review by thomas

”Fragile” was built around three epics – ”Roundabout”, ”South Side of the Sky”, ”Heart of the Sunrise” – and on short solo pieces from each member. Tony Kaye had now left the band, leaving place for the so-called keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman. And I must admit that I have often looked down on Wakeman’s work with Yes, not because he’s bad (he’s, I’m sure, a keyboard wizard, but he’s in good company) but because I considered his work to be mostly with soulless keyboards that had no sound (and it couldn’t even be determined what he was playing). My favourites: organs in all their forms, the harpsichord and Moog were – in my opinion – never used. I have, from out of newly studies of Yes’ works, been forced to do some rethinking on this matter regarding the “Fragile” and “Close to the Edge” albums. Wakeman did use organs, Moog and even harpsichord and he did it good. It’s still true regarding “Tales From the Topographic Oceans” though, but this is to jump ahead a little too much. First things first.

Considering the fact that the epics are near to flawless and the solo pieces work surprisingly good this is a classic album. We could have lived without “Long Distance Runaround” though, it’s not that good, otherwise a classic album.