TIME AND A WORD

I stated in my review of Yes' debut that I don't get into Yes' covers as much as their originals (in general), with the exception of their version of The Byrds' "I See You", but I have to make another exception for their cover of Ritchie Havens' "No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed." The fiery acoustic guitar is still there, but they've turned the song into a greatly dynamic symphonic rock gem with the attention commanding string intro, the distinguished vocals, and their heavy and full, organic band arrangement and performance on a song that is typical to an album that is very atypical to the band's catalogue. Compositionally, they were progressing towards the sound they would achieve with the next album, but producion-wise, nothing else sounds like Time and a Word. Strings are used on many songs, there are more out there guitar effects than usual, and instruments shift in pan at unexpected moments quite often. In other words, more overtly psychedelic than usual for them. If that's your cup of tea, AND you enjoy Yes' style of songwriting, you'll most likely love their second album. Even though they aren't expanding every piece to the sophistication they would soon after (although "The Prophet" is strongly progressive), their gift for writing songs has fully arrived with this album, and ever track has something going for it. Even their cover of Stephen Stills' "Everydays" is thouroughly entertaining. Anyway, if you happen to be in the position of having all the Yes albums starting with The Yes Album, get the first two, too, and be prepared for a shockingly different sound with this one, but also be prepared for some stellar mind excursions in "Sweet Dreams" and "Astral Traveller", as well as the great universal love anthem "Time and a Word" at the end. I, personally, consider their second album to be a classic.