Advice on Yes

Hey everyone. I bought Yes' Close to the Edge & Fragile a couple of years ago...I love CTTE (although I found it tough for a new prog fan like myself to get into...Fragile I found even tougher!). But I've been reading reviews of Relayer and Tales from the Topographic Oceans, and was wondering what your opinions are. I've heard many remark that even hardcore Yes fans find Tales tough going, but I'm always wary of what other people say because I often find my tastes differ quite a bit. In short, I am interested in getting the 2 albums, but am a bit unsure...does anyone have any guidance? Thanks! :)

Relayer is great and so is Topgraphic oceans im sure, but if you cant get into Fragile or CTTE, i wouldnt push your luck

I like danbo's advice, Relayer is awesome, if you like
CTTE you should get it, Tales of Topographic
Oceans aint great, but with time it is accessible.

Follow danny boy to the REDRUM!!!

need your animations Reed!

For me, it was Fragile first (I wanted to listen to Roundabout I guess, was the only Yes song I knew at the time), then CTTE (probably my favorite). I bought  the Yes album next, I love it, but didn't get the satisfaction I did out the the first two. I think TFTO is an incredible achievement for Yes, easily my 2nd favorite album of theirs. The thing is, you have to give albums like that a chance, just one run-through and you will think "It was good, but too ambitious for Yes"; Relayer on the other hand, is along the same lines as CTTE, but not as good. I really really love The Gates of Delirium, but the track on that album for me is Sound Chaser, every member does a really good job on that (Squire and White stand out the most).

If you want a good experience, buy both of them, but give TFTO a few listens through before making any conclusions, it is a album for hardcore Yes fans. Relayer I would recommend to anyone who liked CTTE, just know that you aren't getting the insane Wakeman keyboard solos or the Bruford drum beats that we all know and love.

I've started Yes with DRAMA, when I was 14. After a half a year there was the 2nd one - just RELAYER, and I've got into it just after the 1st time (SOON-part of THE GATES OF DELIRIUM has got me!).

But TALES was really hard to get into for me - though now it's my favorite album by Yes...

 

Relayer is like a dark mirror image of CTTE, and IMO contains some of the best studio playing ever by Howe, Squire and White - on 'Sound Chaser' Howe sounds more like he lives on a diet of raw steak than macrobiotic healthfoods.

'Tales..' contains some superb passages of music, mostly on disc 1, but as a whole it's a bit rambling and incoherent - apparently Wakeman has said that if it had been recorded as a single CD it could have been a masterpiece, which may well be true.

'Going For The One' is also well worth a listen, a good, varied set and IMO the last truly worthwhile Yes studio album.

I'm gonna say here what I said in the ELP vrs Yes thread...

I think the best place to start getting to know any band is always at the beginning.  The ability to chart a band's growth and see their progression thru the years in some ways defines who they are.

With Yes... altho I don't like Time and A Word... starting from "The Yes Album" and working your way thru their catalog from there... would be the appropriate way to do it, I think!

You don't really know a band until you see how they've progressed musically.  I know I feel luckier that I was actually there when both ELP and Yes were first around and I started with the Nice and  King Crimson's first.. into ELP... which was like a progression of them musically.  I started with the Yes Album.. then got Time and a Word... which I didn't like.  Maybe if I had started with  A Time and a Word.. and worked up to The Yes Album... I might of liked it better...but I loved Fragile which was like a sequel to The Yes Album....

Just a thought.

Frankly, not only should you absolutely get Relayer and Tales from
Topographic Oceans, but also The Yes Album and Going for the One. Also
check out Tormato and Drama. And after you get all those albums,
prepare yourself to get lost in each album's distinct mood, style, and
personality. While each is completely different from the another, they all
retain a very distinct Yes quality.

Tales From Topographic Oceans is my first and so far ONLY Yes album.

I'm fifteen going on sixteen, and although I haven't heard it all yet,
to use British slang, I "lurve" it.

And methinks we should have a pinned thread about the diff branches of
prog.