CLOSE TO THE EDGE

I may have listened to Yes before this record. I may have liked earlier hits as Survival or Time and a Word. But I was not conscious of it. For me, Yes started with Close to the Edge.

The impact, the impression the first listening of Close to the Edge left on me was as strong as one of the strongest experiences in life for me. Seen in retrospect, the durable impression some of the Progressive Rock classics left on me was, no doubt, due to the fact that they were "first times" for me as could be a first love, a first smoke, a first beer or a first drive. I was sensitive enough, in my teens, to be overwhelmed by the deepness, the subtlety, the richness, the variety and the high pitch this kind of music that we few love could reach. I am writing, of course, of works such as this one I am reviewing but also masterpieces as Trilogy, Nursery Crime, In the Court of the Crimson King, Thick as a Brick or Hot Rats.

Talking from my sentiments and memories, Close to the Edge, the suite-song, is and will be Yes's best piece ever considering its music, its harmonic voices and even its length, which adds to the pleasure (here, the classical motto "good, if brief, twice as good" seems not to count). The best rocking moments, the best lyrical minutes, the best (church) organ climax or the best sound atmosphere make this piece one of the best long pieces ever written and performed -and this is not worthless, as Yes have proved to be able of performing the piece live throughout the years and the line-ups- by any band in rock music.

Talking from my reason and seeing it now with a bit more critical vision, I must admit And You And I is probably the most perfect of all Yes's suite-songs (which is as much as saying any songs) because it condensates in just ten minutes what other longer pieces take fifteen (Awaken), eighteen (the very Close to the Edge) or twenty (The Revealing Science of God) -to cite but a few of its competitors. You could say the same things stated before for Close to the Edge regarding And You And I's music and this being a completely different composition which follows no pattern or formula. That is what make this record so especial, so perfect.

We have got the cake, we have got the filling and there is only the icing left. Well, that is Siberian Kathru, not a suite-song but a long rocking piece which drives you out of momentary heaven in good mood and leaves you prepared for new ocean things to come.

Never before or afterwards had Yes reached or would reach such perfection, such completion, such originality and plenitude of musical ideas and perfomance all in one record where you cannot dismiss one single minute ofmusic.

If there is one record with no flaws and which deserves five stars, this is it.

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