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JANUARY 26, 2004
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Source: The Daily Vault
http://www.dailyvault.com/2004_01_26-jw.html
IN A WORD
Yes
Elektra/Rhino, 2002
By Jason Warburg
Another decade, another box set for prog-rock giants Yes.
The obvious question for any Yes fan -- and I'm going to operate under the
assumption here that anyone who isn't a Yes fan isn't going to bother
reading a review of a five-disc, $50 box set -- is how this new set
compares with the band's 1991 four-disc collection, YesYears. Is it worth
owning both, or will one or the other do on its own? The answer, as with so
many things connected with this famously hard-to-pin-down outfit, is less
than clear.
An immediate point of interest, though, is the fact that the 1991
collection was issued with the participation of both the "Classic Yes" and
the Trevor-Rabin-led YesWest factions, whereas this set was compiled under
the auspices of the current Classic Yes lineup. In other words, if you're
looking for more unreleased Rabin-era tracks, don't look here. What you
will find is a number of variations from YesYears -- notably the absence of
any of the bonus tracks from the earlier collection -- and a small
sprinkling of additional unreleased material, all of it from one variation
or another of the "classic" lineup.
As on YesYears, the band is generous in terms of material from their first
two somewhat obscure albums, including eight songs and 42 minutes of music
on disc one. It's interesting stuff, if kind of gawky in places, a
musically adolescent band trying to grow into the prog-rock adult it would
become. Still, it seems excessively generous when you come upon the harder
choices ahead.
None of those hard choices are made when it comes to 1971's The Yes Album;
five of its six tracks can be found here, including all three that
previously appeared on YesYears, plus guitarist Steve Howe's solo piece
"Clap." (Howe was apparently the most active participant from the band in
the assembly of this set... draw your own conclusions.) Better choices are
made when it comes to the band's breakthrough Fragile; this set trades in
bassist Chris Squire's "The Fish" for the underappreciated gem "South Side
Of The Sky." (But why include "America" again? This makes three different
albums where this former non-album single release has been made available
to fans, and guess what? It's not that great…!)
Close To The Edge always presents problems; it's a classic album whose
three tracks all deserve to be here. YesYears featured only the title
track; In A Word adds "Siberian Khatru." You want to say this is a game of
"You can't win," though, when you consider the missing "And You And I" is
almost universally loved among Yesfans and its studio version is missing
from both collections. Sigh.
The choices from Tales From Topographic Oceans and Relayer are good ones,
trading "Ritual" from YesYears for the next-best suite from TFTO, "The
Revealing Science Of God," and this time including the full "Gates Of
Delirium," one of the band's most dynamic long-form pieces. The choices
from Going For The One are equally sensible -- you have to have the title
track, "Wonderous Stories" was a minor hit, and "Turn Of The Century"
deserves to be included on one of the two collections. It seems odd,
though, to drop "Awaken" (another fan favorite, and singer Jon Anderson's
self-professed favorite Yes track), and to exclude "Parallels," which the
band used to open concerts with regularly in 1977-78, from both sets. Tough
choices, indeed.
Tormato is where things get a bit weird. Sure, add "Release, Release" in
place of YesYears' "On The Silent Wings of Freedom," that makes sense. But
"Arriving UFO"? Who likes this song? And then there's the fan-bait, the
previously unissued, quote-unquote bonus tracks. "Richard" is an outtake
from Tormato. Think about it; this track wasn't strong enough to make it
onto what's generally regarded as Yes's worst album of the '70s. Uh-huh.
Next up are three new! 1979 outtakes. "Tango" and "Never Done Before" hail
from the band's aborted "Paris sessions," and make the argument that they
didn't pull the plug a minute too soon. "Tango" is a ponderous, sing-songy
waste of tape which sounds like it may have had Howe's guitar parts erased.
As for "Never Done Before," if you've ever wanted to know what Yes might
sound like as a second-rate lounge act, here's your chance. "Crossfire"
follows, a previously unreleased instrumental featuring Howe, Squire and
drummer Alan White in a directionless little jam.
And then we're back to the proceedings at hand. The logical tracks from the
band's '80s incarnations show up here, with "Machine Messiah" replacing
"Does It Really Happen?" from Drama, and "Leave It" assuming its rightful
place here. The next innovation is the inclusion of tracks from 1989's
Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe album; the band appears to have made peace
with this fractured episode of its history.
The '90s tracks are a bit of a puzzle. Taking two tracks from the tepid
Union album makes sense if you feel obligated to maintain balance between
the two factions represented on that disc. But two tracks from Rabin's
disastrous Talk -- including the woeful "I Am Waiting" -- and only one out
of the album-and-a-half's worth of strong new Classic Yes material on the
two Keys To Ascension packages? "Mind Drive" is the right choice, but this
is still a disappointing oversight.
The selections from Open Your Eyes and The Ladder are predictable, yet
frustrating; The Ladder's "The Messenger" may be about Bob Marley, but that
doesn't make it a better song than "New Language." We close things up with
"Last Train," a shuffling, pointless little outtake from the Magnification
sessions, and that album's sugary mini-epic "In The Presence Of," a song
the band for some reason favors over the title track and "Dreamtime," both
of which are punchier and more dynamic.
On the bright side, the packaging for In A Word is excellent -- the
"flipbook" binding of this set is very attractive, and longtime Yes cover
artist Roger Dean's dreamy landscapes feel like old friends. The detailed
liner notes are well done, even if raconteurs Chris Welch and Bill Martin
do tend to go on a bit getting to the point in their dueling essays
addressing (respectively) the history and larger significance of Yes.
As an overview of the band's work to date, In A Word functions well, even
if some of the choices made are easy to second-guess. The reality is, this
band still hasn't issued a truly definitive box set, and one begins to
suspect at this point that doing so may not even be possible. There's
simply too much music and too much band and label politics interfering with
the decision-making process.
RATING: B+
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