YES

Good for a debut record. The main rhytm section is great Bill Bruford on drums (future King Crimson member) and bassist Chris Squire. Jon´s Anderson´s vocals are perfect as well. Overal, this is a more straightworward record. Beyound and before 5 Heavy sounding guitars and organ, Anderson´s high pitched vocals are in place. Peter Banks´ guitarplaying sounds a lot like Steve Hackett would on his Genesis records in places. The vocal parts are perfectly constructed on this one. I see you 3 A boring jazzy number. The band plays tight, but the song itself is not that great as a whole, with just an average melody, some flawed solo parts (especially the percussion solo). Yesterday and today 3 A piano dominated poppy ballad. Ian´s singingf is gorgeous, but the melody itself is sub par. The song sounds very dated, a typically introspective melodic piece of the late sixties era. The mood is captivating, though.

Looking around 3.5 A fine keyboard intro by Tony Kaye (very Emersonesque). The track is a nice rocker with a graet hook in the faster verses (the softer chorus parts are much less inspired). Harold Land 1 The keyboards sound even more like Emerson this time, dominating the piece. Squire´s bass is just gorgeous. At least the song changes with acoustic guitars thrown in after the intro. The song, however develops in a not very inspired ballad. The melody is obviously another relict of the mid and late sixties pop movement. I can´t deny, that Ian Anderson sings great, although the backing vocals are horrible. The intro doesn´t gel togther with the rest of the number, too. Every little thing 4 A heavy, progressive rworking of an early Beatles tune. The intro is particularly interesting, with Banks and the whole sounding very close to Robert Fripp in Larks tongues in aspic days. The song gets a fairly bombastic treatment. The vocals are somewhat flawed on here, which is the main problem here. Banks plays really excellent here. Sweetness 1 Another pop oriented ballad. The melody is really sweet, even too much. The track sounds as if it was recorded earlier than in really was. The vocals are especially cheesy on this one. Survival 2.5 The instrumental passages are great again, very evocative and moody in places, but the vocal melody is below average.

Overal:23:8=2.8= 3 stars

GOOD. but non-essential