How would you rate Yes' Close to the Edge album?

4 Stars on the strength of the title track, which I would certainly rank among the greatest prog rock epics of all time. The other two tracks are ok, but quite unremarkable overall, IMO. There are better songs on Fragile and the Yes album.

essexboyinwales wrote: I've gone 3 stars too. I struggle with it. Last time I put it on I couldn't get through the title track. I'm not a big fan of yes TBH. But perhaps my problem with it is that I expect too much? It gets so lauded on here, and I don't know why. So perhaps I need to just put it on again and listen without expectations... I'm walking the dog alone tomorrow morning, so there's an opportunity. With decent headphones! Could be the album's final chance...

5 stars, absolutely. I even can say that I can't see any other kind of rating if you have a great prog taste, as I have.

5 stars. It has been a 5 star album to me from when I first heard it on a tape in 1974 and has remained a 5 star album ever since.

Hi,

^ I don't know if you read my later response about TFTO, but I was amazed at how much I enjoyed Tales From Topographic Oceans yesterday. It truly was a most magical trip. It's one of those albums you really need to properly listen to from start to finish, and I don't think I ever had properly without distractions as I have never personally owned a copy. While I had liked various Yes albums, and I hardly disliked Close to the Edge (I liked a lot of it, and some parts I have even loved), I do suspect that my appreciation for the album will now increase even if it is taken on the whole a very different sort of adventure to Close to the Edge.

On another note...

Hrychu wrote: I wouldn't. I hate giving numeric ratings. ;)

Not sure how to interpret this, to be honest. The wink indicates kidding, and you have rated various albums. Despite presenting this poll, of which I'm really more interested in the impressions of the album than the simple numerical ratings themselves (i.e how you would rate the album according to your enjoyment as expressed using words), I've taken issue with numerical ratings. I did rate a lot of albums when the quick rating feature was brought in (maybe 11 or 12 years ago?) and have hardly rated anything subsequently. I have said that I would rather be able to review without having to give any numerical rating as my favourite review sources when I was very into read film reviews did not use such ratings. I was against quantifying art in that sense. I felt that the synopsis and review should speak for itself.

What I do like with numerical ratings is that it indicates an individual's tastes. Looking at an individual's ratings page can give me an indication of what they know, like, and don't like. And if I seem to share similar tastes with that individual, those ratings can be a good guide for me for what to look for. Rocktopus' ratings were a good guide for me (he didn't review) when I joined as I seemed to share very similar tastes, and I discovered plenty of albums that were great for me by looking through his ratings (he knew far more than I did). I have suggested before the option to be able to review without rating the albums, and to be able to rate albums in a separate area where the ratings explicitly refer to your enjoyment of an album.

So, instead of

5 stars: Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music
4 stars: Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection
3 stars: Good, but non-essential
2 stars: Collectors/fans only
1 star: Poor. Only for completionists

Which never made a lot of sense to me -- it's so subjective, is dependent on one's prog parameters, and that system makes assumptions about how others should value/consider the album -- our personal profile rating pages would be 5 stars: "I adore this" etc. It would explicitly reflect our enjoyment. And that is how I am approaching the ratings in this topic.

That Progressive Electronic album may be essential to my collection, but if you don't like Progressive Electronic that doesn't mean it should be essential to your collection. And hell, one might well not consider such progressive electronic to be prog rock even if PA includes it. I'd rather something like "A most excellent album of its ilk per my tastes" etc.

Ratings can be useful in various ways and I wouldn't want this site to be without that feature.


Edited by Logan - May 21 2020 at 12:26

verslibre wrote: Logan wrote: ^ I don't know if you read my later response about TFTO, but I was amazed at how much I enjoyed Tales From Topographic Oceans yesterday. It truly was a most magical trip. It's one of those albums you really need to properly listen to from start to finish, and I don't think I ever had properly without distractions as I have never personally owned a copy. While I had liked various Yes albums, and I hardly disliked Close to the Edge (I liked a lot of it, and some parts I have even loved), I do suspect that my appreciation for the album will now increase even if it is taken on the whole a very different sort of adventure to Close to the Edge.   I did see that, and it's indeed a "trip." That's the simplest way to refer to it. It's a great late night album, and I concur that it's best listened to from beginning to end.

Maybe it did help that I listened to it at night. I don't often listen to music in quite the same way I did last night. The experience reminded me the most of when I was 19, living in a lovely beach house In Queensland, lying on the floor with my eyes closed while listening to Kitaro's Oasis. It's not that they are musically that similar, but I had a similar almost transcendent experience.

Edited by Logan - May 21 2020 at 12:34

Logan wrote: verslibre wrote: Logan wrote: ^ I don't know if you read my later response about TFTO, but I was amazed at how much I enjoyed Tales From Topographic Oceans yesterday. It truly was a most magical trip. It's one of those albums you really need to properly listen to from start to finish, and I don't think I ever had properly without distractions as I have never personally owned a copy. While I had liked various Yes albums, and I hardly disliked Close to the Edge (I liked a lot of it, and some parts I have even loved), I do suspect that my appreciation for the album will now increase even if it is taken on the whole a very different sort of adventure to Close to the Edge.   I did see that, and it's indeed a "trip." That's the simplest way to refer to it. It's a great late night album, and I concur that it's best listened to from beginning to end. Maybe it did help that I listened to it at night. I don't often listen to music in quite the same way I did last night. The experience reminded me the most of when I was 19, living in a lovely beach house In Queensland, lying on the floor with my eyes closed while listening to Kitaro's Oasis. It's not that they are musically that similar, but I had a similar almost transcendent experience.

5 stars for me is sublime, amazing, life changing, mind altering, revelatory. I have a lot of five star ratings and might now be harsher, but all of those I adored at one time.

Edited by Logan - May 21 2020 at 16:05

My opinion is based on the first 50 times I played the album , I must have listened to Close to the edge over 300 times in my life maybe more Yes and Kansas were the first prog bands I ever got into these two bands opened up an infinite field of progressive possibility .. led to King crimson & Rush, Elp & Genesis etc etc etc from there Marillion (who still carried the prog flag in the 80's) I was open minded when it came to prog, those were great days of discovery memories which I treasure.  

Edited by Enchant X - May 22 2020 at 03:19