CLOSE TO THE EDGE

Well here it is! The quintissential lineup of Yes consisting of the holy prophet Jon Anderson's beautiful vocals, Chris Squire and his pounding bass, Rick Wakeman tearing up the keyboards like no other man does, Bill Bruford with the rythmicly dynamic drums, and Steve Howe's virtuoustic guitar playing skills. At the time, this was the most pretigious lineup prog had ever seen, so one can only guess what kind of album that makes for. This is it, the essential all time masterpiece of progressive music. Never has an album ever been made quite like this and never one ever will.

The album opens with the ambient sound of waves and soon crashes into a barrage of instrumental complexity. The patterns in the first part of the song are purely rediculous and just send my head swirling into some kind of frantic contiuum of bewilderment. No matter what mood I may be in at the time, this song jump starts my energy and sends me going crazy. It's very strange and upbeat and almost impossible to keep up with. Soon enough Anderson's vocals come in and things slow down for a more melodic vein; the patterns continue to be masterful however. Each and every second of this song is planned out with great time and effort. There isn't a single note out of place here. Things become very upbeat with a nice hopping bass groove and vocal lines that are easy to sing to. It's not often we get symphonic prog this groovy and melodic yet so complex. About halfway through the song, things slow down to a very surreal key passage. The organ in this section of the song always sends me musical orgasms. There's nothing else quite like it. I don't really know what else to say about this song. This is just the greatest epic track every produced, period.

After the epic Close To the Edge, things don't fail to disappoint. We get the very beautiful And You And I. This song is completely washed in mellotron and some very clean guitar by Howe. A beautiful piece with not a single second of uneccesary meandering. And after this we get another very groovy track. Siberian Khatru moves on with some nice basslines as always and more amazing musicianship by the rest of the band. If one ever needs to impress anyone with the magic of prog music, this is the album to send them. It's an experience all the way through. 3 epic tracks, not a second of wasted time. Essential!