Are The Yes Album, CttE and GftO the best 3 of Yes

For a band like Yes, it's easier to come up with a best 5 or even best 4. "The Yes Album", "Fragile", and "Close to the Edge" are often thought of as the best three, I'd include "Relayer" too. It really depends on the band. In the case of King Crimson, Court, Larks, and Red are generally agreed upon the best 3 (though some may substitute Larks for Discipline). But seriously can we all agree all the classic Yes albums are good (with the possible exception of Tormato)?

I'm not sure what direction Yes would have taken if Horn and Downes stayed in Yes. Maybe their breakup needed to happen.

>Yes has changed as much as the mighty morphing King Crimson
Lineup-wise yes, but not initially. Sonically, not entirely sure but I don't think so.

Drama should be it's own era (Buggles era?) and I consider "The Yes Album" classic Yes (when Steve Howe joined and the band figured out their sound, although I get why it could be seen as a proto album, no Rick Wakeman keyboards or Roger Dean cover art yet) but otherwise I agree.

As for the best 3 of Yes, in my opinion, "Close to the Edge", "Relayer", and one of the 1971 albums.

The Yes Album * Close to the Edge * Going for the One? the best 3?

My Personal 3 favorite yes albums are Fragile, CTTE and Relayer. The yes album is probably a good fourth place. I never really personally enjoyed GFTO that much though. It is sort of tied with Tormato for my least favorite out of the original 11 yes albums. Let me go into why I love each of these yes albums.

Fragile:

Imo, Yes were plugged into the ether/creativity most for:

Going for the One
Relayer
Close to the Edge

You could argue Fragile for the direction it was going.

Tales was inspired too but would have benefitted from being a whole band album rather than being written only by Jon and Steve.

Error

Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - December 05 2024 at 00:59

Edited by David_D - November 08 2024 at 15:21

Big Sky wrote: AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: I've noticed that on the rate your music website there seems to be a lot of people who don't really appear to be prog fans who have TYA, Fragile and CTTE as four or more star albums. Why just those three? I'm not sure but maybe they have some sort of hipster following. Those folks are really missing out though by not listening to relayer also. I noticed that. For me, TFTO, Relayer, GFTO and Drama are also at least 4 star albums. Magnification would be close. Without thinking deeply about it, Yessongs, Progeny and Symphonic Live would be live albums that would be 4 star or better releases from Yes.

Ratings often beget more ratings. As stuff rises up through lists it gets more traction and popularity commonly. That said, Relayer has a 3.86 rating with 10,915 ratings, which is nothing to sneeze at. Going for the One does pretty well there too with a 3.61 and 6,101 ratings. I did not get into that album. Relayer is the last Yes album I care about, but I'm not nearly as big a fan of Yes as so many at this site.

I tend to find that my tastes align much, much more with the ratings and ranking at RYM than at PA. And I have discovered so much amazing to me music thanks to their charts.

One thing someone complained about here was how beloved Radiohead is in its all years /all genres top charts. But that site got started when Radiohead was massive, gained lots of ratings then, and, well, I love Radiohead too.

EDITed to fix two typos. And by the way, lots of fans of progressive music and experimental music there, but it does not have nearly the percentage of Symphonic Prog (and related) music fans as here. For instance, one of my fave bands, Swans, gets lots of attention in the charts there, whereas here it is more niche. Neo-Prog shows itself to be way more popular here than many of the more experimental, and far out/ out-there acts included in PA do at RYM. I feel like PA is more conservative commonly with an emphasis on less quirky and more melodic music often. I think there's lot of innovative and adventurous music that gets lots of love by many who rate music at RYM. But it does get lots of raters.

Edited by Logan - November 05 2024 at 12:15

Hrychu wrote: Going for the One is imo one of Yes' weakest albums. I find Topographic Oceans to be a way way superior work.

Although it is about the same band, a four-part epic double LP concept album such as TfTO is scarcely comparable to GftO, which, apart from the fifteen-minute Awaken, comprises "normal" tracks devoid of a comprehensive concept.

I've noticed that on the rate your music website there seems to be a lot of people who don't really appear to be prog fans who have TYA, Fragile and CTTE as four or more star albums. Why just those three? I'm not sure but maybe they have some sort of hipster following. Those folks are really missing out though by not listening to relayer also.