GOING FOR THE ONE

The return of Rick Wakeman... and a disappointment too. This follow up to the amazing relayer is terrible. Yes have gone from produced well structured progressive, built up, multi layered and experimental expansive pieces to these songs which sound rushed, out of place and thrown together with little thought. The guitar, synth and keyboards sound so harsh. Its as if everyone is trying to play their pieces and once and it sounds like a huge melee of squeling instruments. The vocals are dull, squeaky and repetitive. The emotion in jons voice sounds fake and uninspired here.

The wild guitar intro to going for the one is a disgraceful and it sounds like a mess. The repetitive lyrics really get on my nerves and this 5 minute piece was hardly progressive at all. "Turn of the Century" had some ok acoustic guitar work and sounded a lot calmer. The lyrics and vocals were ok. I think it was unneccesarily long and didn't seem to go anywhere but was one of the more tolerable songs on this album. "Parrallels" sounded like classic yes that i am used to at times but mostly sounded like another mass slaughter of instruments like on the first track.

Side two was more promising with "Wonderous Stories" but i still wasn't impressed. the last few minutes of Awaken were ok yet it had a pretty uninspiring climax. Yes really started to lose their way during and after this album and it is a real shame that they couldn't produce anything good after Relayer. Luckily "The Yes Album", "Fragile", "Close to the Edge", "Tales from Topographic Oceans" and "Relayer" are masterpieces of prog and landmark Yes as one of the greatest prog bands of all time. "Going for the One", however is a disasterpiece.