THE STORY OF I

I remember when this album was released and how it was hailed by the music press at the time as a masterpiece. By the next year it was completely forgotten (the hot news were Rick Wakeman back to Yes). In Brazil there was a lot of talk about it since he was probably the first artist to use brazilian percussionists on a prog record. So I guess me and my friends had a lot to talk about those days. Moraz even lived here for a while.

Ok, more than 30 years after, there is still little fuss about The Story of I, even in prog circles. I never had the original record (I was just another teenager who had no money) and what I heard it was from my colleagues who did have some. Only recently I had the opportunity to buy a used copy in a sales bin. I was really curious of how it would sound today, specially when I saw so many conflicting ratings here on PA. But after several days listening to the album at every opportunity I had I did not find it to be neither the masterpiece some claim nor the crap others labeled it. The story may be naive or too confusing for some, but I like i: it was quite innovative for the time and the whole concept seemed interesting enough.

The record has some fine moments: the mix of synths and the samba percussion is a novelty and works after a while. Some songs are quite beautiful like The Best Years Of Our Lives, a unexpected ballad. The main problem with The Story of I is the fact that those moments don´t hold together well. It´s hard to enjoy it fully and it lacks cohesiveness. When you start to like one part then there is a shift for another thing entirely different, then it goes in a different direction and so on without much continuity or build up. It may works with the story line, I guess, but doesn´t sound pleasant for my ears. it´s like a mosaique of musical fragments: most of them look nice separately, but not as a whole. The overall musicianship is nothing less than superb of course, with some really outstanding ones like drummer Alphonse Mouzon and bassist Jeff Berlin. Yet,the whole suffers from the lack of cohesion.

Conclusion: The Story Of I is more interesting than really good nowadays, in my humble opinion. It has some good parts and it was a valid experiment then, but it dated somehow and does not work as a whole. If you´re a fan of Yes around the time of Relayer you should give it a try. final rating: 3 stars.