Fragile- Rating out of 5?

[soundchaser09]

Mountains come out of the sky, they stand theeeereeee.......

[Mr. Holland]

5 stars. The group songs are just fantastic. Whenever one gets tired of Roundabout live, I recommend listening to the studio version again. Each time I do, I fall back in love with the song. The other three are classics as well. And, well apart from the Wakeman one, the solo stuff is formidable as well.

[Gilly Goodness]

5 stars. The group songs are just fantastic. Whenever one gets tired of Roundabout live, I recommend listening to the studio version again. Each time I do, I fall back in love with the song. The other three are classics as well. And, well apart from the Wakeman one, the solo stuff is formidable as well.

5


Agree with above. The songs are the best. Monsters. The solo toons are mostly OK and flow with the album. Like CTTE, all magic dust. No filler. A Childhood memory. of expanded horizons. HOTS was the highlight of the one and only gig I saw. The Dean cover was captivatin'. In a home of Jesus pictures and gum tree pictures, it was like a surrealist bomb was set off!

[alex peters]

5 stars. A great album. As good as any they put out

[Somis Sound]

99.9 a perfect 5. But having to skip Cans and Brahms every single time is as annoying as the song itself.

[Davy]

I gave it a 4, because of the clever playing and arrangements, plus the crisp sound.

[Homemade Parachute]

5 stars. The group songs are just fantastic. Whenever one gets tired of Roundabout live, I recommend listening to the studio version again. Each time I do, I fall back in love with the song. The other three are classics as well. And, well apart from the Wakeman one, the solo stuff is formidable as well.

That's my own reaction as well: as tired as I can get of Roundabout live, the studio version has a magic I just love. I even love the Wakeman solo, so the whole shebang is unskippable, start to finish. And that little snippet of All Fighters Past on the SW remix, I mean, what the hell else were they working on we'll never know about?

[Homemade Parachute]

Only demerit would be the Yes 0.1 logo: would have been perfect to have nailed it on the first go, and I would 100% support revising it for all future releases from here on in. But branding is hard…

[pianozach]

5

Solid group songs, and solid solo tracks.

I still remember the first time I heard Roundabout - my jaw hit the floor when the Hammond solo hit.

[Old Frothingslosh]

Gave it a 4, terrific album but I enjoy The Yes Album more.

[Ceasar’s Palace]

Gave it a 4, terrific album but I enjoy The Yes Album more.

Yep. Me too. The four band songs are a 5, though.

[Soundwaveseeker]

Fragile is my least favorite of the 70's Yes albums for some reason, I can't put my finger on it. Maybe hearing this material like Roundabout and Heart Of The Sunrise too much live, but as others have pointed out, revisiting the studio versions contained here on Fragile offers rich rewards. I may use Roundabout as a restroom break before the crowds file out at a Yes show, but I never skip any of this stuff while listening to the Fragile album.

The GOOD:

Yes makes a leap of confidence into even more complex and varied material up to that point. The stop and go arrangements and power harmonies of the 'band' compositions are heightened on Fragile.
By this point, other bands have used the 'solo' tracks on an album format (think Floyd with Ummagumma), and it appears that with Fragile, Yes had now assembled their dream team and were now keen to showcase who's who in the band and why you the listener should care. A few albums in, a band may want to emphasize their personnel. The solo spots make the album unique in the Yes canon. Of these, I like Chris Squire's The Fish best. It's way cool, but live is even better. I love 5% For Nothing, though it needs to be at least a minute more. It's the ultimate Yes teaser. Jon's track is a bit of a doodle and Mood For A Day was really played out as a predictable solo spot live, though Steve Howe these days may opt to play other pieces from his vast repertoire of acoustic ditties. Never had a problem with Ricks' Brahms cover. We know he couldn't contractually add a new piece to Fragile, otherwise he probably would have had a 6 Wives type theme on there.

The main songs though - Roundabout, who can deny that bass line though. And the hammond solo is textbook hammond solo. Heart Of The Sunrise - a masterpiece to be sure. Live versions from the 70's or the Rabin years are powerful enough but listen to the details on album in the keyboards in particular. But South Side Of The Sky is the album's gem diamond - the middle section is one of their most loveliest moments in the whole Yes canon. Beautiful and expressive piano, Squire's backing vocals are clear as a bell. One of my 2 favorite tracks on the album. The other one is Long Distance Runaround, which I don't get tired of at all. The tricky bass and the way the song is constructed, yet it's very catchy and approachable. Playful, even. Short and sweet, then glides effortlessly into The Fish. This is fun Yes.

The BAD:

The prototype Yes logo wasn't quite there yet, but it wasn't too bad. Wouldn't mind it resurfacing on an album or something. That would freak people out. The Roger Dean cover isn't really one of his best ones to me, but it's a start. Brown and dark blue, very earthy, or like a book. If that's all I can scrape up to nitpick, then Fragile is quite alright. Classic album, and the beginning of Dean's saga with Yes.

The UGLY:
.
Again, a couple of these tunes - especially the obligatory Roundabout - can be tiring to hear on every single tour. Every live show and every live encore - there it is. But then you hear them in original form on Fragile and you can focus on the details. Things like Bill Bruford's drumming. All these years we're used to hearing Alan White play these songs, but with Bruford there is a little more...finesse? Not that Alan doesn't have finesse, I'm not sure how to put it into words. It's studio versions, they have a different vibe than live at the summer pavilion shed. Take the chance to listen to the originals and forget all the live versions over the years. At one point Fragile was a new album. I'd love to hear it as if new.

You know how an artist makes a part 2 of an album years later long after the original one - Bat Out Of Hell II, Thick As A Brick II, Tubular Bells II, III, IV, XXVII? The one album from Yes that may generate some buzz from fans giving both nostalgia AND new songs & ideas would be Fragile II. It doesn't have to have the original participants. Current members. Four or five new songs, and then five new solo offerings. Howe has hundreds of acoustic numbers lying around, Geoff could do a synthesized NDO track, Jon Davison with his own song for voice/acoustic gtr - an acoustic Living Island type track. Billy has done solo bass tracks on solo albums, he could use one of those or a new one. Or a solo song he sings. Everybody's doing vocals in Yes these days. That leaves Alan & Jay Schellen for a drum duet. Don't see it happening, why not. Fragile 2. Think about it. The solo spots would reintroduce the current band and sow seeds of interest in the current Yes configuration. In the meantime, Fragile 1 will continue to thrill listeners of stellar music. Fragile - a solid 4 or 4+ from me.

[Ash Armstrong]

After half a century, I'm still astonished by the incredible progress they made in less than two and a half years, between the release of the first album in July 1969 and that of Fragile in November 1971.

[Spiritual Architect]

High Five