TIME AND A WORD

Excellent album here from the earliest carnation of Yes, in the same vein as the debut, psychedelic rock with great vocal harmonies, quite decent song writing and excellent musicianship, particularly from the bass of Mr. Squire and the drums, courtesy of Bill "Poodle hat" Bruford. More covers still, the band puts out an excellent version of "No Opportunity Necessary" and "Everydays" which happens to be a real highlight. Yes were definitely did the best covers back then, just transforming almost everything into their sound.. excellently. The classic track "Sweet Dreams" is also featured on this album, but actually happens to be the least in quality.. There is a single clunker in "Clear Days", but the rest of the album is actually really great, "The Prophet" and "Everydays" are the pinnacle of early Yes. The title track is another classic, one of the most nostalgic for me as the first Yessong I became familiar with all those years ago. The bass playing is incredible, the 2003 remaster really brought out all of Chris' excellent lines on this album.

The orchestra.. hmm.. I feel pretty neutral towards it, in tracks like "Then" where it stays in the backround to add a fuller sound and emphasis is where it's best used, and in that regard I think it was a great addition to the bands sound. Other songs like "Clear Days" it just sounds terrible.

Overshadowed by the other 70's epics, I think if this album came from another band, the rating would be substantially higher. It's an excellent example of psychedelic Hammond rock.