Fragile vs. Relayer - Progressive Rock Music Forum

Relayer. Much more sophisticated. On Fragile I like the actual longer tracks very much indeed, but those solo pieces always seemed a gimick that wore thin pretty quick.

Relayer. Partly for the keyboards, and partly because it strikes me as a more mature and unified album.

Fragile -- it's a classic, with the beautiful Heart of the Sunrise & Long Distance Runaround, the rocking South Side of the Sky & Roundabout... and the "filler" so many here refer to is not "filler" -- it's experimentation; prog rock being invented and expanded.

(It's also seque and respite.)

I enjoy the whole album! It blew me away at the time! (I think it's tied for first place with CTTE.)

Relayer is good, but less cohesive for me. My fave there is NOT Gates of Delirium, but To Be Over (I like a lot of beauty in prog -- I love Howe's lovely slide on it). Sound Chaser (cha cha cha...) is a bit of a mis-step, and I miss Wakeman.

I think more rock/metal-oriented fans (especially younger members) prefer Relayer. "Gates" certainly rocks. (Though I prefer the pretty and uplifting final section.) Many old-time Yes fans didn't like the more chaotic/aggressive Relayer "back in the day." (I liked it, but didn't buy it for years -- my best friend had it.)

Fragile is classic, quitessential Yes -- Relayer is a bit of an anomaly in their catolog. (I had a friend in the 80s who was into a lot of punk -- Relayer was the ONLY Yes album he liked. That says something about it.)

Edited by Peter - July 30 2010 at 01:14

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

I go with Fragile, really love that album. Relayer has Gates of Delirium, which is a stellar song from Yes, but I don't really like the other songs (To be Over could have been great for me, but it ended up being too soft and long, I very much prefer Howe's shorter instrumental versions). But I like the whole Fragile (well, some of the "fillers" aren't so good for me, but they are very short, and others are great).

beebs wrote:

Elderflower Man wrote:

Fragile for me. I like Relayer, but Fragile was one of the albums which introduced me to Yes and it contains some absolutely stellar material, so it wins this one hands down, in my opinion.

You, sir, hit it right on the head as far as I'm feeling on this topic.

Count me in too.

South Side of the Sky is amazing, the best song on Fragile.
But still Relayer works better for me.

uduwudu wrote:

I The intensity of South Side is awe inspiring - although I do feel it needed another idea to finish it oof a tad better. proabbly why it didn't get a concert airing (as far as I know.)

You're right, South Side wasn't played live for about 30 years until they did their 2003 tour.

I wish I could come up with filler like Mood For A Day.

Amazing how something like this gets regarded as filler. These tracks test of the mettle of the true prog head. Five perecent For Nothing is an amazing piece. Cans and Brahms is classical irony from Mr Wakeman. It has Heart of The Sunrise one of THE Yes songs of all time. The intensity of South Side is awe inspiring - although I do feel it needed another idea to finish it oof a tad better. proabbly why it didn't get a concert airing (as far as I know.) Fragile is magnifque.

Voted for the incomparable Relayer though. The Yes spectrum is well played there (dazzling, lyrical. imaginative, fast, gentle, melodic, intense, powerful) and Patrick Moraz is a fine addition to this band. Sound Chaser usually gets the thumbs down on Relayer (Not from me, I think it is blazing.) Delerium is all I could ever want from Yes (except for all the other stuff...)

Lucky I'm not a fan boy and didn't get both my copies of Going For The One autographed.... plus some other stuff like the Keys poster...

Noak wrote:

Relayer is brilliant. Fragile has a few good songs but I find it overall weak.

^What he said, what he said!!

Fragile, a solid 5 star album in my opinion. Relayer isn't to far behind though.

Poll Question: Which?
Poll Choice	Votes	Poll Statistics
Fragile	68	[52.71%]
Relayer	61	[47.29%]
This topic is closed, no new votes accepted

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