FRAGILE

My thoughts on Fragile vary as much as from one track to the next. This album I feel suffers from an ambition to showcase musical talent too much (although the members did have it in bags!) although this does not make it a poor album, indeed whereas ELP's works or Floyd's Studio Ummagumma lose out in a big way from overdoing it on the solo front, Yes achieve still a relatively decent balance.

Essentially I can't complain about any of the collaboration efforts on this album. Heart of the Sunrise, Roundabout, Long Distance Runaround and South Side of the Sky are brilliant works from a band clearly hitting its peak. As I said, my only gripe is with some of the solo tracks, they just don't feel right at times, they're not bad in most cases (though Bruford's 5% for nothing seems somewhat pointless) but they do come across as filler at times, but still, decent filler.

I would say get this album, it showcases some of Yes' "greatest hits" and acts, along with the Yes Album as a great gateway album to the rest of the band's catalogue.