GOING FOR THE ONE

I am amazed this album has received such ecstatic reviews. I first started listening to Yes in 1975, and the first album I discovered was RELAYER, which completely bowled me over, and which has remained one of my all-time favourites. Soon after that (still in '75!) I discovered Yes had released some incredibly imaginative masterpieces. I also came to love Rick Wakeman's solo-albums, but as soon as I heard Patrick Moraz had been kicked out of Yes (and Wakeman had rejoined the band), I was filled with suspicion. What else could this news mean, but that Yes was going to sound less experimental and more commercial?

Lo and behold: GOING FOR THE ONE was released, and it turned out to be an awful lot of noise! And the strangest thing of all: Wakeman didn't actually get to play a single noteworthy solo. (The church organ noodling on AWAKEN never convinced me.) In my humble opinion, the best that can be said about GOING FOR THE ONE is that it contains a few interesting BITS. Both the title track and PARALLELS, for example, start out strongly, but soon descend into chaos. WONDEROUS STORIES is a totally forgettable ditty, one of the few Yes pieces that make me cringe (CIRCUS OF HEAVEN is another).

TURN OF THE CENTURY is difficult. As a full-grown man I find it hard to accept the image of Messrs. Anderson, Howe and Wakeman as troubadours in silky robes, but if I am honest, the piece still moves me, each time time I play it. There is something truly soul-searching in the way the players search for the right notes.

AWAKEN is a hodge-podge. In the course of the years I've learnt that CLOSE TO THE EDGE (the song, not the album) was 'stitched together' in the studio, and no doubt THE GATES OF DELIRIUM developed in a similar way (the bonus tracks on the most recent re-release of RELAYER certainly point in that direction) - but on AWAKEN you can HEAR the stitches! I don't want to sound entirely negative about the piece. Wakeman's piano intro and Steve Howe's first electric solo are undoubtedly impressive, and on recent live DVDs AWAKEN's grand climaxes are played with majestic control. Unfortunately, on the original album those climaxes merely sound tinny and chaotic. Moreover, Jon Anderson's lyrics are a real turn-off. On previous Yes albums his words were incoherent but intriguing. GOING FOR THE ONE was the first Yes LP on which Anderson started preaching to us: 'Be honest with yourself! There's no doubt, no doubt!' etc. etc. I suppose this was his reaction to punk's then fashionable nihilism...