Yes 1st album versus Fly From Here.

[Strawbs]

The first album versus the latest album. What is the better of the two?

[RelayerI]

I'm not a big fan of FFH but it's a hell of a lot better than the first album...

[TOBYSGRAPHICGOKART]

FFH, hands down.

[relayermoraz]

This is really like comparing apples and oranges, and it just goes to show how much development has happened over the band's 45 years playing and recording. While I love both albums, I listen to FFH a lot more; so to that one my vote goes.

[pianozach]

Now? Or then?

Hearing the Yes album the year it was released vs. listening to FFH this year . . .

hmmmm . . . .

Y'know, context is everything.

[somissound]

The first album versus the latest album. What is the better of the two?

FFH. Its the best thing they have done in a long, long time... IMO

[Mostly Harmless]

Not even close for me...I like the debut infinitely more.

[RelayerI]

I'm not a big fan of FFH but it's a hell of a lot better than the first album...

I've been thinking more about this - I haven't played anything off FFH for months (to be honest I probably won't play most of the album ever again) but I haven't played the first album for about 30 years...

[Paul Allen]

It's not even the same band. Not even close. The same bass player. So what?

[ragtime]

The first album. It's a bit raw and unfocussed, but it's fresher, more instrumentally experimental, full of jazzy, rocky ideas and has more energy and drive. I find it interesting. FFH is ultra studio polished and carefully constructed, with some pleasant moments, but lacks depth and any sense of musical elation and adventure*. I tried, but it failed to carve out a place in my imagination.

(* There is one passage starting from the middle of Life On A film Set that does have something of that power, but the first half of the song is unlistenable for me, so I can't really get into it).

[soundchaser09]

FFH, not even close really, but the first album was a solid first effort

[Yes.2]

Not even close for me...I like the debut infinitely more.

I completely agree.

[Mostly Harmless]

The first album. It's a bit raw and unfocussed, but it's fresher, more instrumentally experimental, full of jazzy, rocky ideas and has more energy and drive. I find it interesting. FFH is ultra studio polished and carefully constructed, with some pleasant moments, but lacks depth and any sense of musical elation and adventure*. I tried, but it failed to carve out a place in my imagination......

This sums up my opinion almost exactly.

[JL]

I find it unfathomable that any long time Yes fan would vote FFH in this poll.

So much of what made Yes great is in evidence on the first album. FFH is, to me, the band scrambling to get a product, any product, into the pipeline. Well played, well produced, but not a Beyond And Before or Survival in the bunch that anyone will care about in 40 years or, for that matter, in five years.

[PeterCologne]

Voted for Yes, the first album, very underrated. They started as a sort of sophisticated jazz-pop-band, something like a british version of Steely Dan. I love the swing of I See You and Looking Around, the coolness of Sweetness, the mystery in Yesterday And Today, the Drama of Harold Land... everything is very charming and warm, whereas much of FFH is quite antiseptic and cold.

[Kevin Still]

I had to go with the first album. When I became a fan of this band I consumed everything I could get my hands on. Although I am a much bigger fan of Steve than I am of Peter Banks it does not take away from the fact that the album was different. Much different even than "The Yes Album". It is part of the foundation of the band I guess. That is why it got my vote.

I listen to FFH a lot though. I love it. I listen to it much more than the first.

[downbyariver]

I find it unfathomable that any long time Yes fan would vote FFH in this poll.

So much of what made Yes great is in evidence on the first album. FFH is, to me, the band scrambling to get a product, any product, into the pipeline. Well played, well produced, but not a Beyond And Before or Survival in the bunch that anyone will care about in 40 years or, for that matter, in five years.

I was one of the people who voted for Fly From Here over the self-titled Yes album. Beyond the subjective fact that I just like Fly from Here more and listen to it more often, I also think that objectively it has the Yes formula down. If you play The Yes Album (Album #3) and then "Fly From Here" back to back, you notice similar elements and it sounds like the same band.

Yes (The first album), though, sounds like something different and not as developed. It's like From Genesis to Revelation (The first Genesis album). It just doesn't sound like classic rock or progressive rock or, well, Yes. Jon Anderson's voice on that first album sounds less like the Jon Anderson that made it big than Benoit David does!

I'm not meaning to trash Yes (the album) utterly here. It sounds alright. I listened to it again last night because I felt like it. However, if they'd failed to develop a lot from there or went more in that direction instead of shifting, I don't think I'd be much of a Yes fan, nor do I think the band would have taken off the way it did. On the other hand, had Fly From Here come first and they developed the sound further on subsequent albums, or kept making albums of roughly the same style and quality, I think I'd have enjoyed them.

If the next Yes album sounds like Yes (the album), I'd find it a disappointment. If the next Yes album sounds like Fly From Here, I'd be alright with that (Though obviously I'm always rooting for improvement! :) ).

[pianozach]

I was one of the people who voted for Fly From Here over the self-titled Yes album. Beyond the subjective fact that I just like Fly from Here more and listen to it more often, I also think that objectively it has the Yes formula down. If you play The Yes Album (Album #3) and then "Fly From Here" back to back, you notice similar elements and it sounds like the same band.

Yes (The first album), though, sounds like something different and not as developed. It's like From Genesis to Revelation (The first Genesis album). It just doesn't sound like classic rock or progressive rock or, well, Yes. Jon Anderson's voice on that first album sounds less like the Jon Anderson that made it big than Benoit David does!

I'm not meaning to trash Yes (the album) utterly here. It sounds alright. I listened to it again last night because I felt like it. However, if they'd failed to develop a lot from there or went more in that direction instead of shifting, I don't think I'd be much of a Yes fan, nor do I think the band would have taken off the way it did. On the other hand, had Fly From Here come first and they developed the sound further on subsequent albums, or kept making albums of roughly the same style and quality, I think I'd have enjoyed them.

If the next Yes album sounds like Yes (the album), I'd find it a disappointment. If the next Yes album sounds like Fly From Here, I'd be alright with that (Though obviously I'm always rooting for improvement! :) ).

I chose not to vote.

You cannot seriously compare

1969's Yes (Banks, Bruford, Kaye, Anderson and Squire)
with
2011's Yes (Howe, White, Downes, Davison and Squire)

It's been 40 years. The technology has changed, the equipment has changed, the listening devices have changed, and the band has 1 original member.

Music has progressed . . .

[downbyariver]

I chose not to vote.

You cannot seriously compare

1969's Yes (Banks, Bruford, Kaye, Anderson and Squire)
with
2011's Yes (Howe, White, Downes, Davison and Squire)

David, not Davison on that 2011 list. :) Don't mean to be nitpicky, but it was actually Benoit David singing on Fly From Here. Jon Davison was still off doing whatever it was he used to do before joining Yes (Glass Hammer and tribute bands and whatnot).

I get that a lot of people like Davison better than David, but let's not rewrite history. :) If you liked Fly From Here, you liked an album with David on it. Personally, while he was no Jon Anderson (Who is?), I kind of liked Benoit David's voice- sort of a cross between Jon Anderson, Trevor Horn, and Geddy Lee. I think actually he would have gone over far better with the fan base, and his voice would have been worn much less ragged, had they let him sing more songs in a slightly lower Rush-like key.

[Frumious B]

The debut is an album by a fresh, hungry band with a ton of potential and a bright future. Fly From Here is Fly From Here. I choose the debut.