Album title: The Yes Album
Artist: Yes
Nationality: English
Label: Atlantic
Chronology: Third
Grade: A
Tracklisting: Yours is No Disgrace/ Clap/ Starship Trooper (i) Life Seeker (ii) Disillusion (iii) Würm/ I’ve Seen All Good People (i) Your Move (ii) All Good People/ A Venture/ Perpetual Change
Comments: The album that could have seen the end of the godfathers of prog, this was Yes’s breakthrough at a time when Atlantic were considering dropping them, due to poor sales of their last two albums. More though, the band were involved in a head-on collision while recording and luckily suffered only minor injuries, but how things could have been different. Tony Kaye, scornful of synthesisers and refusing to play one, left the band after this album, with Steve Howe having already replaced previous guitarist Peter Banks. A little-known keyboard player would take Kaye’s seat for the next album, Rick Wakeman completing what would become the classic Yes lineup for more than a decade.
The first Yes album to stand on its own merits, with not a cover version anywhere (or ever again) it opens strongly with “Yours is No Disgrace”, the harder, more expressive guitar of Steve Howe already evident as Kaye pulls off a very Genesisesque (yes I know) keyboard run, the song one of their longest at this point, just over nine and a half minutes, and showcasing the close harmony singing that would become their trademark. This is, I would venture to say, the first time I really hear prog rock leaking out of every pore of a Yes album. It simply could not be mistaken for anything else. And what’s more, of the four albums we’ve reviewed up to now, it is also the only one I would consider proper prog. This was setting down a marker which other bands would follow for years to come. Jon Anderson’s voice is much more confident here too, though it says he worried the songs would not be popular, until he noted fans singing them at concerts, and knew it was all right.
There’s a real sense of power and energy and exuberance about this first track, the sound of a band who believed they really had something and were going somewhere. They certainly were, as the album broke the chart wide open and took them to number four, leading no doubt to a frantic attempt to destroy those letters of dismissal Atlantic executives were having typed up! Back to the album though. Somehow despite the length of this opening track it doesn’t seem to drag, and keeps the attention throughout, between the sweet almost hypnotic vocals of Anderson and the intricate guitar work of Howe. It seems to me that here Yes had all but discovered and laid down the formula for a proper prog epic, allowing it to develop organically rather than trying to force it, and by gum, it works. After that it’s a short acoustic jaunt called “Clap” which is fun but nothing to write home about, I guess the band basically taking a breather after such a workout.
And there’s another to come, as “Starship Trooper” runs for another nine and a half minutes, with flanged guitar tripping along nicely running into a sweet little acoustic piece with some more close harmony singing. Still, I have to admit the old Yes bugbear raises its head, and I’m already losing interest in this song. I don’t know what it is about early Yes, but I just can’t get into it. Must be me I guess. Good extended guitar solo here in the seventh minute which does succeed in dragging my attention back with attendant organ from Kaye. Okay this is pretty good and now we have a soaring solo from Howe. Yeah I think I would have preferred a better ending though; just fades out. Acapella vocal introduces “I’ve Seen All Good People” with some interesting recorder from Colin Goldring and that “dah-dah-dah-dah” sound that would characterise much of Yes’s sound going forward.
Organ coming in now quite strongly as the song gets grander and more majestic, then a funky guitar from Howe takes the tune in a far rockier direction, nice honky-tonk piano from Kaye too. I can see why this became such a standard. You know, maybe I’m not that bored after all. Ah, right. Faded again. That’s a pity. I thought it was going to end more strongly. Damn good song all the same. “A Venture” is - dare I say it - almost Gilbert O’Sullivan or ABBA in its execution; a much shorter piece, shortest I think on the album, no just beaten by a few seconds by “Clap”. Second shortest then. It’s all right but a bit of a comedown after its predecessor. Superb piano solo though, reminds me of Supertramp’s “Child of Vision” off
Breakfast in America. The album then ends on one more epic, the almost nine minute “A Perpetual Change”, which opens with driving organ and guitar, very punchy, and the song develops nicely with Anderson in top form as the album that could have been the end of Yes comes to a triumphant conclusion.
Favourite track(s): Pretty much all of it other than
Starship Trooper
Least favourite track(s): Starship Trooper duh
Overall impression: I can honestly say that, with the odd exception, this is the first early Yes album I’ve really enjoyed. Whether I would listen to it again on my own I don’t know, but I definitely prefer it to the first two, which to my ears didn’t sound really in the vaguest prog rock at all. This one does, and shows where the band were heading. If nothing else, it shows how proficient this young band had become not only at playing their instruments, but at recording and producing their albums.
Personal Rating: 4.0
Legacy Rating: 5.0
Final Rating: 4.5