THE YES ALBUM

YES`s first full Progressive album. I prefer this album more than "Fragile". Steve Howe`s guitars are very good in this album, but I also find some similarities in his style with Peter Banks`s style. So, the change of guitarist wasn`t too "drastic" for the sound of YES as a band. Howe maybe has more "speed" in his fingers to play solos and complicated chords, but his style fits with the previous sound of the band. But Howe was also a composer, or at least his musical ideas were more appreciated than Banks`s musical contributions (Banks in the notes in the booklet for the album of YES`s BBC recordings called "Something`s coming", said that he never had a songwriting credit in YES despite he contributed to some songs). Howe`s sound is more "dynamic", and in this album YES gained a lot with him. "Yours is no disgrace" is a clear example of Howe`s "dynamic" guitars, with also the first appearance of a moog synthesizer in a YES album, played very good and simply by Tony Kaye, who have said in interviews that he wasn`t very interested in these new instruments, so he didn`t stay with YES for more time than the tour for this album. Rick Wakeman appeared, and as Wakeman was more interested in mellotrons and synthesizers, which was what YES wanted, Kaye had to left YES. "Clap" is an energetic acoustic guitar piece recorded live at the Lyceum in London. It seems that YES wanted to say to their fans "listen to our new guitarist!". "Starship Trooper" is one of my favourite songs from YES. Howe shows his mastery of several styles of playing, with a very "country & western" style for the "Disillusion" part of this song ("Disillusion" was previously a part of a song called "For Everyone", played live with Peter Banks and available in the "Something`s Coming" C.D.; both guitarists played this part in a very different way). Kaye plays his usual organ and a bit of moog. Squire plays an almost bass solo in "Würm", until Howe`s guitars play several solo parts until the end of the song. "I`ve seen all good people" includes a vachalia played by Howe, and recorders played by Colin Goldring (which were played in concerts using a mellotron or other keyboards), with very good vocals by Anderson, Squire and Howe, and effective piano and organ by Kaye, plus percussion and drums by Bruford (with maybe Anderson on percussion too, as he is credited in the back cover). "A venture" shows one of the few times that Tony Kaye used the piano as the main keyboard in YES, and he shows in this song that he is a very good piano player too. "Perpetual Change" has some experiments made with musical time signatures, and the use of recording the band twice playing two different sections at the same time. Kaye also used the moog in this song. YES also had fun with the mixing of this album in Stereo, with constant changes of the instruments in the channels. "The YES album" is a very good album, with a lot of experiments and creativity, and very good arrangements.