CLOSE TO THE EDGE

The Yes Album is a masterpiece. Fragile is four stars. Close to the Edge is 3 stars. Tales From Topographic Oceans is 4 stars. Relayer is 5 stars. What happened toward the middle there? Not really sure...

Close to the Edge, however ambitious it may be, is not Yes' masterpiece. It contains 3 songs, the longest which should've been chopped down to about ten minutes, and clocks about 35 minutes. Siberian Khatru is a masterpiece, And You and I never clicked with me and the title track is too long. Hmm... Now you see?

The title tracks starts with some beautiful chimes and eventually goes into a great (and I mean GREAT) guitar riff. It has a catchy refrain but is dragged on way past when it was due to end. Long songs is what makes a lot of prog albums great. Not this one. It has some fantastic moments nonetheless and isn't a complete waste of time.

And You And I... It has all the formula for a great prog track, good guitar playing, the vocals are superb, it is pretty much the perfect length for the material given. What's wrong with it then? It never clicked with me, after almost two years of having this album it still hasn't. It's almost sad really, Howe and Wakeman's playing are excellent on this track.

Siberian Khatru though, my gosh what a jam! What gets me hooked is Chris Squire's bass playing, which I absolutely adore, and the utter energy the track displays. Great song.

I'm not apologizing for this for I have nothing to apologize about. 3 stars.

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