Yes: Fragile

Fragile

Best song: Heart of the Sunrise

Worst song: I guess Five Per Cent For Nothing

Overall grade: 6

This album. This album. If Yes had never topped ‘Fragile’, they would still be one of my favourites. It’s just so good. Not everyone thinks so, though. I listened to this in the car today, and my mother was there too, and when it was over the best thing she could think of to say about it was ‘I didn’t find it disturbing’. But then, her favourite song is George Michael’s ‘This Is Not Real Love’, so what does she know?

But if she wants to bitch about this album, she needs her own blog. Right here, I’m going to tell you why ‘Fragile’ is in fact, completely fantastic. And that explanation begins with ‘Roundabout!’ I’ve heard this song probably hundreds of times, because I’m always playing it to people while telling them that they should get into Yes. There’s no way I could get sick of it, though, it’s so perfectly written in the way that it’s both a pop song and a more complicated prog song. The song (and the album as a whole now that I think about it) probably isn’t Jon Anderson’s peak as a songwriter, but as a pop songwriter, yes it is.

I mentioned in my ‘Yes Album’ review that at one point, Jon’s voice behaves as additional instrumentation rather than regular vocals, and that technique is used even more here on ‘South Side of the Sky’ and ‘Long Distance Runaround’, helped out by the fact that they’re buried very low down in the mix (I’ve known people to think that the songs are genuinely instrumental.)

Speaking of ‘South Side of the Sky’, it rules. I just like to sit back and let it all wash over me at once, everything coming together like Rick Wakeman’s gorgeous little piano part in the middle and the fact that Bill Bruford does some of his best Yes drumming here. I like ‘Long Distance’ too (there’s certainly nothing not to like) but it’s the least essential of the group compositions as well as being the most simple.

As you probably know, each band member contributes a little solo piece to this album, ranging from 30 seconds to 3 minutes in length. Bill Bruford’s is disappointing – he is my favourite drummer and he could easily have done a really amazing drum solo, but his ‘Five Per Cent For Nothing’ feels like a rough draft that should have been worked on more. I don’t have many complaints about the others, though. Wakeman plays an arrangement of a classical piece by Brahms, and although I might have slightly preferred an original piece, I enjoy it while it’s on. Anderson layers his vocals on top of each other for ‘We Have Heaven’ and the overall effect is pretty mesmerising, while on ‘The Fish’ Chris Squire shows us all that the bass can be a lead instrument too.

That just leaves Steve Howe’s ‘Mood For A Day’. It’s not at all showy or flashy like the others, and it’s even better for it – it’s probably my favourite of the solo spots. As a guitarist, I feel like Howe really knows when less is more, and his acoustic guitar solos really prove this, in their minimalistic beauty.

The opening to ‘Heart of the Sunrise’ comes as a total contrast to this – Yes remember they’re a rock band! They forget that sometimes, but they definitely haven’t here, as all five of them come together to create a dense track that’s both disjointed and flows really well. The epic beginning focuses on Howe and Bruford’s talents, with Anderson gradually becoming more prominent as the song goes on, and everyone gets a chance to be in the spotlight even while they’re always playing off each other. I’m going to see the band next year, and this is the one song that they aren’t going to play that I really wish they would.