Yes: Relayer

Relayer

Best song: The Gates of Delirium

Worst song: To Be Over

Overall grade: 6

‘Relayer’, the seventh Yes album overall, is notable for being the last in a string of three to have 4 or less tracks, the last in a string of four to have awesome Roger Dean cover paintings, and the last before the band took their first hiatus to release solo material. It’s also notable for not featuring Rick Wakeman on keyboard-type instruments. As the story goes, he told the band he was quitting, but none of them took him seriously, and then he later got a phone call: “Why weren’t you in rehearsal today?” “…Because I quit.” Which prompted the band to find a quick replacement.

This replacement ended up being Patrick Moraz, a classically trained jazz keyboardist who had some credits in that he’d worked with members of The Nice, but was largely unknown. Just as significant was the other lead contender for the role, Greek electronic composer Vangelis, who would later release albums with Jon Anderson during his early 80s hiatus from Yes. I actually saw some Jon & Vangelis albums in a shop the other day, and I was tempted, but eventually decided it was too big of a risk to buy without listening first – though I will listen, because I think the blend of their musical styles could be really interesting. There’s no denying ‘Relayer’ would be a whole lot different if he had played on it, or Wakeman for that matter.

Because despite being new, Moraz’s influence is all over this album, a crazy experiment in jazz fusion. Liking the other classic Yes albums is definitely no guarantee you’ll appreciate this one, as there’s none of the symphonic, well-organised style of prog music that they’re famous for. And none of this is more apparent than on Side 2’s opener ‘Sound Chaser’, a well-titled cross between Lizard-era King Crimson and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. It’s full of sudden changes in volume, dynamics and tempo that pushes the band to their absolute limits of speed and creativity. Yes, they’re really just showing off all the tricks they can do, but there are a LOT of tricks, and it still manages to be more of a song than a jam. This is helped by the vocal sections that appear sporadically, although they’re actually my least favourite parts of the song, although I guess Jon didn’t have a whole lot else to do, so I’ll give him his moment. Far more interesting are Steve Howe’s guitar workouts and the funk-like chanting of ‘cha cha cha!’

The only other track on Side 2 is the light to ‘Sound Chaser’s dark, the gorgeous and melodic ‘To Be Over’. If I hated it I could make a crack about it being well-titled too because I’m always waiting for it to be over, but sadly that’s impossible, because I’m never looking forward to the end, even if the similarities between this and previous songs like ‘And You And I’ and ‘South Side of the Sky’ prevent it from being one of the band’s finest hours. The first three or so minutes are my favourite part, a kind of proto-dream pop that’s gentle and relaxing, and brings you down from the intensity of the previous song while still having little nuances that make it work on its own. The rest of it’s got slightly sharper edges, and I’m guessing that it’s this that inspired the icy painting we see on the cover.

But these two pale in comparison to the grandiose statement of Side 1’s ‘The Gates of Delirium’. In actual fact, this is the last sidelong Yes would attempt until 1997’s ‘The Solution’, which isn’t even a real song. ‘Gates’ is definitely a real song though, and what a song! Like all good sidelongs, it’s based around a pretentious concept (Tolstoy’s ‘War & Peace’) and can be categorised in at least ten musical genres. It starts off with a prelude that runs through all the different emotions felt as the battle approaches, featuring some particularly excellent vocal melodies from Jon, and then leads neatly onto an instrumental detailing the battle itself. The section’s incredibly dense and full on in a way that captures the terror and confusion of war. Alan White plays very well here, having had a chance to settle into the band that he hadn’t had when recording ‘Tales’. Then, the music does the same thing as side two by seguing from this into a quiet, beautiful ballad, known as ‘Soon’, the peaceful lyrics of which are at odds with the really quite evil ones of earlier. Much like ‘Sound Chaser’, although the instrumentals are unstructured and just feature the instruments playing off one another, the different sections give the song an overall purpose and flow.

To conclude, this is actually one of my absolute favourite Yes albums, and while it’s not quite as immaculately put together as ‘Close To The Edge’ its appeal often lies in its disorganisation. That being said, I generally feel slightly dirty after listening to this and loving it, and I have to go put on Rick Wakeman solo albums to make myself feel better.