"Fragile" is the fourth studio album by Yes, released on 26 November 1971. It was their first album to feature the keyboard-wizard Rick Wakeman, who replaced founding member Tony Kaye after the band had kick-off him out after touring "The Yes Album".
An iconic album cover illustration & lettering was the band's first to be done by Roger Dean.
There was a lot of experimentation on the music scene in the year this album was released. So Yes came up with the idea to give each band member a free space and to realize themselves with their own song solo.
"Fragile" features some of the band's classics, which can still be heard today and have thus survived the stress test of the time. Above all, one of my favourite songs of the band is "South Side of the Sky". There is power in there, the song is rocking and driving and has a fantastic groove. In between, a Wakeman's piano solo that was then as now the top league. Of course, "Roundabout" is not inferior to that, because here too the melodies on the acoustic guitar and later the riffs on the electric one sit like one. Wakeman rocks the Hammond wonderfully here while Chris Squire slams his Rickenbacker around the listener's ears.
With "Long Distance Runaround" there is another song that rocks at the beginning, but then swings towards mid tempo with a monotonous rhythm.
With fat bass lines and seemingly esoteric vocals, "The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)" is filled with an adventurous sense of mission that is so characteristic of Yes. In its heyday, the band presented itself shaped by a spiritual primordial cell from which every song approach, no matter how conventional, should develop into a progressive-symphonic happening.
Finally a furious beginning with "Heart of the Sunrise". But it quickly goes down into deep spheres with the Mellotron and a slow bass. It's a bit psychedelic, which is not so often the case with Yes, although their amazing music is often mystical. But the mood doesn't stay that way, because here, too, Yes know how to build a very complex composition, as is so often the case. That also makes sense and doesn't just mess around.
"Fragile" is certainly a sympho-rock masterpiece, and my personal favourite studio-album by Yes. Anyway, the songs mentioned here are really great and every prog-head should own this album.
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