FRAGILE

The middle album of Yes' imperial phase, this might just be my favorite of the three. It improves on The (excellent) Yes Album, and might be a better album-listening experience than the masterful Close to the Edge. It's one of those prog albums that enjoyed massive radio airplay without ever being accused of "selling out": I grew up hearing Roundabout and Long Distance Runaround/The Fish pretty regularly on AOR radio, while Heart of the Sunrise also got occasional play. (On the other hand, I don't think I ever heard anything off CTTE on the radio.) For me, the sound of the band on this album is what I think of when I think of Yes, especially on Roundabout and Long Distance Runaround. They would never really quite have this hard, almost urban white-funk sound again, married to short compositions. (If you want more of this, the best places to hear it replicated are on Chris Squire's Fish Out of Water, Wakeman's Six Wives, & perhaps Bruford's One of a Kind albums.) I usually rate this slightly over CTTE because it has a better album flow, with short interludes and sound effects connecting songs, *the* classic prog faux-classical guitar piece (with apologies to Hackett's Horizons), and only one song over 10 minutes long, giving it a more well-rounded and diverse listening experience. Would Yes ever create a radio-friendly prog tune on the order of All Good People, LDR or Roundabout, that didn't somehow sound like a compromise? (I can only think of '77's Wonderous Stories.)