Fragile
by Yes

This is the fourth Yes album, but the first to feature Rick Wakeman on various keyboard instruments. As someone who was familiar with and happy to explore electronic instruments, this opened up their tonal palette quite significantly, which influenced the direction that the band were able to take. That change in sound, as well as the influence of Wakeman’s classical training make an almost instant impact on this record, as they work up an atmospheric entry before going absolutely hog wild with some outrageous driving riffs and some fantastically hooky vocal work. The opening track is a spectacular piece of work and really showcases what the band was capable of in its new form. The standout element for me is the bass playing of Chris Squire, who is both and incredibly precise and adventurous player with a fantastic ear for combining the weird edges of prog with driving, compelling riffs that carry a song brilliantly. Remarkably, while delivering that kind of musicianship and edge of avant-garde, they are also able to still weave the work around a solid central theme and deliver something both catchy and experimental. After that opening track, things do take a bit of a slide. There’s some interesting stuff in there, but a few of the other early tracks feel a bit more like studio experimentation than fully realised and developed pieces of self contained music. They do close out the first side with a return to form, however, and South Side Of The Sky ticks a lot of the same boxes as Roundabout, even if it still feels a touch less centred and coherent for it’s entire runtime. The second side is probably a bit more bonkers, and again, while there’s a lot of delightful musical and sonic experimentation, isn’t quite as coherent as the longer pieces. I think they are stronger than the lull on side one, and there are some definite peaks in there too, including Long Distance Runaround in particular. The album does go out in style though, with another longer track in which they explore a wide range of ideas, including heavy and frantic sections, moving into more melodic, subtle ones and back again. Again, nothing quite hits the heights of Roundabout for me, but there is a lot to love about much of the work that has gone into it. Listening with the benefit of 55 years of musical development since its release, this record really felt like it was opening the door to the direction that prog would take in the following decades, with the line from this to Rush and the bass and synth work of Geddy Lee being incredibly apparent. While it’s not an entirely cohesive collection of songs, you can feel the band starting to push at the boundaries of what was possible with the equipment available to them and, while it may not be my favourite prog album, there’s still plenty here to enjoy and it’s definitely one hat I’ll pop back to in future, I expect.