Yes

JC 2K3

Right, so I've listened to Close to the Edge to death at this stage and want to get into some of their other stuff, but with 30 or so albums which all tend to require a bit of effort to get into, I haven't a clue what one to get next.

So, recommendations? (and general Yes chat also, if you wish, Steve Howe has to be one of the best guitarists I've ever heard)

Sonnenblumen

Yessongs - although a little dated now but still much great stuff

Karl Hungus

I think Relayer is always a good choice.

remus808

Get Fragile or The Yes Album!!!! My god I love Yes..

And Chris Squire is a better bassist than Howe is a guitarist... he's AMAZING :eek:

Karl Hungus

Yeah, Fragile is also very good.

Fozzy

Yeah, The Yes Album and Fragile are the next best I think. It's been ages since I've listened to any of their other albums

As for their best musician, it's gotta be Rick Wakeman!

Rustar

Fozzy wrote:

As for their best musician, it's gotta be Rick Wakeman!

Watch one of the videos with Howe switching back and forth from electric to pedal steel guitar in a song and tell me that.

Here's my review of the different phases of the Yes history, by album.

YES
Time And A Word
Some sweet songs on these albums, which show the formation of the 'Yes sound'. Songs are pop-length.

The Yes Album
Fragile
'Yes sound' is fully developed, songs are still of pop-length or a little longer. Very accessible tunes to most people's ears.

Close To The Edge
Tales From Topographic Oceans
Relayer
The Big Three. The Power Trio. Three of the finest prog-rock albums in existence...in fact, I consider "Close To The Edge" as the standard by which all prog-rock is measured.
Songs are longer, sometimes symphony-length, and heavily orchestrated and layered.
Tales doesn't get mentioned often, but has some of the best Yes ever, and also some of the hardest to listen to. Some parts come close to achieving a 'religious ecstacy'.
"Relayer" is hard-core, guitar and synth driven, and has some fine stuff on it.

Yessongs
A ton of great live versions of all the previous stuff. The big standout here is the hard-charging version of 'Roundabout'....it rocks so hard, it's almost a different song.

Going For The One
Tormato
A lot of nice stuff on these albums, and some stuff with a "questionable direction". Not really Classic Yes anymore...the songs are heading back towards pop length.

Drama
An exquisite little album during a shake-up period in Yes. Anderson and Wakeman/Kay are gone, and in their place are the two guys from the Buggles, Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes. Yes with an interesting twist.

90125
Big Generator
Trevor Rabin's evile pop influence has created a prog-pop-metal version of Yes. Still fine music, though, many of which are some of their biggest singles of all time.

Union
Interesting because all 40,000 past Yes members play on the album. Still haven't even listened to the whole thing.

Anything after these:
Why?


Special Mention:
ABWH
Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe put out an extremely sweet classic-yes sounding album with strong Anderson influences. Great stuff.


And that's my 49,000 cents.

Hector Gilbert

The essentials if you're becoming a Yes fan are The Yes Album through Going for the One. Personally I also quite like their self-titled album from 1969, they hadn't found their classic sound yet but were certainly approaching it. 90125 is a great 80s pop/rock album that was mostly all written by their new guitarist Trevor Rabin, and it wasn't even meant to be released under the name Yes - the band were forced back together with Rabin in place of Howe because the record label reckoned it would help them shift more units. Their albums after that were mostly just efforts to find some kind of unnatural balance between the AOR the band had become used to playing and the progressive rock of their early days, their last album Magnification (recorded with an orchestra in place of a keyboard player) being the only one that I'd still put on once in a while

Wishbone Ash

Tales from topographic oceans.

mike65

Only have 3 YES albums and two are "fakes" 90125 and Union! I like 90125 I must say but I'm a sucker for Trevor Horn style production values. While Union is not as some of those taking part in it seem to belive. Some nice atmosphereic synth sounds and rocking guitars.

Mike.

Rustar

Hector Gilbert wrote:

The essentials if you're becoming a Yes fan are The Yes Album through Going for the One.

Well said.

Declan A Walsh

I wouldn't exactly classify myself as a Yes fan, but I did like their single releases in the 80s - the most well-known of course being "Owner of a Lonely Heart."

That said, some time after hearing their '70s single "Wondrous Stories" on the radio, I bought the album it was from - "Going For The One". I think the title track was also a single. Basically, I bought the album by a group I was a bit sceptical of on the basis of 2 songs!

I was pleasantly surprised I must say. There wasn't a dud song on the album as far as I was concerned. One track "Awaken" is nearly 15 minutes, but brilliant!

I would recommend it.

Rustar

"Turn of the Century" from that album is one of my favorite songs of all time.

Declan A Walsh

Rustar wrote:

"Turn of the Century" from that album is one of my favorite songs of all time.

Yes (whoops - this is going to be confusing!), "Turn of the Century" is a beautiful song. In fact, it is the only song I think really on the album, which could be classified as a love song. Oddly enough, this was a song that grew on me slowly- it improved with each listening. It probably has the most accessible lyrics of all the Jon Anderson-penned numbers on this album.

Outstanding features of this album: Jon Anderson's vocals, the vocal harmonies amongst the group, Steve Howe's guitar-work, Anderson's odd lyrics (!) and Rick Wakeman's keyboards work. Special mention must be given to Wakeman's use of the church organ and his choral arrangement on the epic track "Awaken". I would have thought it meritted a writing credit, I must say.

By the way, I have a taped recording, from a peculiar rock/adult pop compilation, of a Yes song - "Don't Kill The Whale". Very admirable lyrics and sentiments, but a mixed affair in terms of musicial satisfaction and somewhat naiive as well.

damonjewel

The yes album is my personal favourite, yes and fragile are up there too

wyk

Rustar wrote:

Watch one of the videos with Howe switching back and forth from electric to pedal steel guitar in a song and tell me that.

Here's my review of the different phases of the Yes history, by album.

90125
Big Generator
Trevor Rabin's evile pop influence has created a prog-pop-metal version of Yes. Still fine music, though, many of which are some of their biggest singles of all time.

Union
Interesting because all 40,000 past Yes members play on the album. Still haven't even listened to the whole thing.

Anything after these:
Why?


Special Mention:
ABWH
Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe put out an extremely sweet classic-yes sounding album with strong Anderson influences. Great stuff.


And that's my 49,000 cents.

God I love Yes. However, I really do enjoy the 90125, BG, and ABWH albums for their unique pop/rock sound you can not get from anywhere else. It's about as good a nod to the 80's as you could get from Yes. And it's refreshing to hear them ROCK.

Wez

big b

If close to the edge is the only one you've listened to - and it's a damned fine start! - I'd go for Fragile next, then Topographic Oceans.
Fragile is different enough from Close... to freshen your palate. Still one of my fav's

From an old Yes fan who was lucky enough to see them play live in the 70's :cool: