THE YES ALBUM

The Yes Album is the third album from symphonic prog rock legends Yes. This is the album that made the big change for them as a band. With their two first albums they had been struggling for recognition and didn´t get enough according to Atlantic Records who would have fired them if The Yes Album proved not to be succesful. Bearing this in mind it´s very strange that Yes did all the opposite things of what other bands in the same situation might have done. They didn´t change their music so it would be more commercial. On the contrary The Yes Album is more complex and challenging than any of their previous two albums which shows exactly how bold and innovative a force Yes was in those days. That´s what I call a true progressive spirit.

The Yes Album consists of six songs and four of them are pretty long. Yours Is No Disgrace, Starship Trooper and Perpetual Change are all great progressive rock songs with lots of mood and harmony changes, exciting intrumental parts and great vocals from Jon Anderson and Chris Squire. I´ve Seen All Good People is a song it took some time for me to appreciate, but today I enjoy the elaborate vocal arrangement and the feel good spirit of the song. Listen to those harmonies and tell me that The Flower Kings haven´t listened here. The Clap is a short bluegrass guitar piece played by new guitarist Steve How who replaced Peter Banks prior to writing The Yes Album. A Venture which is the shortest of the band songs here is not that memorable and quite frankly the least exciting song here. It´s allright but nothing more.

The musicianship is outstanding. Notice how each musician is beginning to find his playing style. Bill Bruford´s drumming is becoming more and more fusion influenced and dare I call The Yes Album Steve Howe´s album ? He meant so much for Yes at this time. His playing lifted there music to a higher plain IMO. It´s funny about The Clap being a Bluegrass song, because you can hear lots of influences from that genre in Steve Howe´s playing.

The production is really good and just helps emphasise the excellent music.

This is an excellent prog rock album and allthough Yes have made better albums later on in their career this one was the album that started it all. It´s essential in that respect but it´s not worth the full 5 stars IMO so I´ll rate it 4 well deserved stars. This is a highly recommendable album.