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Yes - The Yes Album CD (album) cover

THE YES ALBUM

Yes

 

Symphonic Prog

4.31 | 3298 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

CCVP
Prog Reviewer
5 stars My personal favorite Yes album (at least at the time i am writing my review . . .)

This album is a big turning point for Yes and probably the most important point in their careers (in the 70's): they drop the pop rock that characterized their previous albums (Yes, from 1969, and Time and a Word, from 1970) and start to make music much more complex and aggressive than before (yes, Yes's music is in this period more aggressive than other symphonic bands alike, such as Genesis), they got their first line-up change, something that probably influenced the change in their music (Steve Howe was tackling the guitar duties in Peter Banks's place), this was the album that made Yes blossom commercially and also was the last album of the keyboardist Tony Kayne with Yes in the 70's. This album also set the model of the next album (Fragile), whose structures are very alike on each side (side 1: epic - short song - epic / side 2: songs - epic).

About the songs, musicianship and other features, there are somethings i would like to state:

Pressured by the record company (Atlantic) to make success, the band spent two months in a farmhouse near Ilfracombe trying to create something completely original and new, trying to change their music, and they did. This album represent a giant leap forward towards progressive rock for Yes: the album contains many tempo changes, virtuosi performances by the musicians (specially Howe's playing style that is somehow aggressive and delicate at the same time) and has a democratic composition style, something new for the band since Jon Anderson composed almost everything in their previous albums.

All songs are great, but there are some that are better (duh!). In my opinion, Yours is no Disgrace is the best song of this album and a killer introduction for the album (seriously, the choice for the first song of the album could not have been better); Starship Trooper comes in second and as the third best song comes Perpetual Change. Although at first i thought that The Clap and A Venture were fillers, now i see they fit well in the album flow and are actually very good songs (The Clap is even kind of copied by Yezda Urfa, because Texas Armadillo have some similarities with it).

Grade and Final Thoughts

I don't think that there is something else to say here, besides that this album is an absolute rock classic. 5 stars and end of story.

CCVP | 5/5 |

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