FRAGILE

I include Yes amongst bands like Rush and Marillion for producing generally awful music and having a sect of ProgArchives devoted to singing it's praises. Now, while Marillion is all pseudo-prog crap and Rush has at least the saving grace of Moving Pictures, Yes does actually have a few albums that are worthwhile to listen to before heading into the landfill of creativity that produced Relayer and Going For The One.

Fragile is one of those albums. The seventies classic rock influences that made The Yes Album great also propel this album to awesome places. However, it is a flawed gem. The inexcusable bits of fluff that litter the album ("Cans And Brahms", "Five Percent of Nothing", I'm looking at you!) destroy the pace of the album. I feel as if Yes could have made something nearing perfection if they had scrapped "Cans and Brahms" and combined "Five Percent of Nothing", "We Have Heaven", and "Mood for a Day" into one epic piece. But no one listens to me, so I'm stuck with an album that looks like a jumble of great ideas that don't quite fit together as well as possible.

All in all, the only better places in Yes' catalog are The Yes Album and Close to the Edge. So go get Fragile if you have not done so already! And try and find a release with the bonus Simon and Garfunkel cover "America"! It's fantastic!