Disco de Yes: “Yes Album [Bonus Tracks]”

The Yes Album was the breakthrough third recording that established the band. The Yes album marks the introduction of the extended works that characterized the Yes sound through the seventies and eighties and also highlights the coming and going of key band members who contributed to that sound. The Yes Album marked the arrival of guitarist Steve Howe and the departure of keyboardist Tony Kaye (to be replaced by the more synthesiser oriented Rick Wakeman during their most successful period).

"Yours Is No Disgrace" kicks off the set with a classic chopping riff from Steve Howe and a stirring organ from Kaye, reminiscent of western movie soundtracks. Bass player Chris Squire and drummer Bill Bruford (later of King Crimson and others) add energy and pace to keep the piece moving through its interesting twists and turns allowing keyboards and guitar to interplay with vocals.

The lyric, sung by Jon Anderson, is most definitely a hang over from the sixties ("Yesterday a morning came, a smile upon your face. Caesars Palace, morning glory, silly human race. On a sailing ship to nowhere leaving any place. If the summer change to winter, yours is no disgrace."). 40 years later, I still love that imagery, although to be honest, I have little idea what it is all about. You love or hate the ethereal, sometimes choirboy, quality of Jon Andersons voice, and if you love it, he could be singing a shopping list for all that matters.

A live version of "Clap" is a fun interlude. It is a ragtime like piece - popular in the UK folk circuit at the time - allowing Steve Howe to demonstrate his guitar virtuosity. Although this may seem to be a filler, it sets up the next track beautifully with a similar acoustic guitar section to bridge "Life seeker" and "Disillusion".

"Starship Trooper" is composed of three pieces. Andersons "Life Seeker" again features Kayes stirring organ, Squires "Disillusion", with aforementioned guitar, and Howes "Wurm" which is basically a riff building up to a crescendo which works wonderfully at full volume. Budding guitarists can work the "Wurm" riff out by sliding a C chord up and down the fretboard - you are on your own as far as the stratospheric guitar solo goes.

"I've Seen All Good People" opens up what was originally side two of the vinyl recording. Made up of separate parts by Anderson and Squire, the second part "All good People" works as an introduction to "Your Move". This will be my last dig at Yes lyrics, but "Your Move" appears to be a treatise on love and chess ... "don't surround your self with yourself, move on back two squares. Send an instant karma to me, initial it with loving care, yourself..." opines Anderson. A beautiful song nonetheless - with a recorder and organ adding depth to what would have otherwise been just pleasant. "All Good People" crashes in with the powerful rhythm section, augmented by the organ, driving the vocal and guitar lines.

"A Venture" once again provides an interlude between the longer tracks, this time allowing the bass and guitar to work together in what would become a signature sound of Yes - Chris Squires percussive bass snap and Steve Howes squealing guitar. A jazzy piano solo ends the track.

"Perpetual Change" again features the characteristic guitar/bass sound in this Anderson/Squire composition, that partnership also to become a central feature of future recordings. As a single piece rather than an amalgam of separately composed tunes, "Perpetual Change" flows more smoothly and is a more satisfying piece - presaging the longer works of future recordings, not least "Tales From Topographic Oceans".

Clocking in at about 45 minutes, this was the standard length of a recording made for vinyl. There are other re-issues and remasters that include two singles ("Life Seeker" and "Your Move") excerpted from extended tracks and a studio version of "(The) Clap" but you are really not getting much more than this original.

There is an excellent review by "Bob" from L.A. that discusses different audio versions of this disc. I don't have the HDCD or SHM-CD versions of this disc to compare to. That would be the ideal, no doubt. So with that limitation, I will say that this new MFSL gold is an excellent audiophile release of my favorite Yes disc. The Yes Album really was the first presentation of Classic Yes and the songs remain my favorites by a long shot. Steve Howe makes a stunning debut with the band on guitar. Like Steve Hackett of Genesis, he was the key guitar addition to an existing band that elevated them immediately. I really like Tony Kaye's effective keyboards and while not the virtuoso that Rick Wakeman was, this Yes Album lineup really gels. Once Wakeman joined, Yes became big with 'Fragile' and then progressively more complex with each release, in some ways too much so for their own good. They imploded after 'Tales' and the revolving door of members became commonplace. But on The Yes Album, they were focused and wrote true classics such as "Yours Is No Disgrace", "I've Seen All Good People/Your Move", "Perpetual Change" and "Starship Trooper". But as this was my first Yes album, I am biased and much of that is emotional. I am sure people who bought 'Close To The Edge' as their first Yes album would feel the same.

I am not a big fan of the newest batch of Mobile Fidelity discs. Some are excellent, incorporating SACD as well as gold quality (eg. "Everybody's In Showbiz" by the Kinks). Others, such as the new release of Abraxas by Santana and Yes' Fragile leave me wanting more sonically. So it is a mixed bag now where I used to hear consistently higher quality from Mobile Fidelity. I am happy to write that this MFSL release of The Yes Album is the best that I have heard of the newbies. Not boxy, not too bright. Nor did they impose a loudness boost that can ruin some remastering.

When I listen to a new release of an album that I know well but new things are heard, I know something special has happened. Such is the case with the new Mobile Fidelity gold of The Yes Album. Unless you go vinyl, this is as good as I can imagine hearing digitally. I have a number of different formats of cd's - SACD, SHM-CD, HDCD, HQ, Blu-Spec and gold discs such as Mobile Fidelity and DCC/Audio Fidelity. The most consistent for me are the older MFSL gold discs and SACD. I am happy to add this gold cd to one of my better sounding ones. As Bob also said, it is too bad that reviews of different cd releases get lumped in together sometimes on Amazon. So I will be specific once more and say that this new MFSL gold release of The Yes Album is highly recommended.

There are a few records that define their moment with utter clarity, and this is one. Like Revolver, The Madcap Laughs, The Land of Grey and Pink, Pawn Hearts, Nursery Cryme, Another Green World, Hunky Dory, Electric Warrior, and others, The Yes Album is quintessential and unique. No question, 30 years is nothing to this album. But to really get it, you had to hear it in 1971.

Bruford's drumming literally knocked you down - every listen gave you another "how did he do THAT?" Squire's snarling play sang and elevated the bass to a lead role - the most melodic bass playing next to Richard Sinclair you'd ever heard by then. Brittle then fluid, jagged then round, franatic then calm, Howe redefined rock guitar. Kaye's keyboards are still closer to rock than the later classical discipline of Wakeman, and his work travels from support to the front, shadow to light, adding dimension where it's needed. On top, Anderson's maturing writing and vocals brought glimpses of poetry and a language the began a more phonetic link to the overall sound. Individually it could seem that they were playing in different directions, different spaces. Yet the whole is light as air, bright as the sun and perfectly solid.

This was new music, authentically new. Complex and accessible, contrapuntal and straight-ahead, there were no words up to describing what was going on here. Take it apart, put it together. Pick a favorite track then discover something new and change your mind. It doesn't matter. With "The Yes Album" things changed. Importantly, the work on this record stands at the boundary between innovation and innocence, and is all the more powerful for the fact that it is free of the sometimes confusing and cumbersome concepts that shaped future releases. The focus was more completely on the music and less on peripheral concerns.

It came from nowhere and set a new reference point for the decade. For a while you could set aside Schizoid Man or balk at the tulmult of A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers. You could compare the brilliant recording quality of Yours is no Disgrace to the muddiness of The Knife. The Yes Album seemed to outshine them all.

Today, there's a better sense of balance, but the fact remains that The Yes Album was a revolution. Purposeful, dynamic, intricate and accessible, recognizeable and completely unique. This gave us all the intelligence and passion we sought in music.

THE BAND: Jon Anderson (vocals & percussion), Steve Howe (guitars), Chris Squire (bass), Tony Kaye (piano/organ/moog), Bill Bruford (drums & percussion).

THE DISC: (1971) Originally 6 songs clocking in at approximately 42 minutes, this digitally remastered (2003) edition adds 3 bonus tracks and lasts just over 52 minutes. Included with the disc is a 14-page booklet containing song credits/titles, song lyrics, band photos, and singles released. This is the band's 3rd album. Recorded at Advision Studios, London. Originally released on Atlantic's label, this reissue released on Elektra by Rhino.

COMMENTS: Indicated in the liner notes - this album needed to attract a much larger audience, or their label (Atlantic) was going to drop them. I'd say YES responded to the challenge. Original guitarist Peter Banks was out. Enter the new - Steve Howe. What a difference one player can make. Where the first two YES albums took on a very experimental psychedelic feel, Howe's playing and writing led them into the progressive rock arena. Listen to Howe's solo on "Yours Is No Disgrace" and perhaps you'll see what I mean ("Can a song really rock and yet also be beautiful?"). I also have to note Kaye's Hammond B3 organ - a solid backbone in many of the songs here. Bruford's drumming, as always, is complex and varied, and proving in some spots that less IS more. Classic YES songs include the 9 minute opener "Yours Is No Disgrace", the 3-part "Starship Trooper" (the best song on the album and one of their finest in their entire catalog), and the 2-part "I've Seen All Good People"... all 3 of these songs featured on many of their compilation discs. The remaining 3 songs are deep album gems - including Steve Howe's acoustic live recording "Clap", "A Venture", and the heavily underrated 8 minute album closer "Perpetual Change" (this song never got its due). The bonus tracks are adequate fare - single version sections of longer songs here "Your Move" (from "I've Seen All Good People"), "Life Seeker" (from "Starship Trooper"), and the studio version of Howe's "Clap". The remastered sound is crisp. YES has many a classic album - and I rank "The Yes Album" 2nd - closely behind 1972's "Fragile" (and slightly ahead of "Close To The Edge"). Classic disc (5 stars).

Classicrockitis is the condition some classic rock albums get when a good percentage of that album has hit singles are classic rock radio staples. Casual fans might feel like they have heard Yours is No Disgrace or All Good People or Starship Trooper enough for one lifetime. Anyone who bought a greatest hits package at any point probably has at least half of the album already, so why bother buying it again for just a few extra songs? Plenty of albums, from Pink Floyd's The Wall to Billy Joel's The Stranger to damn near any Beatles' album, suffers from classicrockitis.

And that's a shame, because much like those albums, The Yes Album is a joyous thing to listen to in its entirety (OK, the Wall might not be joyous, per se, leave me alone). It's trippy, it's proggy, and it's great.