------------------------------------------------------- SEPTEMBER 3, 1997 ------------------------------------------------------- Source: The Daily Vault http://www.dailyvault.com/1997_09_03.html FRAGILE Yes Atlantic Records By Christopher Thelen Some readers may remember back in April I pulled Yes's Tales From Topographic Oceans out for a serious case of Texas whup-ass. I honestly don't remember a time I had more fun writing a negative review. Now that the smoke has finally cleared from that one, I decided I should be fair and pull out of the Archives (where we won money betting on the Packers Monday night) one of their albums I enjoyed from my youth - 1972's Fragile. It was not nearly as pompous, and does contain some incredible performances, despite being incredibly dated. Yes was in the middle of yet another personnel change -- like this would ever change in the band's history -- replacing keyboardist Tony Kaye with Rick Wakeman. The band was coming off the semi-hit "I've Seen All Good People," and was ready to break into the big leagues. They succeeded -- Fragile became their second-highest charting album, hitting number four. The album opens up with "Roundabout," an eight-minute opus that seems to wrap up the band the best for this period of their career. From the opening guitar build from Steve Howe to the technical bass line of Chris Squire to Jon Anderson's lifting vocals that almost seem detached from the music, this is a song that doesn't seem as long as the record label claims it is. The only real negative of this album is the "individual ideas" that each artist is given room to create. I'll concede that each artist is a master of their instrument - do they really need their own private forum to show off? Drummer Bill Bruford's "Five Per Cent Of Nothing" is a waste of vinyl, and Wakeman's "Cans And Brahms" is a bit overblown - should that really surprise me, though? (Editor's note: When re-posting this review, I learned that the reason the album features these individual works is because the band needed to get an album out to help pay for the costs of Wakeman's equipment. Thanks to Bruce Eder of All-Music Guide for the enlightenment.) Now then - having run this concept into the ground, I again make a concession that there are some good performances here. Howe's "Mood For A Day" is a nice piece for the classical guitar, though I prefer an instrumental he did on the video for Yessongs more. Anderson's vocal montage on "We Have Heaven" is beautiful - though one wonders if we needed the uncredited reprise at the end of the album. And while I'm not particularly fond of Squire's contrubition with "The Fish {Schindleria Praematurus)" it is forever part of our minds for being linked to the single "Long Distance Runaround." So in reality, we have an album which is really made up of only four real songs, two of which we've already touched on. Of the two remaining tracks, the real treasure is "Heart Of The Sunrise," another epic opus which begins to demonstrate that Yes knew there was a fine line between art rock and pompousity, a line they choose not to cross here - smart move. The remaining track, "South Side Of The Sky," is one I just can't really get into for some reason. Fragile is also noteworthy for being the first Yes album which featured the artwork of Roger Dean,who would be almost permanently linked to the band for his work for them. The "bubble" logo for the band, however, was not developed yet - it would make its debut on Close To The Edge. But like the psychadelia that is featured in Dean's artwork, some of Yes's music has not aged well - maybe this is why I can't get into "South Side Of The Sky." Still, most of the band performances on Fragile -- as well as a few solo performances - are quite enjoyable 25 years after this one first hit the bins. RATING: B- Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, inquiries, corrections, or additions, contact yitp@yesservices.com