GOING FOR THE ONE

3.5 stars

"Going for the One" the return of Rick Wakeman at keyboards. Not as progressive, daring and jazzy-esque as "Relayer", but featuring their most catchy songs and the beautiful "Awaken".

The title song opens with a rocky Zeppelin-ish intro, transporting you into YES' magic forest. "Going for the One" is a very enchanting, happy and fluent tune. On the contrary, "Turn of the Century" is a little lazy and pointless ballad. The listener is "awaken" with "Parallels" and its church organ overture. This song surprisely rocks and delivers a lot of energy! Nonetheless, disappointment arrives again with the light "Wonderous Stories", which sounds like a boring soundtrack. At last comes the highlight of the album: "Awaken". This 15 minutes epic features wonderful melancholic passages in magic places. Knights and sorcerers' tears put in music with great organ and guitar playing. The end of this piece finishes majestically in the sky.

Concerning the Elektra remastered version, except the single version of "Going for the One" and an alternative version of "Awaken", the bonus tracks are not that interesting. Jon's vocals on "Parallels" sound false and other tracks are average short instrumental pieces.

"Going for the One" is an irregular release alternating very good ("Going for the One", "Parallels" and the little wonder "Awaken") and boring songs. With other tracks than "Turn of the Century" and "Wonderful Stories", it could have been a fantastic album, maybe YES' best...

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