CLOSE TO THE EDGE

Fellas i understand that this album is amazing, but c'mon. The greatest prog rock album of all time? You've got to be kidding me man. But still, this album is a classic. Even if its a bit overrated.

Close To The Edge is the fifth record that the guys from Yes has given us. And oh man, what a giant step from Fragile! This is in my opinion, the breakthrough of the band. It only has 3 tracks, which kinda started a thing that the band would kinda do in later albums of adding only a handful of tracks. Anyway, here is my track to track review.

The first side start off with the title track, and you hear the ambient sounds of a waterfall and chirping birds. And then boom! You are bombarded with the dissonant yet amazing first section of the song "The Solid Time Of Change". One thing that i adore is how the bass ascends and ascends every note, also the bass sounds incredible in this album.

And then the time signature changes from 4/4 to a 6/8, signaling the start of "Total Mass Retain". The vocals finally kick off, as we hear Jon Anderson sings lyrics that are either poetic or just utter nonsense. Still, those lyrics fit very well in this part of this track. The band plays these amazing melodies, that combine really well with the previously mentioned lyrics.

Suddenly the melody abruptly stops and starts my personal favorite section of the track "I Get Up, I Get Down". This part is just heavenly, specially that church organ in the middle of the section provided from our good friend Rick Wakeman.

The track then goes to the final section "Seasons Of Man", which is some sort of reprise of "Total Mass Regain", but with a more triumphant sound. And what a way to end this track too! Because we hear again the waterfall ambience from the beginning of the song. Masterful 5/5.

We start side two with "And You And I", and we hear this mellow guitar intro that goes into a very folky tune, that goes into a slow yet filled with the sounds of the mellotron. And then it goes back into the folky section from the beginning, so it can go again into the slow ballad. The way that it goes from melody to the other melody is just smooth, my only complain is that it isn't long enough. But still, its a 4/5.

We finally come to the final track "Siberian Khatru", and oh boy what a way to finish the album! There is only one way that i can describe this song, its groovy. It almost feels like it came from their previous album Fragile. There is also a part where the band starts chanting in a very tribal way (almost like Sound Chaser, but less scary), and then it cuts back into Steve Howe's 12 string guitar solo. That is another 4/5

So in conclusion if you are rather new to prog rock, this is an album that you NEED to hear. But for me, its a solid 4.5/5. Heh, get it? Solid. As in The Solid Time Of Change... Ok i'll stop. So yeah its amazing, but i think its slightly overrated.