The Yes thread (assuming there isn't one already)

Relayer is my favorite Yes record, though I recognize it is not their best, which would be CTTE, but nothing they ever did sounded as far out as Relayer. Squire's bass playing off the charts. Steve Howe does some of his most interesting guitar work on To Be Over, and the band never had a nicer moment than the closing section to Gates of Delerium. Patrick Moraz was a fucking hurricane of fresh air for the band's sound and his contributions take the band's sound to new levels. I think the problem with Relayer is that those sounds are not as pleasing as some of the earlier tracks and Anderson is no longer singing about Siddhartha and the shastric scriptures or about giving peace a chance. He hammers home images of children dying and the ugliness of war and evil triumphing in the world. It's fucking grim for Yes and the music reflects this where appropriate. I know a couple of Yes fans old enough to have seen the Relayer tour and they still don't love the album, but it ranks ver high on the abhorsen scale. Dare I say Yes were at their most progressive on Relayer.
 
Abhorsen said:
Relayer is my favorite Yes record, though I recognize it is not their best, which would be CTTE, but nothing they ever did sounded as far out as Relayer. Squire's bass playing off the charts. Steve Howe does some of his most interesting guitar work on To Be Over, and the band never had a nicer moment than the closing section to Gates of Delerium. Patrick Moraz was a fucking hurricane of fresh air for the band's sound and his contributions take the band's sound to new levels. I think the problem with Relayer is that those sounds are not as pleasing as some of the earlier tracks and Anderson is no longer singing about Siddhartha and the shastric scriptures or about giving peace a chance. He hammers home images of children dying and the ugliness of war and evil triumphing in the world. It's fucking grim for Yes and the music reflects this where appropriate. I know a couple of Yes fans old enough to have seen the Relayer tour and they still don't love the album, but it ranks ver high on the abhorsen scale. Dare I say Yes were at their most progressive on Relayer.

all good points. but the album isnt without flaws in my opinion. i think CTTE and GFTO are "perfect" records. which is quite a tough achievement from a band with as much creative friction as yes usually had. however im not trying to bag on relayer at all...i like the record a lot. it definitely comes before topographic for me.
 
I absolutely agree. CTTE and GFTO are perfect and definitely Yes' best records. Relayer does have its flaws to be sure. I sometimes wish GFTO had been released in 1978 (delete Tormato all together) and that Yes had made just one more album with Moraz. I was listening to this solo record that came out while he was in Yes, The Story of I, and in spite of some of the vocal parts, Moraz is really out there on that solo record and I would have liked to have heard him with Yes a little longer. The live recordings that survive from the tours he played on are really fantastic.
 
NineFeetUnderground said:
why relayer is so grand to everyone over the obvious choices still baffles me. oh welllll.

Why you insist on posting this baffles me.... Oh well it's your problem thankfully...
 
Really.... Then why did you get my name wrong?

It's really easy to follow discussions especially when you quote them but then again you're probably too caught up in trying to say something degrating so you can feel better....

Carry on.....
 
Liquid Tension said:
Really.... Then why did you get my name wrong?

It's really easy to follow discussions especially when you quote them but then again you're probably too caught up in trying to say something degrating so you can feel better....

Carry on.....

you mean to tell me youre just by COINCIDENCE a dream theater/liquid tension experiment fan, and your user name of "liquid tension" has absolutely nothing to do with the band? im beside myself.