Waiting To Feel the Sound
Original Facebook post here.
Today's formative-album listen-through: Fragile. Yes has sweeter and flakier records (which, naturally, I have a soft spot for), but this is their tightest and rockingest effort, for a variety of reasons: the classical stuff is relegated to a few utterly charming instrumentals, the jams here have slightly more blues in them than usual, nothing outstays its welcome, Anderson's elven lyrics have a sensuous shape to them that mitigates their Middle Earth nerdiness. But above (or below) all is Chris Squier's bass, which drives both this record's sound and its construction--the music here all feels built from the bottom up, or in the case of a guitar-based piece like "Long Distance Runaround," solidly buttressed on the bottom end. There are moments on The Yes Album and Close to the Edge, even on Tormato, that are dearer to me than anything here, but as a Yes album in toto, Fragile is the sturdiest specimen.
Today's formative-album listen-through: Fragile. Yes has sweeter and flakier records (which, naturally, I have a soft spot for), but this is their tightest and rockingest effort, for a variety of reasons: the classical stuff is relegated to a few utterly charming instrumentals, the jams here have slightly more blues in them than usual, nothing outstays its welcome, Anderson's elven lyrics have a sensuous shape to them that mitigates their Middle Earth nerdiness. But above (or below) all is Chris Squier's bass, which drives both this record's sound and its construction--the music here all feels built from the bottom up, or in the case of a guitar-based piece like "Long Distance Runaround," solidly buttressed on the bottom end. There are moments on The Yes Album and Close to the Edge, even on Tormato, that are dearer to me than anything here, but as a Yes album in toto, Fragile is the sturdiest specimen.
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