CLOSE TO THE EDGE

Another absolute masterpiece of YES

After the release of "Fragile" in November 1971, the same line-up of YES (BRUFORD-WAKEMAN-SQUIRE-ANDERSON-HOWE) released "Close to the Edge" in September 1972. This album has become a legend among Progressive Rock fans all over the world since it first came up that year. "Close to the Edge" was also YES' last album featuring drummer Bill BROFURD before he left the band to join KING CRIMSON and being replaced with PLASTIC ONO BAND's drummer Alan WHITE so this is a very historical album.

Everything on this record is absolutely majestic, the cover is very simple: just a blurred green bottom with the title of the album and the logo of the band, a very nice artwork by Roger Dean; the inside artwork is even better: the landscape of the floating island and its waterfalls is beautiful. The three songs that ensemble the album have become obligated stops in almost all of their live shows.

1.- Close to the edge (18:50): Maybe the most ambitious song in YES discography; the song is divided into four parts:

A) The solid time of change: The four-minute instrumental introduction starts slowly with very isolated cymbals and then becomes more and more violent with the energy of the drums, bass, and guitar and the occasional vocalizing of ANDERSON.

B) Total mass retain: The lyrics appear and the rhythm changes, WAKEMAN is more active here while HOWE was just playing occasionally in the choruses.

C) I get up, I get down: Starts with a very nice and calmed bass line, and then the music becomes absolutely more calmed: WAKEMAN's keyboards are the main instrument in this part accompanying ANDERSON, SQUIRE, and HOWE's singing parts.

D) Seasons of man: The frenetic jamming starts again with the four musicians playing their greatest arrangements and ANDERSON making a small encore of the singing.

2.- And you and I (10:09): My favorite song of the album, as well as "Close to the edge" this one is also divided into four parts:

A) Cord of life: The acoustic 12 string guitar intro by Steve HOWE that later gets accompanied by WAKEMAN's mini-moog and right before a very nice instrumental section the lyrics start while the music changes into a more moved section.

B) Eclipse: Almost entirely instrumental until the lyrics finally appear again, this is a very slow composition predominated by the keyboards and drums that ends with an encore of Cord of life's acoustic intro.

C) The preacher, the teacher: The acoustic 12 string guitar changes the melody to a more joyful one, then the song gets harder and, as well as in "Close to the Edge", we can hear a small resume of the previous parts of the song.

D) Apocalypse: The shortest part of the song is just ANDERSON singing and HOWE's acoustic guitar. This part lasts less than a minute.

3.- Siberian Khatru (08:55): The shortest song of the album is probably the hardest one as well. This almost 9-minute piece that closes the album has a very powerful structure with a very well-known riff and a rhythm that goes almost in a funky way; WAKEMAN's clavicorn is a very nice touch in this song as well. The vocal last section of the song closes the album quite nicely.

This album is a masterpiece and there is no doubt of that. I prefer "Fragile" like a thousand times before this one, but that doesn't make this album any bad at all.

SONG RATING: Close to the edge, 5 And you and I, 5 Siberian Khatru, 5

AVERAGE: 5

PERCENTAGE: 100

ALBUM RATING: 5 stars

I ranked this album #18 on my top #100 favorite Progressive Rock albums of all time.

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