Artist Rundown: Yes (Part 5)

Artist Rundown is a periodic feature in which I briefly share my thoughts, memories and opinions of an artist or group's entire recorded work in chronological order. First up is one of the bands which helped developed my love of and taste in music: progressive rock legends Yes.

Yes - Close to the Edge (1972)

After the one-two punch of The Yes Album and Fragile, it seemed like Yes could do no wrong. The band was quickly reaching its critical and commercial apex, and expectations were high for a fifth album.

Yes proved to be up to the challenge, constructing what many fans to be its creative peak: Close to the Edge.

The album consists of only three songs: one 18-minute title track backed by two 10-minute "mini epics." Songs as long as 20 minutes were not unheard of at the time, but where groups like Emerson, Lake and Palmer composed "suites" of individual-but-interconnected song fragments, Yes wanted to write a Song with a capital "S" -- logical development, melodic continuity and coherent structure were not going to be sacrificed in the name of length.

Yes, "Close to the Edge" is truly a masterwork. The opening alone was enough to hook me: The sound of birds and a bubbling brook suddenly give way to an ominously ascending ensemble riff before transforming into a dense, head-spinning melee of notes and rhythms. Then, without warning, all the instruments stop, and a single chord of harmony vocals bursts through. Just as quickly, the dense jamming returns, even more ferocious than before. And that's just the first two minutes.

As mind-blowing as "CttE" is, the crowning achievement of the album is side B's opener, "And You And I," often a candidate among fans for the best Yes song ever. Everything about it, from the beautifully sad 12-string guitar in the intro to the various tension-release sections, oozes personality and emotion. The first mid-song climax bellows with power, with soaring orchestral mellotron and synth sounds providing the basis for Anderson's beatific vocal. Just when you think it's over, the 12-string intro returns to transition us into something a bit more rock-based but no less trivial before the cataclysmic finale.

That leaves the closing "Siberian Khatru," a slightly more straight-ahead rock tune and guitar showcase that would become a staple curtain-raiser at Yesshows for decades to come. The herky-jerky riff sounds great with the spacious vocal harmonies on top, and the contrasting moods of the shifting vocal refrain sound like they shouldn't work but somehow do. My favorite part of the song is the berserk harpsichord solo, which can only be described as "hilarious" -- and I mean that as a compliment!

Of course, the record was a smash success, reaching Number 3 in the US and Number 4 in the UK (imagine an album with an 18-minute symphonic rock song doing that today). After the album was released, Bill Bruford left the band to join King Crimson, a move shocked everyone considering KC's decidedly "un-commercial" disposition and Yes' success at the time. Of course, this did nothing to quash the ever-expanding ambitions of Anderson and Co. ....