Welcome to Music Banter Forum! Make sure to register - it's free and very quick! You have to register before you can post and participate in our discussions with over 70,000 other registered members. After you create your free account, you will be able to customize many options, you will have the full access to over 1,100,000 posts.
Yes’ unassuming 1969 debut simply titled “Yes” is mainly a collection of late 60’s style mature pop songs, with some complex songs mixed in that slightly foreshadow the progressive band that Yes would quickly transform into.
As mentioned, the sound of the album is very rooted in late 60’s style pop music, but it doesn’t come across sounding shallow at all, mainly due to the playing. All the band members are extremely technically proficient, which has always been a hallmark of Yes. Over Yes’ career, they’ve had somewhat of a revolving door of players, which didn’t always work in their favor, but Yes were always able to recruit top talent, and even here with their original line-up, the level of playing is absolutely upper class. I also want to mention the production, which is crystal clear and better than many debut albums released around the same time period. My last point on the sound is that they sometimes come across sounding a little derivative of The Beatles. They even cover The Beatles’ “Every Little Thing,” but it is one of the shining moments of the album. I actually like Yes’ version of the song better than the Beatles’ version. Yes adds an amazing 2-minute complex intro to the song, it is much heavier than The Beatles’ version, and I have to say that I even like Jon Anderson’s vocals on the track better than Lennon and McCartney’s duet vocals.
As for the other songs, they can really be broken down into two groups. “Beyond and Before,” “Looking Around,” “I See You,” and “Sweetness” fall into the pop group, and “Harold Land,” “Every Little Thing,” and “Survival” fall into what I’ll call the more mature, complex pop group.
My two favorites from the pop group are “Beyond and Before” and “Looking Around.” Both songs sound more mature than the other pop tracks, and there’s great instrumentation on both songs. The worst of this group is the Mary Poppins inspired “Sweetness.” Jon Anderson’s voice paired with the lyrics of “She brings the sunshine to a rainy afternoon/ she puts the sweetness in/ and stirs it with a spoon” is very sappy, and its lyrics are way too close to the Mary Poppins song “A Spoonful of Sugar.”
The other three tracks are all excellent. I’ve mentioned “Every Little Thing” already. Then there’s the war story “Harold Land.” It has a great intro and build up, and it climaxes with great organ work from Tony Kaye that gives the song an appropriate feeling of a war march. It then concludes with a one final instrumental jam that really highlights the skill of all the band members.
Lastly, there’s “Survival,” which is phenomenal and easily the best track on the album. Although the track is not broken up into sub-sections, and it is not an extended track, it has an epic feel to it, and it foreshadows the type of progressive music that Yes would create in their “Main Sequence” of albums.
To return to my opening comments, “Yes” really is a pretty unassuming debut album, but it has enough substance and maturity mixed in with its pop backdrop to make it a fun and interesting listen.
I just re listened and the word "unassuming" perfectly sums up their debut release. We have a group that is trying to put out an easy listening pop rock sound with psychedelic influences and a number of Beatles influences to boot as well. But a couple of the songs especially the album opener, have hints of the classic sound that Yes would later go onto develop by their third album.
What the album lacks in songwriting, it does make up for in some great playing by the band members, there was even some impressive rock guitar work on "I See You"
To summarize this album, I'd put it in the same category as the first couple of Genesis albums and that is they're not really worth the listen, unless you're just doing it out of curiosity.
not a good idea, i still voted the Beatles, even if Yes' version is a gorgeous mindfuck
and erm, also, i have very little interest in hearing Yes' first 2 albums
__________________
Malaise is THE dominant human predilection.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Virgin
what? i don't understand you. farming is for vegetables, not for meat. if ou disagree with a farming practice, you disagree on a vegetable. unless you have a different definition of farming.
You rank Beatles for Sale as last on your Beatles list? Even behind Yellow Submarine? Here's my Beatles ranking list...
#1 Revolver
#2 Abbey Road
#3 Sgt. Pepper’s
#4 Magical Mystery Tour
#5 Help
#6 Rubber Soul
#7 The White Album
#8 Hard Day’s Night
#9 Let it Be
#10 Beatles for Sale
#11 Please, Please Me
#12 With the Beatles
#13 Yellow Submarine
PS-- I go back and forth on my ranking of Help and MMT, I think Help is phenomenal.
#1 Rubber Soul
#2 White Album
#3 Sgt. Pepper’s
#4 Revolver
#5 Abbey Road
#6 With the Beatles
#7 Let it Be
#8 Hard Day's Night
#9 Please Please Me
#10 Magical Mystery Tour - the full album with the singles, not the EP only
#11 Help
#12 Yellow Submarine (i quite like George Martin's classical bits, actually)
#13 For Sale (i only like "No Reply", "I'm a Loser" and "I'll Follow the Sun" - the rest - bleh!)
__________________
Malaise is THE dominant human predilection.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Virgin
what? i don't understand you. farming is for vegetables, not for meat. if ou disagree with a farming practice, you disagree on a vegetable. unless you have a different definition of farming.
#1 Abbey Road
#2 Sgt. Pepper's
#3 The White Album
#4 Revolver
#5 Rubber Soul
#6 Help
#7 Magical Mystery Tour
#8 Hard Day’s Night
#9 Please, Please Me
#10 Beatles for Sale
#11 Let it Be
#12 With the Beatles
#13 Yellow Submarine
Ohhh, I really adore Yes' debut album Yes. It may be the fact that it was one of the first albums I discovered when I began to listen to music seriously. I've listened to it so many times... I love each of its tracks, it's an outstanding album for me.
Yes: Yes- 1969
Linear Mode
