Yes: Going for the One

Going for the One

Best song: Turn of the Century

Worst song: Parallels

Overall grade: 6

Listening to this album is always slightly bittersweet. On the one hand, it’s brilliant and there’s no denying it; on the other, it was Yes’ last truly mindblowing album, and it can only go downhill from here. But it’s still a pretty impressive feat that this one turned out as good as it did: after ‘Relayer’, the band felt they were fresh out of ideas, and took a hiatus to pursue solo projects (of which Chris Squire’s is meant to be the best, though I don’t have it). But then they came back together, with Rick Wakeman returning to the band having made a pretty great start to his own solo career, and they had a whole bunch of new ideas to work with, which over time became this.

I guess that’s the reason why I like ‘Turn of the Century’ so much – it’s more of a collaboration than the others. It’s a slightly folk-influences tune that’s got this really cool production effect in that it starts off sounding like the music’s being played from very far away and gradually gets closer as it moves on. There’s also some ridiculously beautiful harmonies going on; that moment around the four minute mark where thye sing ‘I’m sure we know’ gets me every time. Elsewhere, Wakeman (he’s back! what could make me happier?) pitter-patters over constantly ascending and descending keyboard lines and the feeling I get from it is that the band have reached where they wanted to be. Past the point of needing to constantly prove themselves with the endless 20-minute songs, they’re comfortable with just staying in one place for a bit. It’s almost their equivalent of ‘Abbey Road’.

So if ‘Turn’ sees them content, then the track which gives Yes the new lease of life to reach that point is definitely the title track, which precedes it on the record. Rather than building up slowly like a lot of this group’s songs, it hits you in the face from its first few seconds, and the intensity stays with the song throughout. It almost matches ‘Time and a Word’ in its overwhelming positivity; Anderson’s euphoria can be felt as though he’s standing in the room right next to you and Howe’s guitars sound almost jubilant.

Rounding out side one is ‘Parallels’, an outtake from Chris Squire’s ‘Fish Out Of Water’ album. Now, I have minor issues with Chris Squire as a person in the way he takes total control of the band, treats its other members as disposable and also turned them into an 80s pop machine for a few years, but I do love his playing, and so if I thought this song was really good, I’d admit it. I don’t, though. I think if someone was trying to recreate the style of classic Yes, it would be a fair imitation, but coming from the band themselves it seems a bit uninspired.

Side two opens with the surprise hit single ‘Wondrous Stories’. I actually heard this played on mainstream radio pretty recently, which came as a real shock, though a welcome one. Some people hate it, and to be fair, if the band made a whole album of cute little pop songs like this, I would probably hate it too. But in moderation it works really well, especially coming right before the more challenging ‘Awaken’. Oh, and it strongly features Rick Wakeman’s NEW POLYMOOG! (As someone who doesn’t actually play any keyboards, I probably should not find that as exciting as I do. But it does sound amazing.)

I never used to be big into ‘Awaken’, thinking it didn’t really achieve anything not already improved on with their earlier epics, but then I heard Jon Anderson saying that he saw it as their best, or certainly most complete song, and I thought I’d try to see it in a new light. And you know what? I did. It doesn’t burst with originality in the same way ‘Close To The Edge’ does, but I see Jon’s point in that it’s more planned out, less improvised than earlier works, and it really takes the listener on a rollercoaster ride through musical themes and emotions – moving seamlessly from church organ to guitar solo to ethnic percussion to a sudden cascade of excitement to the sad and melancholy ending. And it all makes perfect sense; after all, they’d had a lot of practice with this extended composition thing by this point, hadn’t they?

If you’re not convinced, then just remember that this album, complete with its 15-minute closer, stayed at number 1 in the charts for two weeks. And it was freaking 1977. Now that’s a triumph.