FRAGILE

Why flawed? Because among a lot of noisy and overproduced crap, there are moments of nice beauty here and there. I mean, sometimes the album seems to lose its direction but it depends of the different tastes if it's a fake impression or not. For me, Yes is an overproduced and pretentious band per se, but here in Fragile they can control themselves to guide their music to another way more accesible. Where CTTE exceeds on jamming, Fragile is no more or less when it's neccesary. In other words, if you ask me to rate track by track to this one, surely my final average is something close to a 4.1. But, as a whole album (and that is the way we should review IMO), this album deserves the fifth star.

The most recognizable track is Roundabout, which has a fine classic guitar intro, deriving into a catchy beat; good bass work by Squire. A nicely elaborated song; despite it's a definitive classic (due to its commercial impact), it isn't musically as accomplished as songs like South Side of the Sky, Heart of the Sunrise and Long Distance, which represent Yes at their peak of composition. While Mood for a Day is a purely classic acoustic guitar tune (you'll never hear stuff like this in a Yes CD but in Fragile), Five Percent for Nothing seems like an attempt to reflect their King Crimson influence (in fact, Brufords complex drumming on this one are a previous show of talent to his later join with that band).

In summary, the longest tracks are indeed the best (and were the most succesful too). The short ones could be seen as experiments by each member driven by their respectives instruments, like Cans & Brahms by Wakeman and We Have Heaven by Anderson, among other aforementioned pieces.

Not as elaborated and complex as its predeccesor, but who said complexity = efficiency?? The purest Yes sound that I can find is on Fragile. Certainly a flawed masterpiece, and maybe a bit overlooked too, because of the first huge impact with The Yes Album and then, after this, with Close to the Edge.

This is THE quintessential Yes release. An accesible album, much more than CTTE, and their only one masterpiece. Listen to this album and then you'll be singing along their "tell the moon-dog, tell the march-hare, we have heaven!!" (indeed weird lyrics, aren't they? :)

Kind regards.

Cosick

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