YES SOLOS

This is a rare sampler released in 1976 (between the Yes releases "Relayer" and "Going for the One") of tracks from solo albums the individual band members at the time: Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Patrick Moraz and Alan White. This was an attempt to try to get some radio airplay for the individual musicians relying on their status as Yes band members. As you can expect, you get quite a variety of music here, some great, some okay and some downright bad and cheesy. Production fluctuates throughout and genres are all over the place.

Each artist has two tracks that represent them here. Jon's tracks are from the album "Olias of Sunhillow" opening the sampler with track 5 from that album and closing the sampler with track 2 also from that album. Both of these songs are decent songs from the Yes vocalist, they are somewhat lite progressive and pleasant sounding. Chris Squire (bassist) is represented by two songs (tracks 2 and 9 on this sampler) from the "Fish Out of Water" album which are tracks 1 and 4 from that album. These are both excellent songs that showcase not only Chris' excellent bass playing, but his great songwriting skills and okay singing voice. Steve Howe takes up tracks 3 and 8 on the sampler and his songs come from the album "Beginnings"; tracks 4 and 9 respectively from that album. His first song is very good and gives a great representation of his guitar skills and his not always so great vocals (but they are passable at least). The second song is not as great but okay at least and also features a brass section. Patrick Moraz's first song is a piano solo and very new age sounding, but then his 2nd song is a full band with substandard vocals that is also very new age sounding, even though new age didn't really exist at the time. Both songs are quite cheesy. Alan White unfortunately doesn't fare much better in his representative songs that take up tracks 5 and 6 on the sampler (back to back). The first is a piano led instrumental which is really only Albinoni's "Adagio". The other track is a full band with lyrics sung by a soulful voice. It is very poppy and the voice again is cheesy but the brass section and the percussion is still great.

This sampler is only good for collectors or completionists. The songs are available on regular albums and are probably better served there than they are on this haphazard sounding sampler. I can only give this a poor rating because the production is not always very good, the songs are not conhesive and not always the best representations of the band members solo works, even for the time of the release. I highly doubt this sampler served it's purpose very well. For those who have to find it for their collections, all I can say is good luck, but it's probably not worth the time it will take to find it. You are better off getting the proper solo albums or sticking with the masterpieces released by the band. 1 star.