November 28, 1974 - Relayer

Another 10 days since my last release, and a year after the double album "Tales From Topographic Oceans", Yes released their seventh album, and my last one of the year, "Relayer" on November 28, 1974. After touring for their previous album for 4 months, and playing it in it's entirety at every show, keyboardist Rick Wakeman quit Yes. He disagreed with the direction the band was taking and left after the tour was over, and I don't really blame him. This left Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire and Alan White to hold auditions for a new keyboardist. They tried out several people, but ended up picking Swiss musician Patrick Moraz as Wakeman's replacement. They recorded the album at Squire's home studio in a converted garage! Yes decided to simplify things a bit after their last album and this one is set up like "Close To The Edge", with one song taking up all of side 1, and two more lengthy songs making up side 2. Let's check out the new Yes!

Side one is entirely taken up by "The Gates Of Delirium" which opens with some cool, trippy keyboards and some quick cymbals from White. Howe adds some epic guitar to this grand opening instrumental part. Anderson starts singing in his usual high voice as the verse has great contributions from everyone. Squire keeps pace with some groovy bass as Howe and Moraz lead the way with some good stuff. Howe plays a couple cool short solos in this heavy-vocal part, but at about the 8-minute mark they take off on an extended instrumental section. Howe and Moraz are taking turns showing off, and this solo battle is pretty sweet! After all that awesomeness, Squire plays a really sweet bass riff that takes the song in a new direction. Howe's guitar is the "lead instrument", but Squire's bass is the real highlight. He and White provide a freakin' great rhythm section for Howe and Moraz to continue to solo overtop of. It's a formula that's working pretty great! Howe and Moraz both play some fantastic stuff as this whole middle section is full of awesome music! It comes to an end though, as things get very quiet and it seems the song might be over, but Howe plays some slow, trippy guitar that brings us to a new vocal part. Anderson sings very nicely overtop of slow guitar and keyboards in this peaceful end to a fierce battle. Moraz plays some slow, epic stuff in this closing part as this near 22-minute song finally comes to a close. I thought it was a really great song, and easily better than any of the 4 side-long tracks off their last album. 

Side two begins with "Sound Chaser" and this song has an absolutely amazing opening with quick keyboards, drums and bass. Moraz and Squire both play some really crazy stuff, and White even gives us a drum solo in the first minute! He does a phenomenal job, playing some great stuff. The awesomeness continues in the verse as Anderson, Howe and Squire sing their typical harmony of voices. It sounds great as usual, but the music is just amazing, this quick riff they're playing sounds so good! It's Howe's turn to show off next as he plays a true guitar solo that is also just fantastic! He plays lots of great quick stuff at first, and slows it down towards the end. This slower guitar drives a new verse with some slow, epic singing by Anderson. Suddenly though, it's back to the early madness, and this moves into a new rock riff with some cool guitar and bass. Squire plays some really great stuff and we hear a very sudden "cha-cha-cha" bit by Anderson that is interesting. Now it's Moraz's turn in the spotlight as he plays a really cool synthesizer solo. It sounds excellent, and this song is just bursting with great music! After the solo, Howe takes it away with some more speedy guitar playing and after one more "cha-cha-cha", the song finally comes to a close. A truly superb 9 and a half minutes! This is the Yes I'm talkin' 'bout! The album ends with another 9-minute song, "To Be Over", which opens with slow, kind of space-y keyboards, Howe plays electric sitar and it sounds pretty cool, then it shifts to a slow verse with Anderson singing very high. The bass and keyboards are alright, but it's a pretty tame riff. Howe's guitar takes it in a new direction as he plays some cool space-y stuff. This turns into a full blown guitar solo that sounds pretty sweet, especially compared to the slow beat backing it. We hear a different slow verse with all 3 singers and then a short, but pretty good keyboard solo by Moraz. Then it's back to the slow, epic verse, which slowly fades out until the record comes to an end. The fact that this was the least great song on the album is telling of how great a job Yes have done.

That is the end of "Relayer" and I thought it was an excellent album, and a nice bounce-back effort after last year's "Tales From Topographic Oceans". Replacing the great Rick Wakeman would be no easy task, but Patrick Moraz does a phenomenal job on this album. He seems to fit in really well, and Yes definitely proved less is more on this record, as one disc worth of awesome material trumps two discs of sometimes great material. But how does it compare to the rest of their albums? I think it easily surpasses their first two albums, but 3 through 5 are all also very good albums. With an excellent 22-minute song, and "Sound Chaser", which was so incredible, I think "Relayer" was better than both "Close To The Edge", and "The Yes Album", which is no easy feat! "Fragile" on the other hand, is an absolute masterpiece and I think it remains their best work. 2nd place ain't bad though on a podium that contains some of the best progressive music out there! I hope Yes continue to make more amazing music soon, and this marks the end of the year as this is was my last release! Another 13 albums joined the library this year, including two new bands, and as usual, there was a lot of great music this year!

Favourite song of the year: There are several great candidates this year, there's not as clear-cut of a winner as previous years. If I had to choose, I would probably go with "Sound Chaser"! "Working Man" and "Starless" get honorable mentions as well, and I could go on and on...

Top 5 Albums of the year:

1. Red by King Crimson
2. The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway by Genesis
3. Relayer by Yes
4. Rush by Rush
5. Starless And Bible Black by King Crimson

King Crimson take the top spot this year for me as I thought "Red" was the best album yet by one of the pioneers of progressive rock. Squeezing in another album in the top 5 solidifies this year as quite the swan song for King Crimson, but honestly you could re-arrange any of those first 3 albums, they were all really great! I'm sure 1975 will have more great music, and even some more new bands to offer. I can't wait!