TIME AND A WORD

Although Time and a Word sees Yes make a few steps towards establishing their own identity rather than chasing their musical heroes, it's also compromised critically in a number of key aspects. The main issue is the inclusion of a string section on many of the songs, which gives rise to two different problems.

The first is that the string sections just don't contribute much; they're not very imaginative, they're kind of saccharine and undermine rather than contributing to the mood of the songs, and if Rick Wakeman were in the band at that point in time he could have outplayed them in his sleep with one hand tied behind his back. And that leads to the other problem: Tony Kaye keeps getting upstaged by the strings, and Peter Banks is all but absent on some tracks.

That said, the band do rise above these shortcomings, and the album presents many points of interest - Jon Anderson's singing is still improving, Chris Squire's bass playing and Bill Bruford's drumming is still tight, and when the band isn't hampered by the strings they're pretty good. (In particular, there are some nice jazz-influenced sections which work quite well). But whilst they're good, they're not great yet, and those strings are a needless encumbrance they'd swiftly move beyond. Three and a half stars, perhaps a touch more for appreciators of the intersection of proto-prog and psychedelia.