doughelvering
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POLL: Pick the next Extended Play Lounge
🕑 Added 2025-08-15 19:05:45 +0000 UTCWe're nearing 100 Extended Play Lounge episodes. And, I'll be highlighting some of our favorite bands from this first run of 100 episodes. For this upcoming 97th episode, I want to listen to a YES album.
In this series, we have listened to Fragile in EPL #5, The Yes Album in EPL #53, & Drama in EPL #61.
On YouTube, we've heard all of Close to the Edge, Tales from Topographic Oceans, Relayer, & 90125.
On this list, the debut album, Time and a Word, Going for the One, and Magnification all come from the Master List. The Ladder is a recommendation from a good friend of mine.
So...help me choose which full Yes album to review this time!
Comments
Rolling Ronnie
I voted for 'Time and a Word'. Although I love all Yes albums up to and including 'Close to the Edge', they became ever more pretentious (personal opinion, obviously) and the focus was more on how clever they could be rather that on creating interesting creative music. For me, 'Time and a Word' and 'The Yes Album' are their best two albums, but i'm sure most Yes fans will disagree!
Tim Moss
I think it was Doug's reaction to Todmobile and Jon Anderson Awaken live version that started me with Doug.
Christopher Arters (relative timeworx - Mr.A)
A little context is necessary to fully embrace the brilliance of Going For The One... Yes set a new standard with Close To The Edge, so much so that they tried a bit too hard to top it with Tales. Then, Wakeman followed Bruford's earlier exit and the subsequent release, Relayer, was interesting but just didn't meet the band's earlier standard, especially in terms of production. Then, Rick returned and expectations were high, but guarded. The band emerged with an entirely new energy, possibly brimming with new confidence after releasing a collection of solo albums. Side 1 exploded from the outset with the title track, reminiscent of Siberian Khatru; they followed this up with a beautiful, emotive track, unlike anything else in their catalog to date; The side concluded with another rocker that was clearly influenced stylistically by Squire's solo effort "Fish Out Of Water"; Side 2 opened with a surprising (and commercially successful) mid-tempo "happy song" - Yes's "Solsbury Hill" if you will... and then came perhaps their all-time greatest track, one of the all-time monumental works in the rock catalog, Awaken. We didn't know it at the time, but this was really the climactic conclusion of "Yes". The follow up album was awful and then came combinations of musicians who used the name, "Yes", but should have been called something else. GFTO was incredibly special.
Jean-Michel LaFontaine
Going for the One for me too. I'm sure Doug will enjoy this one a lot!!
Sid Levy
The consensus among the faithful will be GFTO. As most of us will enjoy Doug/Meg experiencing this solid LP, I’d like to see a reaction to Time & a Word.
