FRAGILE

Yes

Symphonic Prog

4.46 | 4052 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

With the acquisition of new keyboardist Rick Wakeman the classic Yes lineup was finally formed, and the results are shown on this album.

'Roundabout' (9/10) kicks things off with one of the heaviest and grooviest bass lines in all of prog. The rest of the members add their special touch, especially Wakeman, whose keyboard playing is a welcome addition to the band.

'Can's and Brahms' is a keyboard adaptation by Wakeman. It's a nice little transition, but I could have easily done without it.

The same also goes for 'We Have Heaven,' which is more of an Anderson focused song, but equally unnecessary.

'South Side of the Sky,' (9/10) however is a classic Yes song. If you wanted to know what Steve Howe sounds like, this is the song to listen to. He goes absolutely crazy on it. I also enjoy the middle section with the solo piano that builds into the wordless vocal part.

'Long Distance Runabout' (8/10) is a short, but fun and upbeat song with a driving rhythm section and some clean sounding keyboards.

'The Fish' is probably my favorite of the "unneeded" filler songs on the album mostly due to the cool rhythm Bruford is playing on drums.

'Mood For a Day' (5/10) is entirely acoustic guitar similar to 'Clap' from the previous album; that is to say it's nothing special.

Luckily the album ends strong, with the fantastic 'Heart Of the Sunrise.' (10/10) The song starts off in the bombastic Yes way, but quickly settles into a nice bass and drum groove with accompanying mellotron. The middle section is more laid back with some strong vocals from Anderson. The rest of the song reuses the beginning melody and has some interesting keyboard parts as well.

Overall, Fragile contains some of Yes's best songs, but is also littered with the unnecessary shorter songs which in my opinion just impede the flow. Still, this is a full band effort, and Yes find themselves in a comfortable sound that will be further expanded in future albums.

8/10

Mr. Mustard | 5/5 | 2012-6-29

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