Yes

What is your favourite Yes album?

  • Yes (the album)

  • Time And A Word

  • The Yes Album

  • Fragile

  • Close To The Edge

  • Tales From Topographic Oceans

  • Relayer

  • Going For The One

  • Tormato

  • Drama

  • 90125

  • Big Generator

  • Union

  • Talk

  • Open Your Eyes

  • The Ladder

  • Magnification

  • Fly From Here

  • Heaven & Earth


Results are only viewable after voting.

Stardust

Rainmaker
So I've noticed that there's no Yes thread. I was searching for one and when I didn't find one, I got the idea to start a Yes thread myself. It was only when Perun posted the Artist Thread Index thread that I decided to actually start it. Well, here it is.

For myself at least, Yes was one of the great mysteries for me during my relatively recent music journey (which started about one and a half year ago, by the way). People said the band was one of the absolute greats in progressive rock, but people also said they were the worst progressive rock group ever so I was a bit confused. It took a while until I eventually decided to listen to Fragile which I heard was one of their best albums. I recognized Roundabout since I had heard that one on classic rock radio. I really liked the album on first listen - I was especially taken by the group compositions, such as South Side Of The Sky and Heart Of The Sunrise. It, however, didn't take long before I fell in love with the solo numbers as well. In the end, Fragile remains my third favourite album ever. Its status is very well deserved in my opinion.

I then listened to The Yes Album where I found my favourite Yes song; Starship Trooper. However, I found that the keyboard playing wasn't as top notch as Fragile was. I looked it up and sure, a guy named Tony Kaye played on that album. He's good for sure, but I don't find him as great as Rick Wakeman. Steve Howe, the new guitarist was possibly the best part of the album - The Clap is great.

I then turned to Close To The Edge. I wasn't quite as impressed with this one on first listen but repeated listens did the trick nicely. I especially liked Siberian Khatru and its guitar work. The song Close To The Edge itself wasn't exactly the magnum opus that everyone said it was, at least in my opinion. I did really like some parts of the song; the I Get Up, I Get Down section specifically. Actually, what I like the most about Close To The Edge is that it's pretty much a 18-minute pop song. At least that's what I see from the song structure. There was also And You And I on the album but that song didn't make the mark for me.

I could talk about my experiences with every album but that would be very boring, wouldn't it? So, I won't be talking much longer.

Now, with all that said, I'll start out with three questions for anyone interested in posting.

1: What is your favourite song by them?
2: What is your favourite album by them? (there is a poll for this)
3: What is your subjective opinion on the band as a whole?

Optionally, you can also state your reasons why. Well, then, I think that's all.

Now, discuss!
 
1: Favorite song is tough, they have a bunch of different eras that play to different strengths. Lots of material to compare. I lean toward the songs Close To the Edge, Gates of Delirium, and Heart of the Sunrise. The last one is extra special because it was the song that really got me hooked on Yes

2: Favorite album is easy, Close to the Edge. Everything about that album is perfect.

3: Yes is a good band. They have a ton of material but most of it is worth hearing. I would recommend listening to everything up until Tormato, from there you can be more selective but I was very surprised at how good a lot of the post Big Generator albums are. The only truly awful ones are Union and Heaven and Earth.

I'm surprised you got such a mixed reaction on them, Dusty. I know there are some who dislike Yes (the vocals seem to be the most controversial part), but I think just about every prog rock fan at least respects their contribution to the genre. They were hugely influential.

I looked it up and sure, a guy named Tony Kaye played on that album. He's good for sure, but I don't find him as great as Rick Wakeman.
I can see how going back to Tony Kaye after familiarizing yourself with Wakeman can be a bit underwhelming, but it's really unfair to compare them. They're both very different players. Wakeman wanted to create complete orchestrations with his keyboards and was really into synthesizers. Tony Kaye was more of a traditional organist. I'd say the one strength he had over Wakeman was that he was better at interacting with the other players. Wakeman was always more in his own little world.
 
Tony Kaye was more of a traditional organist.

Tony Kaye was fired specifically because he refused to play any keyboards except a Hammond organ. Also, he shared a hotel room with Steve Howe on The Yes Album tour, and there were personal problems between Kaye and Howe. Mainly that Kaye brought a girl back to the room after every show, leaving Howe out in the cold - and Kaye loved drinking, while Howe did not.

Source:
41KV2tZCfHL._SX309_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

A great book written by a Brit journalist who covered them for Melody Maker from their beginning.
 
Not surprised. It was clear they needed a more adventurous keyboardist for the direction they were headed in, but Tony Kaye is still great on those first three albums.

Speaking of ex-Yesmen, Peter Banks, the guitarist before Howe, is also quite underrated IMO. He had a very Jazzy style to his playing.
 
Great band. I hate rating stuff though....

Yes - The Yes album is not their most accomplished album if you will,. but the one I can hear again and again and again....great album :)
 
I have never managed to finish a whole Yes album because I have trouble with liking the voice of Mr. Anderson. We did talk about Chris Squire in the Progressive Rock topic (when he died) and Steve Harris mentioning him.
 
The Yes Album for albums. On songs, it would have to be between Close To The Edge, and Awaken - the latter I've been especially fond of since I saw Yes last year. I've never gelled much with anything post-Tormato, with the exception of 90125, which I listened to a lot in the 90s for some reason (student fad, maybe?).

I must have spent a lot of my early years listening to Yes - thanks, Dad - and always thought Jon Anderson's voice was the perfect fit. I wasn't actually aware until comparatively recently that the vocals were such a big divider of opinion.
 
That Yes bio I posted above goes into detail about when Anderson and Squire met, and formed the idea of Yes before they found anyone else. The big thing for them was always the vocal harmonies; they wanted to specifically bring Beatles-style vocals to a new style of rock. Anderson and Squire had a great vocal blend. This is why I don't like Yes without Anderson and Squire; without their vocal harmonies; it's not Yes. It's just another prog group.
 
Two new questions?

1: What is your least favourite song by them?
2: What is your least favourite album by them?
 
Or Heaven & Earth. It's especially sad that it'll be remembered as Chris Squire's last album. Fly From Here would've been a much better swan song for him.
 
It has similar problems to Union. I only listened to each album once and hardly remember them, but I remember both being very monotonous and dull. Lots of mid tempo songs with no energy.
 
As I stated on some other thread, TFTO is an album I am fascinated by. First of all, it took balls to record four side long songs. Then, they played the whole thing live on tour (I was too young to go)! Is it their best LP? No. But there is not much else out there from well known bands where this has been attempted. Self-indulgent? Yes.
I admit it had to grow on me, but so did AMOLAD.
 
You're in luck: http://yesworld.com/2016/04/yes-usa-tour-2016-tales-topographic-oceans-1-4-drama/

Just Side 1 and 4 though. Not really interested in a Yes without Chris Squire, at this point it's a glorified covers band IMO.

Thanks! Since they are skipping Texas (where I live), guess I now have a great excuse to finally fly to DC for the first time to see the show (& the sights)!
Yes, w/o Squire or Anderson it won't be the same, but I still won't get that many chances to see that material played live by ANYBODY so I will still go.
 
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