CLOSE TO THE EDGE

Close to the Edge is considered Yes' masterpiece, and it would be hard to agree. Progressive at its core with lengthy compositions and masterful playing, this is one the standouts in Yes' catalog and is one of my favorites, along with their next two albums.

The title track is epic in length, at over 18 minutes of pure progressive fun. It ebbs and flows flawlessly with terrifically executed instrumentation. The rhythm is a great driving force, Steve Howe shows very interesting guitar work throughout (changing between frantic and beautiful, perfectly in flow with the moods), and the vocal hooks throughout are very singable and memorable. The way this track plays out reminds me of "Roundabout" from their previous album in that it variates endlessly on few themes, and it still works perfectly. The lyrics "I get up, I get down" match the flow of the track perfectly.

"And You and I" starts off with beautiful guitar lines by Howe that develop into folky strumming backed by driving bass lines and optimistic vocals in the forefront. It soon dives into psychedelic funk-rock accentuated by underwater sounding vocals leading into a section that is very symphonic with synth and sounds quite majestic. The majesty last throughout the middle of the song until it reverts back to Howe's folky strumming and Anderson's optimistic vocals. A very nice track with a lot of different moods packed in.

"Siberian Khatru" is my favorite on this album, and follows the "Roundabout" style of composition that I feel makes many of Yes' tracks so great. I consider this to be mostly a Howe track; from the beginning he is showing off fantastic chops that many could only dream of executing so perfectly. The heavy and thumping bass really drives this song along. It gets quite psychedelic in the middle and through the rest of the song, and this track is actually the most straight forward on the album. I've gotten many modern pop fans to tell me that they absolutely love this track.

This album is absolutely, undoubtedly a masterpiece among Yes albums and the progressive rock world as a whole. Highly influential and wildly expressive, superior to most prog albums, giving this album less that 5 stars would seem like a crime.