Yes Yes- 1969
RMR Album Rating- 6
Yes’ unassuming 1969 debut simply titled “Yes” is mainly a collection of late 60’s style mature pop songs, with some complex songs mixed in that slightly foreshadow the progressive band that Yes would quickly transform into.
As mentioned, the sound of the album is very rooted in late 60’s style pop music, but it doesn’t come across sounding shallow at all, mainly due to the playing. All the band members are extremely technically proficient, which has always been a hallmark of Yes. Over Yes’ career, they’ve had somewhat of a revolving door of players, which didn’t always work in their favor, but Yes were always able to recruit top talent, and even here with their original line-up, the level of playing is absolutely upper class. I also want to mention the production, which is crystal clear and better than many debut albums released around the same time period. My last point on the sound is that they sometimes come across sounding a little derivative of The Beatles. They even cover The Beatles’ “Every Little Thing,” but it is one of the shining moments of the album. I actually like Yes’ version of the song better than the Beatles’ version. Yes adds an amazing 2-minute complex intro to the song, it is much heavier than The Beatles’ version, and I have to say that I even like Jon Anderson’s vocals on the track better than Lennon and McCartney’s duet vocals.
As for the other songs, they can really be broken down into two groups. “Beyond and Before,” “Looking Around,” “I See You,” and “Sweetness” fall into the pop group, and “Harold Land,” “Every Little Thing,” and “Survival” fall into what I’ll call the more mature, complex pop group.
My two favorites from the pop group are “Beyond and Before” and “Looking Around.” Both songs sound more mature than the other pop tracks, and there’s great instrumentation on both songs. The worst of this group is the Mary Poppins inspired “Sweetness.” Jon Anderson’s voice paired with the lyrics of “She brings the sunshine to a rainy afternoon/ she puts the sweetness in/ and stirs it with a spoon” is very sappy, and its lyrics are way too close to the Mary Poppins song “A Spoonful of Sugar.”
The other three tracks are all excellent. I’ve mentioned “Every Little Thing” already. Then there’s the war story “Harold Land.” It has a great intro and build up, and it climaxes with great organ work from Tony Kaye that gives the song an appropriate feeling of a war march. It then concludes with a one final instrumental jam that really highlights the skill of all the band members.
Lastly, there’s “Survival,” which is phenomenal and easily the best track on the album. Although the track is not broken up into sub-sections, and it is not an extended track, it has an epic feel to it, and it foreshadows the type of progressive music that Yes would create in their “Main Sequence” of albums.
To return to my opening comments, “Yes” really is a pretty unassuming debut album, but it has enough substance and maturity mixed in with its pop backdrop to make it a fun and interesting listen.