THE YES ALBUM

An album that absolutely stands the test of time, more so than several Progressive Rock classics of the 1970s in my opinion. I liked this album then and find that I like it even more now. It's something that I can easily listen to at any time.

The cheap cover art (I know, let's get a polystyrene window-dummy head, suspend it from the ceiling using a nylon line and take a photo of the band standing behind it looking po-faced like zombies) belies the music, which is top quality progressive rock without sounding too pretentious, at least to my ears. By the way, Tony Kaye does a great job on keyboards.

I'm a sucker for melody and a good tune, and this album supplies these in abundance, but without sounding at all lightweight or twee. Unlike on later albums, not all the lyrics are totally abstract. Again Jon Anderson's voice and the lyrics themselves add another, pleasant, hue to the picture.

I enjoy all the tracks and I can't pick a favourite. I do think 'Your Move', the first part of 'I've Seen All Good People', is clever: the music really is evocative of the mathematic precision of a chess game. Great stuff.

I'll settle for four stars (Excellent addition to any progressive music collection) as I think the band had even better to come. This is a real classic, though, and a worthwhile investment for any Progressive Rock fan. Highly recommended.