Yup, for me as well. I'm not sure how much closer you can get to the perfect record. Not saying it's my all-time favourite album, but there's nothing in it which is out of place, boring or wrong and it just sounds amazing from start to finish.

just made a beeline for the Yes album, although I somehow lost my copy of Close to the Edge so i'll probably regret it when the remastered CD arrives in the post...
but yeah, starship trooper

Relayer is good for a laugh, but as cliche it may be I will always dislike Topographic. Threads like this always get me to give it another listen and it just leaves me cold every time

some slightly baffling Last.fm popularity statistics:

Fragile - 108,810 listeners
Highlights (the very best of Yes) - 59,978
Classic Yes - 52,168
Close to the Edge - 43,591
90125 - 41,482
Keys to Ascension 2 - 37,726

eh?

I love Relayer, it might have the cheesiest Yes moment (cha cha cha CHA CHA) but I still consider it one of their classics. Gates of Delirium is one of my top 5 Yes tracks, Soundchaser is awesome (I don't care what anyone says), and To Be Over is one of the more underrated Yes songs.

I can understand the hate for Relayer and Tales though even if they are among my favorites. Tales is not without it's faults for me, I think The Ancient is pretty meh and they should have ditched that track entirely, and The Ritual could have been just 5 minutes shorter because that drum solo near the end is just really out of place. RSOG and The Remembering though are just perfect.

They're certainly the last albums I want to recommend to people who want to get into this band, because they're the kind of albums only Yes fans can get into. The Yes Album and Fragile are obviously the first albums to recommend to people who are curious about this band.

I think Tales is a great album. It just happens to be a little too progressive for some. No instantly recognizable classic rock hits.

Uhm...Never really listened to them, but I will maybe give it a shot ;)

nah, i just find it boring and self-indulgent. They certainly weren't thinking about the audience with that one (although from what you hear of their studio practices they hardly ever were in the first place!)

I think too many people confuse long with boring and self indulgent.

I don't know why people lay this on Yes while not doing the same for classical music, jazz or Godspeed You! Black Emperor!

well Godspeed! and 'Tales' are boring (compared to their best work), but I'm not under any illusions as to song length (come on I'm a Relayer fan fer chrissakes) and it's just a personal op. I just always found that record to be endlessly meandering, never quite ending up anywhere, i.e. boring.
I love a lot of bands/ records that you might consider 'musician's music' but this is beyond the pale for me, as dreadfully common as that might be I just think it happens to be crap. And you know what, I think for something that's not at all enjoyable to listen to it really IS too long!

Well Yes was always the epitome of self indulgence, and I mean that in a good way.