RELAYER

The best Yes album and their last good one. It was all downhill after this. Going For The One sounds like pop/rock mixed with New Age compared to Relayer. Here you will find some of Howe's best guitar playing and perhaps the best drumming White ever did. This is the only album with Patrick Moraz. His synth playing here is more tasteful and less cheesy than Wakeman, IMO. He uses an Orchestron(not Mellotron) here. In addition, he uses Fender Rhodes which I don't think Wakeman ever used. There is very little organ, I can only notice some on the "Soon" part of "Gates Of Delirium".

"Gates Of Delirium" is the best epic Yes ever did. My first taste of Relayer was the single edit of "Soon" on the Yesstory compilation. It didn't do much for me by itself, but in the context of "Gates" it works great. Unlike on earlier albums Anderson no longer has any hippy-dippy mumbo-jumbo googoo-gaga lyrics here. He's actually trying to say something on this album. "Gates" sounds like an anti-war song. Great playing here and the different sections flow into each other nicely. I like the part in the middle where it sounds like a vocoder; you hear what sounds like: "1,2,1,2,1,2,3...". Great.

"Sound Chaser" is the closest Yes ever got to sounding like fusion. Moraz uses a lot of string- synth here to good effect. I like how the tempo keeps changing throughout the whole song. Alan White is on fire here. Squire does some of his best bass playing on this song. Some people don't like the "cha cha cha" part, but I like it. I assume that those same people would have no problem if it was "la la la" instead. "To Be Over" is a beautiful song. Great electric sitar here. The "after all..." part at the end is just prog heaven. I wish all Symphonic Prog sounded as good as this song.

The keyboards and drumming are a step up from TFTO. The production is about equal. Roger Dean's artwork for this album is some of his best. This line-up could have made another album as good as or superior to this. But it was not to be. This is more consistent than TFTO and more edgy than CTTE. A solid prog classic. 5 stars.