It was The YES Album yesterday (a second Central European reissue from 1972), and its first song "Yours Is No Disgrace" literally electrorocked the walls of this old house and all the landmarked buildings of our neighborhood for 10 + minutes boisterously.
This song is a beautifully orchestrated piece of music throughout with a thick guitar carpet that offers the ground for some highly play- and skillful guitar and organ work.
I wondered why this record had to spend the last 50 years in a carton box in sundry storerooms, and not - let's say for example "Sunflower" by The Beach Boys? Well, some mysteries will never be solved.
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Unfortunately, I have to say that the rest of the album didn't excite me that much. It took me awhile to find an answer to the question why this was the case, as there were many more moments of guitar perfection and other melodic extravagancies that caught my attention. First of all, it's the vocals, and I learned about myself that I cannot appreciate a complete album when the vocals are not more than mediocre, unless there is something that can compensate for that shortcoming, like for example brilliant lyrics. There is something squeezed, undistinguished and flat about those on the Yes album. For one or two songs it's perfectly okay, but then I need more maturity and variety in a leading voice. That's me, and I know that other people don't care so much about it, as long as the music rocks, but for me it is indeed essential.
Secondly, the heavy guitar groundwork bored me after awhile. I dont know if this is supposed to be the so-called unique "Yes sound" trademark, but I would've enjoyed more variation. "Clap", the second song is great, and if they had included one or two more acoustic guitar pieces as a needed counterpoint to the heavy e-guitars, everything would've been okay.
In a nutshell, sorry, no, I won't digitize this album. But, thanks, Yes, for "Yours Is No Disgrace".