeman, perhaps never sounded better as on this album.

Also worth notifying is the specific role of Steve Howe and Chris Squire on this album....Howe displays his virtuosity all over the album..but perhaps best on the album opener...For the ones that saw Yes performing this song live know how much guitars Howe is using only already during this song. Squires role shows as Wakeman's most on Close To The Edge. I still remember a interview with Tony Levin where he was speaking of his abilities to play Squire's basslines and how extremely difficult it was to learn them and eventually play them.......

It will take some time to get used to Close To The Edge...but once you are...you are hooked once and for all. Particulary worth notifying is the remaster that has not only much better sound, but also some interesting bonus tracks.