CLOSE TO THE EDGE

In general this album is considered as the best Yes album ever released (looking at the ratings from my fellow reviewers, it's almost a five star party!). I always thought that the music was mainly very spontaneous but when I read several books about Yes, I was astonished when I discovered that most material was recorded in a seemingly endless serie of bits! But despite this, the music remains legendary and pivotal progrock, on side one the titletrack contains captivating shifting moods and one of the most compelling progrock moments ever: halfway Jon Anderson sings "I get up, I get down.." and then, after a short silence, the music erupts with a sumptuous Hammond that delivers a majestic, church- organ-like sound, followed by fat Minimoog synthesizer flights, this is progrock at its best! Side two contains two long compositions: the beautiful build-up "And you and I", featuring Steve Howe on a wide range of guitars (from the Portuguese 12-string to the Fender Dual steel guitar) and Wakeman with great Minimoog runs and the swinging "Siberian khatru" including wonderful Mellotron waves and a powerful Rickenbacker bass sound. I admit that giving the album "Fragile" and this masterpiece the same rating is a bit weird but the problem should be solved by Prog Archives, they have to create a 6 star rating for a kind of 'Champions League Division Of Progrock Albums', OK?