GOING FOR THE ONE

After taking a well-earned sabbatical, Yes returned with Wakeman in tow to produce Going For the One - which, despite the myths about punk "destroying" prog, did remarkably well right at the height of the punk insurgency.

After producing increasingly complex albums from Close to the Edge to Relayer, Going For the One sees Yes take a more balanced approach. From the title track to Wondrous stories, the band produce a diverse set of tracks that represent their most accessible material since The Yes Album - though in this case "accessible" doesn't mean poppy. These songs are on a par with anything the band produced in the Yes Album/Fragile era, whilst the closing epic Awaken is on a par with anything from CTTE, Topographic Oceans or Relayer in terms of ambition and complexity. A perfect blend of the accessible and the experimental, Going For the One deserves to rank amongst the best of its predecessors.