The Yes Album

This is the third album by Yes. It is the first to make the charts when it reached number 40 in 1971. It set the stage for Fragile.

I remember hearing this for the first time on WDVE in Pittsburgh, Pa. Your Move and Yours Is No Disgrace were certainly different even for a progressive radio station. It was light years away from typical Top 40 radio.

The album is dominated by long pieces of music which allow the very talented musicians to spread out and create. At times it sounds symphonic. This was clearly a band to be reckoned with. Steve Howe had just recently joined the band and he seems to have been a catalyst. The Yes Album is their first release made up entirely of songs composed by band members. At times the band doesn't sound like individual instruments but a machine with each of its parts meshing and working perfectly together. And over the top of it all is Jon Anderson's wonderful and soaring vocals.

What a great album. If Yes had never recorded anything else they deserve their place in rock history with this effort alone.