Tracklist: Roundabout Cans and Brahms We have heaven South side of the sky Five per cent for nothing Long distance runaround The fish (Shindleria praematurus) Mood for a day Heart of the sunrise

Band members: Jon Anderson - Vocals Steve Howe - Guitars Rick Wakeman - Keyboards, Organ, Piano, Mellotron Chris Squire - Bass guitar Bill Bruford - Drums

Rating:
The first of two (!) Yes albums released in '72, and since this is a pretty weird album I'm gonna explain some things first. 5 out of these 9 tracks are "solo" tracks, songs composed by the sole members, and of course that means each member has his "own" track here. Theoretically, these things could be good since the members of this band really know what they're doing. The truth is another. The fact is that most of the solo tracks aren't very good or even interesting. One of them stands out though, Steve Howe's classical guitar solo "Mood for a day" which I think is brilliant from beginning to end. Rick Wakeman's "Cans and Brahms" isn't really bad considering that it isn't his composition, just a keyboard arrangement of a Brahms-symphony, anyhow it's just boring so don't bother.
However, the remaining tracks (1, 4, 6, 9) are "band" compositions and they're all great, an album with those only would get the highest grade trust me on that. Musically they have grown since The Yes album, here we're talkin really REALLY progressive rock (lesser hard rock), although not yet "Tales.." level.
Now you may ask, how come such a high grade if only 5 out of 9 tracks are good? Well, consider that the solo compositions aren't very long (1-2 minutes) and 3 of the band tracks clocks in at over 8 minutes (track 9 over 10 minutes actually).







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