Yes – Fragile (1971)

This is another one picked up at the weekend in Harborough Market, an addition to the Yes albums of the 1970s which I grew up with. Many regard this one highly, and very few rankings of Yes albums have anything outside the 1970-76 period in their top five.

While there are nine songs on the album, in reality there are only four band songs, and five (one from each band member) solo compositions/indulgences.

So, the main courses first - opener Roundabout became a live favourite, and is a solid prog song, which doesn't go over the top. In the middle, South Side Of The Sky is the weakest, which never quite grabs the attention, unlike the bouncy Long Distance Runaround, which manages to remain catchy and enjoyable without exceeding four minutes. The same can't be said for the epic Heart Of The Sunrise, which is a decent listen, even if it goes on a bit.

Then there's the solo pieces - Wakeman delivers Cans And Brahms, a brief electronic massacre of Brahms' 4th symphony, Anderson harmonises with himself on We Have Heaven, Bruford's percussion led half-minute of free jazz, Five Per Cent For Nothing, and probably the two most successful, Squire's bass funk jam The Fish, and Howe's Spanish guitar solo Mood For A Day. The whole exercise was to be repeated a couple of years later when the band (Wakeman and Bruford having departed) took a couple of years off to each make solo albums, with similar variance in quality - interesting at first, but ultimately self indulgent.

But the whole isn't as big a mess as I've made it sound, the four main songs act as a glue holding the whole thing together quite effectively, and it's an enjoyable album's worth of listening. Not the world beating classic some insist, but not bad either.

Link to full album

3* - a solid effort from the progmeisters general