CLOSE TO THE EDGE

After 3 years, directly after Fragile, Yes released their masterpiece "Close to the Edge". In the Top 100 of the prog-archives it's on place 1 and it's overall a very well-appreciated album. Like "Relayer", the album only consists of 3 tracks, reaching a total length of 38 minutes.

The first song, "Close to the edge", the title track, a masterful Yes-epic, set new standards in the progressive world and is musically well-thought. The track starts with a soft stream and some bird sounds besides. After one minute, the intro section begins with an ascending bass scale, afterwards bass ostinato (nine times until fermata), then guitar and bass ostinato (two times until fermata). For the last part of the intro section another bass ostinato is played and another ascending scale to lead-in the fermata. At the end the instrumental main-theme follows continuing until the 4-minutes edge! The whole intro passage fades and some soft synths are left, a short drum interlude introduces the first part (A), another short intro for the verse and finally the first verse begins, slit up into two parts. Afterwards the first chorus (chorus 1) begins, followed by a short bridge and verse 2, repeated two times. Chorus 1 is replayed and the wonderful atmospheric "I get up"-section is added, reducing the tempo, but increasing the feeling and introducing the second part (A'), a bit varied from the first part: The structure is the same, but the surface (e.g. the bass) has been modified a bit and some extra- ads arrange for keeping the eagerness and the longevity. Chorus 1, is replaced by chorus 2 and after the "I get up"-part, a fugato follows. The third part (B) starts off with a static, slow and soft interlude and three verses. The first verse is accompanied by a staccato synthesizer and closes with "I get up", several voices are joining, creating the feeling of a choir and increasing the atmosphere. The second verse is generally the same, but another synthesizer joins, a fluent one to support the staccato rhythm. The second verse ends up with "I get up" as well, this time a bit more powerful, but at the end on the third verse this part gets very powerful and atmospheric, to introduce the mighty and atmospheric church organ interlude. But it stops jerkily and another time the "I get up"-part is replayed, shortly and soon followed by another church organ interlude. At the end of this interlude some fanfares join and afterwards the main theme is reset. The next part begins (A''), starting off with the verse, chorus 2, verse, chorus 2. But here, the vocals are replaced with another synthesizer. After that, two verses follow, introducing a bridge opening the chorus 1 and an extended, varied version of the "I get up"-part. The song fades with a stream and finally some bird sounds. Definitely one of the best songs of the whole progressive rock history.

"And You and I" is basically an acoustic-guitar-driven track with some symphonic interludes, where the synthesizer are used. Also a good song but not in the same level as "Close to the Edge".

The third and last track is "Siberian Khatru", featuring a great guitar riff at the beginning. The track is typical for Yes and is also nice, complex and symphonic song, with a wonderful guitar work.

The album is technically, every musician is great, and melodic with the typical Yes- music, but if you don't like Jon Anderson's voice it won't please you. For me the album is too short, 1 or 2 tracks more would have been wonderful, but those 3 are really good and I think it deserves the rating "masterpiece". 5 STARS!