Fragile

excessively long instrumentals… why is there an eleven minute song? whole album made me mad: playing random music just to play music

Fuck this

Overblown and pompous

Awful

Etwas angestaubt, diese 70er

Algo raro que no me ha llamado la atención

Didn’t like this at all, not me at all

Not for me unfortunately.

Ha ha ha ha. Shark Sandwich? More like Shit Sandwich.

Sorry, Yes - it's a hard No.

Are the last couple prog rock I thought I was coming around on the genre. And maybe I was, but this sucked. Makes me want to bully some renaissance festival carnies, or some D&D kids.

Prog? No thank you.

Nothing against prog rock but this was a step to far , appreciate the musicianship but tried to combine too much with this album and as a result found it too unconnected , didn’t flow

Holy crap I hate prog Rock.

Hideous

Not my cup of tea

Putain, Yes. C'est exactement ce que j'ai dit ce matin à 6h00. Les deux mots qui sont sortis de ma bouche. "Putain" (parce que le désespoir était réel) et "Yes" (parce que c'était le nom de l'ennemi). Et oui, le grand livre, dans sa sagesse infinie et sa cruauté évidente, a décidé de m'achever. Je sais, je me répète peut être pour la 100ème fois. Je n'ai jamais, au grand jamais, aimé le rock progressif, je suis désolé mais c'est comme une allergie. Je ne peux pas m'en empêcher, c'est physique. C'est une musique qui me donne envie de me ronger les ongles jusqu'au sang, de boire de l'eau de Javel, ou, plus simplement, de mettre du DITZ à fond pour nettoyer l'atmosphère. Et voilà que je me tape le troisième album de Yes "Fragile". Putain, le troisième... J'ai survécu à la chiasse cosmique de 18 minutes de "Close to the Edge". J'ai (à peine) survécu à "The Yes Album". Et maintenant, "Fragile". Mais comme il faut toujours voir le verre à moitié plein, heureusement, c'est le dernier. C'est fini, j'ai purgé ma peine. J'ai traversé le Styx sur une barque en forme de clavier Moog, et je suis de retour. "Fragile", même le titre est une putain de blague. Cet album est tout sauf fragile. Il est boursouflé, obèse, rempli jusqu'à la gueule d'une suffisance qui me dépasse. C'est l'album qui a vu l'arrivée de Rick Wakeman, le mec qui a inventé le concept de jouer des claviers avec une cape de magicien. On est au sommet de la parodie. Mais le pire, le véritable sommet de l'indécence sur "Fragile", ce n'est même pas les chansons "normales". Non, le pire, c'est que ces mecs ont eu le culot de se réserver chacun une petite plage solo. Oui, tu as bien lu. Comme si les morceaux de 10 minutes ne suffisaient pas à étaler leur technique, il fallait que chacun vienne nous montrer, individuellement, à quel point il était bon. C'est le "concours de quéquettes" musical ultime. Et ça n'a aucun sens, car un groupe, c'est une entité, une alchimie, un truc qui te prend aux tripes. Ici, c'est le contraire, c'est l'anti-groupe. On a donc droit à Jon Anderson qui s'auto-sample en boucle sur "We Have Heaven", ce qui ressemble à une messe de secte chantée par un castrat sous hélium. On a droit à Steve Howe qui nous fait son petit morceau de guitare classique de coin du feu, "Mood for a Day". C'est joli, mais je m'en fous. Si je veux du classique, j'écoute du classique, pas un mec qui essaie de me prouver qu'il a bien appris ses cours. On a droit à Rick Wakeman qui massacre Brahms. On a droit à Chris Squire qui fait... des bruits de basse. Et Bill Bruford qui... tape sur des trucs. C'est d'un égocentrisme cosmique. Et le reste ? Les "vraies" chansons ? Il y a "Roundabout". OK, c'est LE tube, celui que tout le monde connaît, celui qui tourne en boucle dans les supermarchés qui vendent des patchoulis. C'est techniquement impressionnant, la ligne de basse est complexe, bla bla bla. Mais c'est froid, c'est du calcul. Zéro âme. Zéro danger. Zéro putain de feeling. Et puis il y a "Heart of the Sunrise", 11 minutes. Évidemment, onze minutes de changements de rythme, de breaks improbables, de solos qui s'empilent, de Jon Anderson qui chante des trucs sur le soleil et les montagnes. Onze minutes où j'ai eu le temps de faire la vaisselle, de nourrir le chat et de contempler le vide de mon existence face à cette musique. "Fragile" est l'antithèse absolue de tout ce que j'aime. C'est une musique faite par des techniciens pour des techniciens. C'est de la branlette intellectuelle mise sur bande, c'est le son de cinq mecs qui se regardent le nombril en pensant qu'ils réinventent l'univers, alors qu'ils ne font que le rendre incroyablement chiant. Cette musique est une insulte au rock'n'roll. Le rock, c'est l'urgence, la sueur, le sexe, la mort, l'émotion brute. C'est Sonic Youth qui maltraite une guitare, c'est Nick Cave qui crache ses poumons, c'est la basse de Peter Hook qui te donne envie de te pendre. Yes, c'est... du tricot. C'est propre, c'est compliqué, et ça ne sert à rien. La seule chose qui me console, c'est que c'est terminé. J'ai payé ma dette au dieu du prog et je peux enfin passer à autre chose. 1 sur 5. Parce que 0 n'existe pas et parce que je suis soulagé que ce soit le dernier. Allez, au suivant et pitié, pas de Genesis.

? Wie in anderem Review geschrieben, pusht 1001 einfach alles was irgendwie Rock ist, finde keinen Zugang...c

Roundabout - Classic boring

First and last time for everything I guess. Didn't do super deluxe. I do not like Yes.

Not really for me.......

Roundabout and filler. Roundabout is undoubtedly a great song. Filler is shite. For 1 good song one gets a load of nothing. Jesus himself would turn over in his grave. This goes to -11.

Really only one decent song on this album and it isn’t even that great

It is not an album for me. I can admire that Yes are people that understands how to make rock music sound great and like an art . But if i wanted to hear classic i listen to a symphony orchestra

Excellent album for progrockers und umzug!

I did not have enough LSD in the house to enjoy this.

Beyond bad. The sort of music “smarter” kids used to boast about, while the rest of love Trex and Slade. This is for the soulless.

*yawn*

No

Not a fan of Yes or prog

No

I can’t. I tried.

I don't think I can adequately explain how much I hate this. I'm not a prog fan or of jam bands in general. This band is both. They're all very talented. Playing around in all these off-kilter time signatures playing difficult fills constantly. Bands like these play and noodle around for a long time with no payoff musically or emotionally. I find it all so boring. And frankly irritating. Just...no.

No

Only made it a couple tracks in, wasn’t really our thing. Bit much, sounds dated.

Music that sounds more fun to play than to listen to.

Nope

Kłuje w uszy, kupa

Fucking tedious

no

Every cliche about prog on one album

Not for me

not my cup of tea, ears were unhappy

No, just no.

Ok donc le prog rock c'est : nul.

Roundabout is the big hit, which I thought was by Supertramp. The guitar part of this song is the same as the melody to Love Machine by The Miracles. And now I can't hear anything else. Prog Rock sucks. This song goes on forever, eight and a half minutes. At least the remainder of the album is relatively short since this is sucking up all the air on it. Cans and Brahms is so pretentious. Reminds me of ELP's Pictures at an Exhibition "cover". We Have Heaven is the most annoying round I've ever heard. And now some radio show door slamming and walking sound effects. Every song on the album sounds like I've Seen All Good People but worse. Three song of 8 minutes or more and short, filler tracks in between. This is one of the worst albums I've ever heard. South Side of the Sky is insufferable. Rush heard this and thought, "We can suck too." Five per Cent for Nothing is only 37 seconds long and might be the most annoying track on the album. It sounds like the start of a Primus song. These guys couldn't be more pretentious, The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus) is literally them using a Latin name for the number of syllables but trying to sound smart. And closed out with an eleven-and-a-half minute drag.

South side starts alright but that bass tone is farty as hell and makes me feel bad. The song also gets hell goofy. Roundabout - a meme punchline - what can you say. Oh and then I realised there are more than 4 songs on this. Are they all 10 minutes long? Thankfully no. 5% of nothing is sort of Zappa-esque I hate this

alas, did not finish (nor did i want to) (i didn’t try v hard though - sowwy)

just boring and not good

i did not finish. it wasn't of my taste.

I found this to be really obnoxious. Yes? More like No thank you.

The guitar work is nice, the singing is decent, but I just don't like the songs. And they're way too long. Best song: Long Distance Runaround

A bit all over the place, but the genre doesn’t immediately appeal anyway.

Prog flop

About as stimulating as a quadratic equation

Yuck. Pretentious pseudo classical music with rock instrumentation. Don't like it at all. 1.5 stars

Boring

wow. i did not like this at all. maybe listening to it while walking to work on the first day was a bad idea but i had no patience for anything it was attempting. before this i was like i like all rock music but now i’m like ok no to prog rock….

Really struggled to pay attention while listening to this. I found the ever changing sound difficult to keep up with, it felt like every time I was enjoying an element it would change immediately and eventually I started to lose interest in the album

Just a mess. Didn’t enjoy at all

All I could think of listening to this album was in Sound of Music when Liesl asks Captain von Trapp “Yes?” And he replies “No” Christopher Plummer was channeling me

No

Boring

Some nice instrumental pieces but it sounds aged to me! I don´t like the voice and over all it's too much doodledoodle. 1,5

This calliope-laden organ tour exhausted me, and the worst rendition of "America" didn't help.

Meh. Liked one song but honestly sounded like a bunch of noise on overly long songs

Prog rock os totaly boring OMG

Nicht meine Richtung

Ik heb zo'n gevoel dat de hoofd editor van deze lijst een man van een jaar of 60 is, met een drumstel in z'n garage waar hij vanaf z'n dertigste al niet meer aan heeft gezeten. Elke keer als je eindelijk in een lekkere cadans zit komt er een prog rock album langs, waardoor je met één wiel in de berm belandt. Ik ga het uiteraard kort houden. Twee punten van aandacht, en de eerste is zowaar positief. Voor zo'n taffes prog rock plaat vloog hij voorbij, en heb ik me weinig geïrriteerd aan dat eeuwige gemeander tussen passieloze en zenuwachtige solo's. Het tweede punt sluit hierop aan, en is minder positief. Er waren ook weinig tot geen interessante momenten die mij er aan deden herinneren dat er überhaupt een album aan stond. Eigenlijk pas in de staart van de plaat werd ik weer bij de les geroepen, want toegegeven, 'Heart of the Sunrise' is best wel een sterke afsluiter. Maar het mocht niet baten. 5/10 Highlights: Heart of the Sunrise Vader in de hemel, ik bid u nu om vrede voor mijn oren en mijn hart. Lieve heer, ik hoop dat er dit jaar geen progressieve rockplaten meer uit de random album generator komen rollen. In Jezus' naam, Amen.

Amen

Not for me

Did not listen much, but no excitement in first songs

Kiss my ass prog rock

Got 2 songs in and had to turn it off. Like someone wanted to try and get every instrument into each song 5 times over. Hurt my head.

Quite stressful

No. I just don't get it. Prog seems to be about guitar playing going up and down the fret board. It's not a lot different in style and tone to the other Yes album we had to listen to only a week or so ago. So I don't understand it's inclusion to this list.

Boring Boomer Trash.

Technically talented musicians but John Andersons voice is absolutely not my thing.

Nope. just can't do mediocre prog-rock.

never liked Yes

I was edging towards a two for this. And then America came on. And it took me a few minutes to realise it was a cover. And anyone who can make a beautiful joyous classic like that into an unrecognisable, intolerable mess does not deserve any more than a 1. Apart from all the other things I don’t like about this album

Crap

[insert Selina Meyer WTF GIF from Veep]

ugh, prog

No.

COME ON! You don't NEED to hear even one Yes Album. Why would you put 2 on the list? If there are 3, I'm forced to belive this whole list is just plain bullshit! ZERO FUCKING STARS!

Stupid

1. round about - 2 2. canz - 0 3. heaven - 0 4. the zky - 0 5. nothing - 6. long diztance - 1 7. the fizh - 1 8. mood - 1.5 9. zunrize - 1 10. america - 0 11. roundabout - 2

This is genuinely insufferable drivel. I don’t know who likes this kind of music but it’s certainly not for me. It’s just chaotic noise that doesn’t go anywhere.

Crap

I have not heard roundabout since leafy was a thing on youtube. hate that guy he was a specky git rest of the album i don't even know wat da fuk i just listened to

Liked Songs Roundabout Long Distance Runaround

Not for me.

Impression: a freeform musical playroom. This album is one of (too many) albums on this list that exist almost singularly as indulgent musical experiments. interesting curios you might cover in a documentary. you need deep academic interest in listening to a grown up noodling on their toy Casio and recording sound effects like steps and wind in a soundstage. It should be entitled "look what I can do Mum!". . Deeply nerdy rubbish for lovers of pure eclectic whimsy - a pointless Divertimento

Jeg Kunne oprigtigt godt lige de første 2 minutter... For helvede da.. De 3 andre albums jeg hørte imellem sangene var fede.. Det er det her ikke..

Forskellen på Yes og Pink Floyd er at PF engang imellem faldt over en god sang og formåede ikke at ødelægge den i prætentiøs selvforherligelse. Det er ikke sket for Yes på en eneste sang af de tre albums der nu har været med dem. Det eneste de har formået er at skabe en ny yndlings aversion hos mig

Progressive Rock was, I though, my thing. Symphonic rock was, I thought, my thing. Syth was, I thought, my thing. Yes is all of these, and it leaves me uninspired. A couple of parts might be of interest, but on the whole, it's not that exciting for me. Lyrics are flamboyant, but the tone of the vocals, it just feels pitched to an uncomfortable space in my ear. The mildly interesting tracks here for me are the instrumental ones where artists are pushing their skills, and work wonderful melody's. I miss a sense of an overall work here is, of depth and feeling, of intricacy to be unwrapped. It's not here for me. Opaque and yes, fragile, but not fun. Let's try more Yes, but no yes to this Yes from me. 1 star.

as someone who is now intimately familar with the symphonies of brahms i can now on revisitation hate "cans and brahms" will the full scorn it deserves. and i dont even really like brahms. maybe this makes them look intellectual to somebody

Fragile is an album that struggles to find its footing, veering dangerously close to self-indulgence and monotony. While Yes undeniably possesses immense talent, particularly evident in their instrumental prowess, the album often feels like a showcase of technical skill rather than a cohesive musical journey. The cover of Simon and Garfunkel's America exemplifies this, with Yes failing to capture the essence and emotion of the original, instead opting for overblown instrumentation and flashy displays. Throughout the album, moments of promise are suffocated by lengthy and meandering instrumental passages, leaving listeners longing for substance and restraint. While there are flashes of brilliance scattered throughout, they are overshadowed by the album's overall lack of direction and cohesion. NUMBER OF BANGERS - 0 STAND OUT TRACK - None

Another meh album. For someone who enjoys some weird jazz/prog rock I just don’t think this hits as an album. The songs themselves are pretty good but the filler is so bad.

No thanks

This all sounds like the same song to me.

Fine background music, but too twee.

Uninteresting... unenjoyable music

Gosh they're trying hard aren't they? The most over produced aggressively irritating wall of noise I've ever heard.

No

I hold these men personally responsible as the progenitors of most prog rock

The best thing about this album is that one of the songs was under a minute long. There are a lot of albums I've drawn from this list that I personally disliked but that I could understand why other people like them, but this album is not one of them. I'm especially unclear why there seems to have been a push to remaster this album and make it available in very high quality. Maybe it's because I'm listening in 2023, but even in the ~70 previous albums I'm sure I've heard funkier jam band jams. Aja felt like the Weather Channel forecast music but at least was fairly cohesive in its "5am rain projection" vibe. Deep Purple was noodley but at least high energy. I just know that tomorrow I'm going to look at the global reviews are going to be full of high marks and I still won't understand why. I'm relieved this site doesn't have any commenting function I've identified because I just know this is the sort of album several die hard fans would pour out of a van painted with a (to be fair, very sick) wizard to tell me I'm wrong for hating. It is true misfortune that I actually liked the first 3:47 (a normal song length) of Heart of the Sunrise but that the track is 11:26.

Well this was a miserable experience

Another album that did nothing for me

Really not my thing overall. Some nice moments but much too needlessly flashy and not much substance behind it. Was nice to hear the version of America but prefer the original by a long stretch.

Incredibly repetitive.

No See what I did there! lol Listened to it a few times, I think that was the problem.

1. The bassline & drums are craazyyy but what's more crazy is that this song is 8 MINS 😭 2. There's a giveaway in the title but it's rooted in classical music - I actually didn't mind listening to it. 3. I like the use of layered vocals. 4. oh my days this song is basically 8 mins too. It was okay though 5. I love that they have super long songs and then a short song. The last song was like 8 mins. this song is like 40 secs. 6. I like the melody of the lines "did we really tell lies, letting in the sunshine" 7. It was okay I guess. 8. I actually appreciate how they give each instrument it's own track. 9. ngl I skipped through most of it bc this song is 11MINS 😭😭😭 Overall it was aight just not for me. Wouldn't listen to these songs ever again.

Not great. First song was good & it went downhill from there.

Boring and weird

Average. Would not listen again.

There was this one section in ‘Five per Cent for Nothing’ that made me want to tear my brain out of my skull and throw it against the wall. NO MORE YES. I’m BEGGING YOU, Lord Master Generator.

Uh. Ab

Average

Eh

Yes. No I will not be going on iTunes to download the back catalog of this band. No I will likely never listen to this band again.

Horrible!

Another review said the discovered a flaw in this 1001 albums list and called it "sheer proliferation of forgettable dad rock". And yeah, I agree. There are so many rock album which kinda sound the same. Sure they were probably a great album at the time. But it does not hold up today.

Self-indulgent claptrap.

No.

Trååkigt

Rockmusiikissa "progressiivisuuden" suhde edistykseen on sama kuin juoruilun suhde moraaliin: edelliseen turvaudutaan, kun jälkimmäinen on kateissa. Mutta antaa heidän kilkutella menemään. En usko, että siitä koituu kenellekään paljoa vahinkoa.

i can't

Glad I wasn't hangovered when listening to this. Not too familiar with Yes, now I know why; but wankish.

What the fuck

The bizarre instrumentals were the interesting bit in this self-indulgent mess of a record.

I have never understood why some people are obsessed with Yes. After listening to this album, I still don’t. One decent song that is too long and a cover song that is an abomination. No, Yes, no.

Love Yes and their 90125 album is getting a high score, but not this. Five percent for nothing - 35 seconds of uberbobble

I'm sorry but I just don't have the patience for this.

Not my thing.

I've come to the conclusion that Yes is a garbage band

For the first 4 - 5 minutes of Roundabout I had a horrible feeling that nostalgia was influencing me to quite like this. But no, the world continues to turn; it's dreadful.

This one just left me completely cold 🤷‍♂️

Blech.

Pretty weird and not too exciting album. Second album by them and neither were worth a second listen. 2.4/10

Remember Round about growing up. Not much else made an impression.

tyckte inte om. fick nästan ont i huvuden nejjjj inte för mig alls

fookin long winded, first song - roundabout, was decent, downhill from there

70s lounge music

roundabout is great... but the rest all kinda blend together

I managed to get through four tracks. A welcome reminder of how much I hated Prog Rock.

medieval nonces. yes doing mashups of folk, chamber music and soft rock.

Prog rock has its place in the world. Just not in my ears.

Get this out of here.

Feels like somewhere between 4 and 10 people randomly made noise and called it art. Did not enjoy at all.

Production: 6/20 Songwriting: 4/20 Innovation: 7/20 Bangers: 0/20 Emotional response: 2/20 = 19 No.

Sorry, dat trek ik slecht deze muziek.

this got off the rails fast

Niet vol te houden, ik werd er helemaal zenuwachtig van.

Tedious

hated its guts

Walked into this one with preconceived notions - and I still maintain them. Rock Classical Guitar - c'mon.

1 star.

Nope. Don't like it. Too 70s rock for me.

nice

Didn't like this one.

Rather chill instrumentals, somewhat known