ULTIMATE YES: 35TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION

I have mixed feelings about this compilation. First of all, I can´t decide which version is better. I guess in the end it´s all the same: no compilation does justice to Yes. Simple as that. I agree with much of what the other reviewers say, I conccurs with Easy Livin´s reasoning. Still I think it´s hard to give a newbie a truly overall picture of Yes picking up some tracks from their many releases. Some of their best stuff are just too long to fit propoerly in the limited CD space (Close To the Edge is maybe their most obvious exemple). And some albums are too much a complete affair to be sliced without some considerable artistic damage.

Ok, I know most of the tracks are excellent. Even their 80´s work has some merit, but to mix them with their classics and some of the earlier - pre The Yes Album - stuff is giving a newbie a strange picture. Yes changed a lot over the years and I think that only the whole albums did really shows what they were about on every phase. Yes were never a singles band (even if they did have some hit singles). So this album is really great songs taken out of context (the good CD booklet does not solve this problem entirely either)

Conclusion: if you´re interested in knowing Yes, go for the individual albums. If you get this compilation be aware that each song is only a sample of a greater thing. So when you like one particular tune then you can go for the album it came from. You´ll be rewarded.