YES

The great problem of progressive rock, in Brazil, with the discography either of proto-prog and early-prog is chronological, since first albums for bands that reached knowledge in the 70s were released after their mid-careers and most succeeded works. One can number several reasons but the matter is that around 1970, labels were more interested in the international mainstream pop-rock like Creedence, Santana, Bread or Carpenters and as ever to supply the internal market with our own popular or pop-folk music (national artists respond for 75% or more of the market).

When the wave of progressive arrived, around 1971, Brazilian labels released progressive band's most actual efforts forgetting that they had a musical past; for instance, the first Yes album released here was "The Yes Album", first Floyd was "Atom Heart Mother" and first Genesis was "Nursery Cryme" - according to a brief research I did. It was obvious that in some moment the almost forgotten past had to be fetched up.

I was aware of "Yes", circa 1974, and I can't remember if it was by means of a tape or a LP. When hearing this album I noticed that it should be a great deal back in 1969 but after more than five years it sounded oddly puerile, with a psychedelic touch already looking out-of-date. Being then with the mind aimed to stuff like "Fragile" or "CttE" I wasn't very impressed and I confess that except for random hearings of some tracks I lost contact with "Yes" until recently.

It was entertaining to re-hear this album after those years; I still don't appreciate too much Anderson's voice but he seemed contained, giving more space to musical abilities of other members - and they were great, even considering their unripeness and timidity. For me Yes members' musicianship had always been their highest point - even the line-up was not the classical one; however Kaye and Banks are above-average players.

Just like 30 years ago I do prefer the covers 'Every little thing' and 'I see you'; the Lennon & McCartney song received a royal treatment that exploited all possibilities of its tune and the result is much more interesting than the Beatles 1964 recording; the Byrds cover at least matches the original record, a simple song, a bit psychedelic, very pleasant. One may say I am biased, since Beatles and Byrds are my preferred classic rock bands - but I cannot simply erase my memory and throw my taste away. The other songs attract me more now than in the 70s with special care to 'Survival' and 'Lookin around', both very progressive and agreeable. Other songs are hearable once you want to listen to the album as a whole. One single with the covers or one EP with the four better tracks could be appealing - but that's the CD era and the most probable is to pile 2 or 3 past albums in one disk.

This is really a good work, but not necessarily essential. Total: 3.