The Yes Album

Description

The key components to every great prog-rock album comprise memorable guitar riffs, punchy immediacy, ample rhythmic kick, and the imaginative capacity to transport the listener to a place well beyond the confines of reality. Yes The Yes Album features all of these rare qualities and more, the 1971 record as significant for saving the bands career as well as for establishing new parameters in virtuosic technicality and skilled composition. The first set recorded with guitarist Steve Howe, The Yes Album remains Yes grandest achievement and claims a musical vision the British quintets contemporaries struggled to match. And now, it finally has audiophile sound to match, courtesy of Mobile Fidelity.

While unbeknownst to the band, Atlantic Records was prepared to drop Yes from the label if The Yes Albumdidnt catch fire. To be certain, the groups initial two offerings showed promise but were missing crucial elements. Specifically, they were absent the colorful instrumental orchestrations and gorgeous albeit hard-rocking solos offered by Howe, whose eclectic array encompasses country rock, boogie, and Appalachian styles seamlessly sewn into Yes rich canvasses. Howes chemistry with fellow sonic explorers Chris Squire and Bill Bruford is evident throughout, producing seemingly simple yet subtly complex arrangements that enjoy the benefits of remaining uncluttered, open, and spacious.

Then, of course, there are the fantastic songs. Avoiding the potential overkill of a multiple keyboard setup, Yes relies on Tony Kayes Hammond B3 organ to give it necessary thrust. Combined with Squires flexible bass lines, Howes inventive solos and acoustic tuckpointing, Brufords restrained thunder, and Jon Andersens poetic words, and it seems inevitable that The Yes Album couldve been anything other than a smash success, whose memorable Ive Seen All Good People, politically savvy Yours Is No Disgrace, and epic Starship Trooper still orbit todays radio playlists and sports stadiums.

While previous remastered versions restored some of the life missing from early editions, they dont go far enough. Mobile Fidelitys 24K Gold CD of The Yes Album goes the distance. Rest assured that this limited-edition collectable takes its position as the most defintive-sounding Yes document on the market. Sourced from the original master tapes, the bands soaring instrumental passages, engaging folk melodies, airy vocal harmonies, and breathy organ accents come across with incredible liveliness and intimately textured three-dimensional quality. Listeners will detect previously hidden details and marvel at the extraordinary microdynamics at both ends of the frequency spectrum. This is one rock classic no music lover will want to be without.

As always, Mobile Fidelitys 24K Gold CDs are strictly limited and individually numbered, and housed in mini-LP style packaging, making them instant collectors items.