Yessongs - YES****

Excerpt From The Firebird Suite/Siberian Khatru/Heart Of The Sunrise/Perpetual Change/And You & I/Mood For A Day/Excerpts From The Six Wives Of Henry VIII/Roundabout/I've Seen All Good People/Long Distance Runaround-The Fish/Close To The Edge/Yours Is No Disgrace/Starship Trooper

Yessongs is a triple live album from progressive band Yes which includes all their most highly regarded songs. It is well timed as the group’s creativity would decline in future studio albums. (US:12 UK:7)

“It's not perfect, but the inadequacies created by the limitations of playing live are part of Yessongs charm. While the songs occasionally miss small ingredients that flesh them out so well on the studio versions, the band's heaving energy more than makes up for this.”

“The fact is that Yes in their heyday sounded more vital live even than they did on record. Anyone who dismisses them as a band without heaviness cannot have heard some of the bludgeoning renditions present here.”

“As talented as the musicians are, the performances are usually 90% identical to the studio recordings, even when two-fifths of the group here weren't present on the original LPs.”

“I always thought this might be the ultimate Yes experience, but in reality it's somewhat lacking. Not so much in the performance, but rather the presentation. Yes being an ultra technical outfit, to my ears I prefer the more pristine quality of the studio performances.”

“A great innovative record that any serious rock fan should own. Nobody has surpassed what this group achieved in the early 1970s in terms of progressive rock.”

“At the height of their powers, Yes released this stunning triple live album. The sound quality is far from perfect, but the performance here is excellent. This album is made up entirely of songs from the previous three albums, ignoring their early work. It features Close To The Edge in its entirety, and strong showings of both The Yes Album and Fragile. This may be the best way to begin exploring Yes with all the classics are together in one place, clocking in at a little over two hours.”

“Despite the relatively poor sound, this is actually a very good live album. There's some nice guitar work from Steve Howe, some great mellotron from Rick Wakeman and the band's on fire featuring all of the classics from the band's early days.”