GOING FOR THE ONE

After a lengthy hiatus since 1974's ultra experimental album, RELAYER, Yes regrouped in 1977 to cut a new studio album. Keyboardist Tony Moraz left the group in 1976, opening the door for the return of the much beloved Rick Wakeman, who exited in 1973. GOING FOR THE ONE is one of Yes's hardest rocking, as well as most underrated albums. These songs are trimmed down and more focused than the groups past albums, and have more of a rock edge. Steve Howe carries the brunt of the soloing, and Rick Wakeman's keyboards play a more textural role here. As always, Chris Squire plays a thunderous bass, while Alan White is competent, (but no Bill Bruford), on the drum set. Jon Anderson's voice maintains its ethereal qualities, but like the compositions present, is more focused and more rock 'n' roll. This is the first time Yes has written conventionally lengthed pieces since 1972's FRAGILE. GOING FOR THE ONE's focus also makes it much more melodic than its solo-ridden predecessors. It opens with the title track, Going for the One, which rocks very hard, and is a great song. It is almost Yes meets Led Zeppelin in composition, but still leans on the progressive side. Turn of the Century is an elegant Yes style ballad, which features beautiful acoustic passages courtesy of Steve Howe. Parallels is an enjoyable track, with better lyrics than most of Yes's work. This song features some of the best features some of the best Yes organ work since the Tony Kaye days. It was later used to open many of their concerts, (See the live album, YESSHOWS). Side two begins with the best piece on the album, Jon Anderson's spacey ballad, Wonderous Stories (note the misspelling of 'wondrous'!). This represented Yes's first real radio hit since FRAGILE's Roundabout in 1972. It is the spaciest song one could fit into a four minute duration, and the multi-layered vocals add greatly to the song. The sixteen minute Awaken is the almost obligatory, long/epic track on this album, and like Yes's other extended songs, it does not disappoint. It is the spaciest song on the album, and is classic Yes. The vocals are especially good here. It also contains some excellent harp work by Rick Wakeman. Sadly, this track does not receive a live treatment until 1996's KEYS TO ASCENSION, VOL. 1.

Most Importantly, Yes returned in 1977 with extreme vitality on this album, making it exciting, energetic and brash. Overall, GOING FOR THE ONE is an extremely good album, and is quite enjoyable. Along with FRAGILE, it marks a good place for the non- Yes fan to enter, as it is much more conventional in song structure than CLOSE TO THE EDGE or TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS. This album received a 4.5 star rating, only for the reason that I could not bear to give it a 5 star rating, and put it in the class of Yes's other progressive masterpieces like CLOSE TO THE EDGE or THE YES ALBUM.

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