RELAYER

Yes

Symphonic Prog

4.38 | 3479 ratings

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FruMp
Prog Reviewer

The perfect counterpart to Close to the Edge

Yes are one of the all time great prog bands releasing some of the most cohesive and beautiful prog ever written, they'd still be one of the all time greats if Close to the Edge was the only album they ever did but here in Relayer after the controversial Tales From Topographic Oceans album they have engineered an album that takes the Close to the Edge album format and imbues it with a very different eclectic kind of musical approach.

'The Gates of Delirium' is the side long epic opening the album and it is the crowning glory, it starts off quite slow paced and nice in a yes sort of way before descending into a jam at around the 6 minute mark from which the song kicks into overdrive prog mode with some exceptional guitar work from Howe. The middle part of the song after the 8 minute mark is my favourite, it's very pacey and interesting and quite dark, then the crazy funky part kicks in just when you thought things couldn't get better. Things then resolve themselves and end very nicely with a beautiful outro passage with Howe again stealing the show with his amazingly diverse guitar abilities.

Sound chaser is the most eclectic song of the 3, it's quite technical and abrupt with the powerful fast end section of particular interest. To Be Over is a nice quiet song to round out the album with some great mellotron work and powerful choruses.

Relayer is a lot different in style to Close to the Edge but in my view it is the perfect counterpoint to it because of that fact, the 2 albums are both exceptional, share the same format and were recorded at the peak of the band's career and like sun and moon they are in perfect contrast. Highly recommended for any prog fan.

FruMp | 5/5 | 2007-10-24

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