What is the best Yes album?

"Starship Trooper," baby. Hand me that record cover.

 

Hard for me to see it as their best, but I love this album. It exists in its own world.

 

You hit the mono switch on your amp? There is no mono version, correct? I may have to try that.

 

More or less. I use a small studio mixer, and I set the panning buttons to center.

 

Is there a way to re-open the voting on this?

 

I recently picked up a cheap copy of this on vinyl. I always rated this one below The Yes Album, Close to the Edge and Relayer (and, granted, the "solo" songs are kind of fillerish) but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it, after not having listened to it for several years at least. Put me right back in my buddy's college dorm room. "Roundabout" is truly great, even if it's overplayed, and "South Side of the Sky" is as good as anything they ever recorded, IMO.

 

What would you vote for? I suppose that you could start another one and maybe allow people to make three choices--one is a bit too challenging!

 

Close to the Edge, probably.

 

I chose The Yes Album, but Fragile or Related might have been my picks on a different day. Fragile remains my favorite "prog" studio recording; it's just astoundingly clear and perfectly engineered, without losing the life in the music (as many late 70s album did, in my opinion of course).

The Yes Album was so compositionally groundbreaking, and it sounds great!

 

Agree 100%

 

I voted The Yes Album, but really that whole run from 1971-77 is aces. 90125 holds a special place for me too, since it was my first..bought it when it was released.

 

South Side if the Sky with a nice pair of headphones is an awesome experience. Close your eyes and go for the ride

 

It all depends.

Probably figured the most listened is Yessongs, although I've replaced it with Progeny since it came out.

And the least is Time and A Word.

Post-Talk...meh, haven't bothered. Although, I love their symphonic live one.

 

*Relayer, not Related!

 

The Wilson 5.1 mix is similarly revelatory. I think I'll put that on next. . .

 

Close to the Edge, hands down. That album is perfection.

 

Close to the Edge, for me. Then

The Yes Album
Fragile
Relayer
Going For the One
Topographic Oceans
Drama
90125
Magnification

I also like some of the studio cuts from the Keys to Ascension sets in "Mind Drive", "That, That Is" and "Footprints", there's some excellent bits of playing amongst Howe, Squire, Wakeman and White within these pieces.

 

For me, it's Close To The Edge, Relayer and The Yes Album, then Tales, 90125, Going For The One. Fragile I heard
way too much, like the albums Born To Run and Born In The USA. Man oh man I always wonder what Tales and
Relayer woulda sounded like with a quicker, edgier Bruford on drums vs Alan White...

 

I like White's drumming on Relayer a lot, that level of drumming on Tales would have been awesome...

 

"Best" album......Relayer, without a doubt. CTTE most influential, prolific, ground breaking pc they ever recorded.

 

CTTE
Fragile
Yes Album
Going For the One

Those to me are the pinnacles, in that order. All the other ones have their charms depending on my mood for the day.

 

I'm finding myself gaining a more meaningful and deeper appreciation for The Yes Album. What an incredible album.

 

I can't even consider listening to Relayer and imagining anything "more" happening with the drums, letalone wanting anything more.

Bill would've added more paradiddless perhaps, and he'd be way way up in the mix and everyone else would have played differently. Same (but in reverse) as if Alan had been on Fragile. It can't happen.

 

Close to rhe Edge always wins. Always.