What is the most underrated studio Yes album?

Also, I made my choice of selections mostly by the ratings from the Yes page on here. I tried to include those which made the most sense that someone would vote for. There's one that I probably should have left off(and I'd be surprised if it didn't win this poll)but I threw it in anyway. 

I definately think they are underappreciated most likely because they are compared to the classics in between but taken into consideration under their own merits, wow!

The majority of prog fans and Yes fans worship CTTE(not that it doesn't deserve it)so I think you are safe. For me personally though I don't really hear any psych on T&AW and hear only very little on the debut. 

It is awesome! It's my number 3, of course Close to the Edge is the perfect prog album, and Relayer is a very special album to me, but I always enjoy spinning tales

The first two are quite good and quite underrated. I'd even argue the Yes Album gets overlooked compared to Fragile or CCTE, despite having two of their best all-time tracks.

Drama seems to have its fans so it's not really overrated (and I personally think it's much stronger than the previous two). Tormato I'd say is a middling album only. The Ladder has only one really good track. Magnification gets a lot of shout-outs (and rightly so, probably - compared to some of the others) but a lot of the material is only average for me, so I don't consider it underrated. The two Keys albums (and/or the single compilation) have probably the highest percentage of quality latter-day studio material, but sometimes isn't mentioned as often as the next two best (Magnification and the Ladder at a distant third). I'd definitely say Fly from Here is underrated based on the few reviews here on the site. I thought it was different, but I always tend to enjoy Horne's writing with Yes. I like both versions but the original has the edge for me with a (slightly) better vocalist than Horne for the material (and way better than anything Davison has done with them through his whole tenure).

Finally, ABWH only has one standout track for me (Brother of Mine). Their live albums are good but Squire is definitely missed (I don't think Berlin or Levin can really replace his sound) and Bruford's style at the time (80s KC Simmons drumset mode) was just completely ill-suited to the material (and when he can't bring himself to give a sh*t his performance really suffers.)

Everything else listed doesn't really interest me at all, other than Lonely Heart being a pretty decent pop rock single.

EDIT: Forgot to mention Tales - as others have said I think it has enough of a following to not be considered underrated, for what it was. Still think it would have done better as a single album though!

 

 

 

 

I was about to start another thread going over some of the dynamics in composition I think many miss on TFTGO; perhaps in the coming days?

voted Big G.