CLOSE TO THE EDGE

Oops... wrong band.

Yeah. And I read Siddhartha, too. This has nothing to do with it.

The short: 2 tracks in the guise of being brilliant but falls flat with it's over usage of tricks utilizing the same themes, key changes, and major/minor tonality masking. But the final track? Acts as a shining, heady triumph! This album represents not the apex of the genre, but the financial and litigious side of prog. They made money doing the last two, let them loose in a studio so they can strike the iron while it's hot and cash in again.

They did.

Less palatable than The Yes Album (amazing) and Fragile (overrated) combined yet with more bombast, meandering (and a wasteful 6 minutes of quieted, tootin', Calliope organ to signify some esoteric way of describing church, Christianity or infidelity) for a prog snob to jizz to. You know. The same ones that love (the much better) Tull's "Brick", Genesis' "Nursery Crime" and ELP's "BSS". Heck. At least those albums didn't rehash the Title track over and over for 18 minutes. CttE is full of repeats, reused parts, a VERY SLOPPY organ solo, key changes of replayed parts, and reused parts (sic). No imagination. "And You and I" is similar with the same premise. It's the same rehashed theme for 10 minutes.

But, "Siberian Khatru" is this albums savior. Varied, rocks, gets funky, and has more flourishes than the other 2 tracks. Bonky beat, lots of solos, organ, harpsichord, and the obligatory mellotron breakdown with plenty of 3 part harmony singing. The whole band shines for the last 8 minutes. It could make up for the past 28.

Steve Howe is amazing: his guitar flourishes, speed and compensation proves his importance to Yes and as a guitarist. It's worth the listen for how Howe approaches the song. Squire plays well and is louder than before with that damn Stick-in-my-backer. Billy... all I can say is that I understand why he left (he had to pay the manager to leave) after recording. Wakeman still sounds like he gets paid by the note. The budget was higher so he played more. Anderson needs no explanation.

I do not apologize for these harsh words for this album. This is a huge let down. There are many other prog recordings that show this is not the apex of the genre.

For fans of Yes, prog completionists and/or prog historians only.

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