YES

Yes

Symphonic Prog

3.30 | 1635 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

The amount of times this has been called lame is equal to the amount of times the word the has been said in the world, but i beg to differ.

Yes' eponymous debut album is, in my opinion, one of Yes' best albums. There are some things on this album that have remained part of the Yes sound for years to follow. The bass sound here is amazing, and even better than other Yes albums with the fantastic Chris Squire Rickenbacker sound, like Close to the Edge, or Fragile. The vocals are also one of the parts to remain part of Yes' sound for the rest of their discopgraphy, and shows Jon Anderson's voice was young and fresh, yet still good as we know it.

The song-writing here is fantastic, and in my opinion, even better than the writing on Relayer and other albums of such sort. The album has many covers, all of which are performed fantastically and uniquely, with a Yes way of instrumentation and vocality. The cover of Every Little Thing, originally by The Beatles, features twin lead guitar parts and even a mini quote from the Day Tripper riff, also by The Beatles.

Bill Bruford's snare sound has yet to be found here, but it sounds like it's about to be discovered. Peter Banks' sound, later to be heard on bands like Flash and Empire, also, has yet to have seen the light, and will not see the light until only 3 years later, in 1972, with the release of Flash's eponymous debut.

Squire and Anderson sharing vocals on some songs is simply heart-warming, with Anderson's famous non-false-falsetto, yet Chris Squire's yet-to-be-discovered voice, which is rather normal, but he is able to go to low ranges which Jon Anderson would kill to have.

Every song here is great, with Survival's opening riff giving me goosebumps every time I hear it. The feel and arrangement of every song is unique, each to its own special way. Sometimes it seems that the only common ground between every song is the band, in this case being Yes.

So, I end my review with giving Yes' first album 5 stars. Why, some of you may ask, so all I have to tell you, is that you have yet to read my review, and thus have not understood the greatness of this album. So yep, 5/5.

The Runaway | 5/5 | 2009-9-4

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