There are a few records that define their moment with utter clarity, and this is one. Like Revolver, The Madcap Laughs, The Land of Grey and Pink, Pawn Hearts, Nursery Cryme, Another Green World, Hunky Dory, Electric Warrior, and others, The Yes Album is quintessential and unique. No question, 30 years is nothing to this album. But to really get it, you had to hear it in 1971.

Bruford's drumming literally knocked you down - every listen gave you another "how did he do THAT?" Squire's snarling play sang and elevated the bass to a lead role - the most melodic bass playing next to Richard Sinclair you'd ever heard by then. Brittle then fluid, jagged then round, franatic then calm, Howe redefined rock guitar. Kaye's keyboards are still closer to rock than the later classical discipline of Wakeman, and his work travels from support to the front, shadow to light, adding dimension where it's needed. On top, Anderson's maturing writing and vocals brought glimpses of poetry and a language the began a more phonetic link to the overall sound. Individually it could seem that they were playing in different directions, different spaces. Yet the whole is light as air, bright as the sun and perfectly solid.

This was new music, authentically new. Complex and accessible, contrapuntal and straight-ahead, there were no words up to describing what was going on here. Take it apart, put it together. Pick a favorite track then discover something new and change your mind. It doesn't matter. With "The Yes Album" things changed. Importantly, the work on this record stands at the boundary between innovation and innocence, and is all the more powerful for the fact that it is free of the sometimes confusing and cumbersome concepts that shaped future releases. The focus was more completely on the music and less on peripheral concerns.

It came from nowhere and set a new reference point for the decade. For a while you could set aside Schizoid Man or balk at the tulmult of A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers. You could compare the brilliant recording quality of Yours is no Disgrace to the muddiness of The Knife. The Yes Album seemed to outshine them all.

Today, there's a better sense of balance, but the fact remains that The Yes Album was a revolution. Purposeful, dynamic, intricate and accessible, recognizeable and completely unique. This gave us all the intelligence and passion we sought in music.

Words almost fail me. I grew up with this on vinyl LP, played it more or less daily, and was one of the first CD's I bought when music started going digital in the latter 1980's. The new remasters offered here sound like the band just recorded the tracks last week, and hearing the album anew makes you wonder what the hell is wrong with most bands these days. Honestly -- doesn't anyone care about creating music that will LAST as well as sell a million units? This music was recorded THIRTY THREE YEARS AGO, and makes your average 2003 era rock band sound like a bunch of lazy deadbeats posing for groupies.

What I will always refer to as as "Side One" of the record [the first three tracks from the CD] are among Album Oriented Rock's finest moments -- the best non Beatles Side One ever, maybe, with ZERO weaknesses. "Yours Is No Disgrace" is some sort of magical time machine disguised as a song; No way is that ten minutes long. It feels more like about three, has the energy needed to overcome any hangover or bad hair day, and remains a breathtaking example of what you can do with stereo sound if you just think a little. "The Clap" is an over the top display of guitar prowess by Steve Howe that still leaves my jaw hanging open in awe of his abilities and awareness of what different sounds a simple acoustic guitar can make: it doesn't even seem like he's really trying, just sort noodling away for a few minutes while the other band members catch a break during a concert. I'd love to hear him play a banjo -- he'd blow that mutant kid from "Deliverance" right out of the water.

And then there is "Starship Troopers", the first extended art rock hit of the 70's, and still a staple of AOR classic rock the world over. With its different sections, flawless musical performances and angelic harmonies with John Anderson's Aquarian age lyrical content that defies literal interpretation, "Starship Troopers" represents a moment in musical history when everything fell together in just the perfect order at just the right time -- this song may be Yes' most important contribution to our culture, "Roundabout" not withstanding. If I ever fly on the space shuttle, I am going to make them play the closing segment during countdown so that we blast off at just the right moment. You can actually feel the speakers of your stereo moving the air particles around them as they kick the bottom into overdrive during the climax.

"Side Two" [or the final three tracks] is a little weaker, but good gravy ... "Your Move/All Good People" remains a cherished radio hit, even though I have personally never really cared for it [too sappy], and "Perpetual Change" was an experiment in audio technology that still boggles my mind as to how they even thought up the idea of merging two different takes into the big climax. Only Bill Bruford could have calculated that beat and nailed it right down to the quarter second on dual tracks. Truly amazing, even though the song does go on for a bit longer than it needed to.

Special personal mention must be made of "A Venture", which remains one of the most haunting little ditties in my collection of Things I Cling Onto From My Youth. To this very day I wish that I could hear the "entire" take of this song, which seems to have been faded out just as the band was starting to go somewhere with it. Steve Howe's non-distorted "jazz" guitar counterpointed by Tony Kaye's grand piano was sadly underutilized, and the solo Howe starts churning out as the piece ends might have even put old Bob Fripp to shame. Maybe the "extra tracks" version will fulfill my wish when it is released this spring ... a seven minute version of "A Venture" would make 2003 for me.

Oddly enough, one of the reasons why I am so fond of "The Yes Album" and "A Time And A Word" both is the ABSENCE of Rick Wakeman. The band represented on these two records was a much more organic outfit, whereas the Wakeman era Yes offerings seem rigidly composed and lacking spontineity. Maybe one of the reasons why I like "A Venture" so much is that they do just seem to be "jamming" as the piece concludes; Rick Wakeman era Yes didn't "jam" in an organic manner, they executed compositions.

I also simply love the sound of Tony Kaye's organ and moog synthesizer on "Yours Is No Disgrace" and especially "Starship Troopers", where his bass pedal and Chris Squries' filtered bass guitar provide a bottom to the sound that really flings it into orbit. While I don't begrudge Yes for replacing Kaye with the much broader talented Wakeman, there is something very special about the albums on which Kaye appeared that Yes never seemed to be able to recapture -- a sense of innocence, perhaps. Much fuss is made of this being Steve Howe's first record with Yes, but I prefer to think of it as Tony Kaye's last Yes album, and have always wondered what became of the electric organ he used when recording it. That sucker belongs in a museum, and Kaye should be Knighted.

I cannot recommend this disc enough -- if you know someone who likes rock music, buy it for them. If you have the old Atlantic issued CD, you owe yourself a copy of the remastered takes. And when the "bonus edition" is released I expect you to pick up a copy of that too ... "The Yes Album" will still be relevant for another thirty three years no matter what happens to the planet or universe, and the same can not be said for many of it's contemporaries. While "Close To The Edge" is probably classic Yes' bona-fide masterpiece and "Fragile" their biggest commercial hit, "The Yes Album" will always be my favorite of their records, no debate.

Five stars all the way.

"The Yes Album" was actually the third album from the group spearheaded by singer John Anderson, but represented enough significant differences from its two predecessors to constitute a new and bigger beginning for the progressive rock group. Guitarist Steve Howe had replaced Peter Banks (who had gone off to join Blodwyn Pig, remember?), the album featured only original material, and the songs now tended to be much longer tracks. The four longer tracks--"Yours Is No Disgrace," "Starship Trooper," "I've Seen All Good People," and "Perpetual Change"--are structured similarly, although each allows for considerable instrumental freedom. Usually a melodic theme is introduced by one member of the band and then echoed by the others. On this particular album the stand out musician is, rather surprisingly, bassist Chris Squire. Sometimes I think they made a mistake on the mix and pumped up the volume on the bass, but then it becomes clear this is by design. Howe's guitar work as well as the organ played by Tony Kaye are given their moments to shine while Bill Bruford's drumming just stays out of the way. However, the defining element of Yes is probably the vocal harmonies, with Howe and Squire blending with Anderson in the falsetto range, highlighted on "All Good People." It was this that made Yes unique from their most obvious British progressive rock counterpart Emerson, Lake & Palmer. However, the best is yet to come, with the additional of Rick Wakeman as the keyboard player and Anderson's continued exploration of oblique lyrics.

With this album, Yes asserted itself as a band that would quickly become one of the most important progressive rock bands ever. The Yes Album was the first in a string of stunning progressive albums (that ended with Going for the One) that all merit deference. While The Yes Album is not as experimental as "Relayer," or as epic as "Close to the Edge," the songwriting, while progressive, is still accessible and engaging. The addition of guitarist Steve Howe was significant, for he became one of the band's most important songwriters. Chris Squire's bass guitar is unique in sound and use. Is it a rhythm or a lead instrument? It's both, really. At the same time, Bruford's jazzy drumming, and Anderson's catchy vocals contribute to this great disc. And while keyboardist Tony Kaye isn't the virtuoso that is Rick Wakeman, his contributions work effectively in context with these songs, which are more humble than, say, "The Revealing Science of God."

The album has its share of classics, from the grandiose and mesmerizing "Starship Trooper" to the hook-soaked "I've See All Good People." (Most people know the latter because Part I gets a lot of radio play...but they're missing the great jamming in Part II.) The songs are all fairly in-depth compositions but they are catchy as well. More than 30 years after this album was recorded, I can listen to these songs and they still sound fresh. It really hasn't dated at all.

This is typically considered to be the first great Yes album, and great it is. Besides being a classic of the progressive genre, it's also a blueprint for building complex, ambitious rock compositions while never losing sight of listenability and "the hook". In between the graceful solos of Steve Howe and the acrobatic bass of Chris Squire, one has to savor the folky, evocative melodies sung by the ever-incomprehensible Jon Anderson. (Why is it spelled "John" in the liner notes?). The three long tracks here really stand out - rocking concert standard 'Yours is No Disgrace', adventurous epic 'Starship Trooper', and the closing classic 'Perpetual Change'. Howe's guitar piece 'Clap' is jaw-dropping and 'I've Seen All Good People' remains a popular radio track. For those new to Yes or to prog in general, this is not a bad introduction at all.