TIME AND A WORD

Their underwhelming debut may have got the group noticed but their sophomore effort, which came complete with a full-scale orchestral backing, almost got them sacked. Released in 1970 'Time & A Word' featured the same line-up as their previous, eponymously-titled album, just this time they had a slightly bigger budget and a tad more experience to put into the mix. The results were, again, pretty mixed, although commercially-speaking 'Time & A Word' outdid it's predecessor, charting in the UK and generating some more, much-needed exposure for the youthful five-piece. Hindsight, as we all know, is a pretty special thing, but even back in 1970 the critics complained that the orchestra was intrusive. Time has not diminished that viewpoint. Again the similarities to Procol Harum are notable, although the group do manage to construct at least one killer track in the shape of the fully-blown space-rock of 'Astral Traveller', a piece that features some suitably phaser-laced vocals from Anderson and a searing, uplifting chorus filled with impressive drum licks from Bill Bruford. The rest of 'Time & A Word', however, fails to convince. The group's label, Atlantis, were actually considering dropping Yes after 'Time & A Word' failed to become a hit in the true sense of the term, but all was forgotten once 'Fragile' became a huge-seller and put Yes on the international Map. Thank god for patient record company executives then, a sentence that probably doesn't even exist in today's cynical, market-driven industry, but someone somewhere back in 1970's London had the foresight to see that Yes had something special and whoever that person is, he/she should get a medal. STEFAN TURNER, LONDON, 2010