π§ YES, "Relayer". Is it their most confounding record? Probably. Does it showcase everything that punk hated about prog? Check. It seems so directionless at times, yet it is their most challenging record. Patrick Moraz' only album with the band puts their jazz-rock chops to the test. It's delicate and violent all at once. By the time you suss out one meter, another one takes its place. "The pen won't stay the demon's wings".
I'm snickering imagining Steve Howe commenting that he doesn't think he's made Steve Jones mad enough yet.
@mcfate
Right - when in reality YES, Pink Floyd, Genesis, etc never even gave punk a thought while they were selling out football stadiums and the Pistols were getting banned across America, which made both punk and prog very appealing to me at the time, when I was growing out of my short-lived KISS phase. Reading CREEM in the 70's and seeing articles about the Damned and YES and thinking "how can these bands co-exist in my record collection?" I sure found out!
I went to Yes, Genesis, and Gentle Giant concerts at the same time I was enough of a regular at CBGB that I subbed for the sound guy when he flaked on them occasionally.
@mcfate
While I would walk by and think "someday...." By the time I was old enough to get in that place it was almost strictly hardcore punk and I wasn't on board.
@mcfate
Agreed. I actually credit bands like YES and the "rock aristocracy" of the era with pushing punk forward. It was a direct response to rock's musical (and economic) elitism and over-indulgences.
Metal Machine Music - it also showcased everything Lou Reed hated about everything.
@MPCavalier I really love this album. Rounds out my favorite four...The Yes Album, Close to the Edge, Tales of Topographic Oceans and Relayer.
@John_Ripley
For me, it lives in that secondary space. TYA, Fragile, CTTE, and Going For The One are my "big four". Relayer and TFTO, while further defining prog and it's possibilities, are just slightly inferior, emphasis on the slightly.
@MPCavalier This is wild, I was just thinking about a post that began, "Is Relayer my favorite Yes record?" There's something about its wild abandon that I like. In response to a reply below, I actually hold Drama in high regard. Drama, Relayer, and TYA battling for Yes supremacy in my head, with Fragile wandering by bringing snacksβI am not a purist. I do hate most of Tormato though.
@pr10n
Drama wafts in and out of my favorite YES albums. It's a GREAT record, a heavy record, and Squire, White, and Howe are on fire on the main tracks. Tormato is an abomination mostly, Release Release is a good track, but not a good YES song.
@pr10n
I remember reading something that Steve Howe said about Tormato, along the lines that Anderson was constantly trying to tone down the heavier things the band were bringing in - saying it wasn't "gentle enough". Howe's quote "suddenly we were playing these airy-fairy bits of music again." For all it's controversy at the time, Drama seemed to free up Howe and the rhythm section to blow the hatch and turn up. Have they done anything as heavy as Machine Messiah?
@MPCavalier No way, that song thumps. I agree that Howe felt a little creative goose on that album. Not that the upcoming pop records are bad, and some of those records still have proggy elements, but Drama to me is this surprising vinculum between the prog and pop sounds and the old guard seemed to embrace it. A Yes song that's barely a minute long? HERESY! But that one-time configuration was perfect for it.
@MPCavalier
Punks were absolutely the last people anyone in Yes ever gave even an instant's thought to when they were making music.
This is kind of like saying Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music" showcased everything that progressive rock fans hated about punk.