FRAGILE

Recruiting the famous Rick Wakeman from the departure of Tony Kaye, and taking you to the places you thought you'd never go in music, Fragile is a science fiction oriented work. Topping themselves once again with a handful of incredible moments, Fragile is yet another step up in some ways, taking them almost close to the edge (pun intended).

"ROUNDABOUT" rises into that heavy bassline via Steve Howe's intricate guitar introduction. Roundbaout is a classic because of the intoxicating melody and the catchy vocal work. "CANS AND BRAHMS" may seem out of place due to to the lightheartedness it brings after Roundabout, and the fact that it's entirely Brahms keyboard-playing from the newly recruited Rick Wakeman. I don't think it should have been thrown into the mix. "WE HAVE HEAVEN" is based on layers and layers of vocal repetition until the listener has the door shut behind them and finds themself in the "SOUTH SIDE OF THE SKY". This song reaches moods Yes have never portrayed, and features a lot of great instrumental work, especially by Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe. The imagery this song brings is exciting and very atmospheric. It slowly fades off into the wind, blowing in "FIVE PER CENT FOR NOTHING"; an intricately melodic winding abstract monster that jumps into the intoxicating "LONG DISTANCE RUNAROUND". This song is remeniscent of Gentle Giant with a catchy and complex melody. The light atmosphere is enhanced due to the darker atmosphere that South Side of the Sky held. There are a lot of cool cooperative patterns interlocking between Steve Howe and Chris Squire, and the breaks after the verses get a real good groove going, especially with Squire's low and ascending line. "THE FISH (SCHINDLERIA PRAEMATURUS)" comes in right off of Long Distance Runaround with no pause, and it sounds awesome. I think of The Fish as part 2 of The Head-Nodding Saga that Long Distance Runaround was the first part of, just because these two songs are really low- ended and funky, Squire does really good in them. "MOOD FOR A DAY" is Howe's second opportunity to acoustically blow the minds of the listener with the guitar. This is yet another beautiful solo composition by Steve Howe, showing off great technical dexterity along with an excellent sense of melody, much more effective than Cans And Brahms. The album closer is "HEART OF THE SUNRISE", starting off with a frantic melody driven by Bruford's double-paradiddle drum pattern, occasionally snapping off into a Squire driven melody before going back to the first melody. Then comes in Jon Anderson's always enchanting vocal work, switching off with Rick Wakeman melodies, giving each member of the band a time to shine within one song, and being exceptionally strong as a song in the end.

While Fragile was indeed a rushed work, and not the entire album is fluid as it could have been, nor is the entire album phenomenal as some of the parts in it, the great majority of the material on this album is absolutely amazing, so I'll give the benefit of the doubt due to a lot of these songs being so great, and give this one a 5. (Know that if I could give it a 4.5, I would.)

Best songs: South Side of the Sky, Long Distance Runaround, The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus), Mood for a Day, Heart of the Sunrise