RELAYER

Yes's seventh studio album and was released in 1974. I have got the CD with the three bonus tracks, Soon, Sound Chaser (both are single edit) and The Gates Of Delirium in studio run through edit. The structure of the album is somewhat similar to the one of the very best progressive rock album, Close To The Edge. The album consists one 20+ minutes epic followed by two shorter pieces, about 8 to 10 minutes.

One important thing about the album is that this is the only album without Rick Wakeman, the keyboardist. On this album, Patrick Moraz was the keyboardist. Amazingly, he created the same genius album as Rick Wakeman made with Yes. Other thing is, as far as my opinion, songs on Relayer are more technical than songs in other album, means that the solos are qualitatively better, and also, there are more solos to hear. The other other thing to notice is the CD cover, which I think is the best Yes's CD cover besides Fragile and Keys To Ascension. The artwork was produced by Roger Dean, who also produced Fragile's cover.

Personally, I think this is one of the best Yes's album, well, the third best Yes's album for me, after Close To The Edge and Tales From Topographic Ocean. So five stars is what really this album deserves.

The Gates Of Delirium - The strange thing is, this 20 minutes long epic was not divided into parts like many other long epic songs. So the song starts of with a very "Yes" intro guitar solo, just like Close To The Edge, followed by a light music with first verse. "Stand and fight we do consider, reminded of an inner pact between us." with a nice acoustic guitar as the background sound. This first part of the song is a really calm and "jazzy" style, without much of improvisation. As the second verse comes, we can hear nice riffs from the keyboard, which the octaves increased. Now here where I would break the song into parts, the second part would start with the lyric "Listen should we fight forever, knowing as we do now.", since the style is pretty different with the first part or the part before this. The instrumental section is this song is just amazing, a great combination of guitar, keyboard and bass with a dynamic drum lines. So the next part would be an instrumental part, after "The pen won't stay the demon's wings, the hour approaches, pounding out the Devil's sermon." The last part would be when Anderson started to sing again with a really great lyric - I think its called "Soon" as there is a Soon single edit - , simple yet profound, with a calming music. "Soon, oh soon the light, pass within and soothe this endless night." combined with a simple but beautiful guitar sound effects. This is really my favorite part of the song, very beautiful.

Sound Chaser - The song has a really jazzy style with a great drums and bass combination for the intro, White was really a great drummer. When the vocal started, the song got even weirder, with a strange beat and time signature. However, with these weird things, the song was still under control, that is the best thing about Yes's songs. What should you really listen on this song is the bass line, really amazing, and was the foundation of the song. So when the guitar and keyboard did the solo, these amazing bass lines were still in place. Other thing is, and probably the best thing on the song, is Howe's classical guitar solo with "volume swell" effects. Well I can compare it to Erotomania's solo by Petrucci (I am a progressive metal fanboy!!). Then the last half of the song has somewhat the same structure as the beginning of the song, with even greater solos.

To Be Over - The whole song is pretty slower and calmer than the other two songs, with beautiful guitar - bass sound. The thing to notice is, again, the great guitar solo at the fourth minute or so. After that, the vocal starts again, with a nice back sound from the instruments, sounds very "majestic". However this song is not my favorite cause the structure of the song is not that great (compared to the two other songs of course!)

Five big stars for this amazing album, great musicianship, great lyrics, great concept, last but not least, great CD cover!!

Peace On Earth With Music!!

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