CLOSE TO THE EDGE

Close To The Edge is the centerpiece of the album, a 19-minute epic that sets the bar for virtuosic progressive music. The opening features everything you know and love about Yes. An incredible rhythm section with weird time signatures, great guitar work, spacey keyboarding from Wakeman, some strange Anerson vocal parts. Everything calms down as we segue into the main verse and chorus section, as Anderson gets to shine for a bit, not that everyone else isn't playing their parts perfectly. Everything calms down more as we drift into the "I Get Up, I Get Down" movement, and I won't say a too much about it here. It's absolutely beautiful and if you haven't heard it go listen now. Some organ swells, the music picks back up; the main theme is repeated but darker, and more aggressively. Bruford pounds out some of the finest rhythmic drumming I've ever heard and Wakeman delivers an incredible organ solo. Anderson brings back the main chorus and soon after the song comes to an end. The best prog song ever? Maybe... and if not; very close. Exceptional piece.

And You And I is next, and Yes does the impossible of setting the bar just as high as on the previous song. This one features some great acoustic guitar, gorgeous vocal parts, and is a little more mellow and calm than the title track. However, where as Close To The Edge was fantastic in its aggressiveness at times, And You And I features some of the more beautiful musical passages ever put to tape. "Eclipse" will shatter any myth about the lack of resonance and ability to move a person in Yes music.

Siberian Khatru closes things out, and it's very different from the first two. It's got an almost funky main riff, some stranger keyboard sounds, and more upbeat drum and bass work. Howe and Anderson make this piece. There are vocal hooks abound and Howe busts out some great solos bear the end of the song.

Overall? I can't believe anyone who WOULDN'T give this album a rating of *****. It's incredible all the way through, the best album Yes ever did, in my opinion.

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