Yes - List Your Top 5 albums

[DaverJ]

1. Fragile
2. The Yes Album
3. 90125
4. Drama
5. Close To The Edge

The order might shift slightly, but those 5 a pretty much locked for me.

 

[marpow]

1.90125
2. Big Generator
3. Trevor Rabin-Can't Look away (Sorry)
4. Yessongs
5.Close To The Edge
6. The Yes Album

 

[slmccaul]

The list below comes from my high school and college years where this band along with Genesis, Gentle Giant and ELP were at the core of my listening experience. Really hard to rank them but this is my best shot.

1. Close To The Edge
2. Fragile
3. The Yes Album
4. Relayer
5. Tales from Topographic Oceans

 

[allmind]

Drama
Close to the edge
Fragile
Relayer
Tales from Topographic Oceans

 

[Scott M4]

I’m perfectly aligned with Prog Rules in post 10 and pick:
1 Close to the Edge
2 Topographic Oceans
3 The Yes Album
4 Fragile
5 Relayer
and Awaken for dessert

 

[Lensflair]

1. Close To The Edge
2. Fragile
3. The Yes Album
4. Relayer
5. Going For The One

 

[edisonbaggins]

Fragile
The Ladder
Drama
GFTO
CTTE

 

[cbmmm3]

1. The Yes Album
2. Closer To The Edge
3. The Ladder
4. Talk
5. Magnification
and Key Studio I and II as an appeteaser

 

[fcormier]

Cool! Relayer, not sure why I have difficulty with this one. I have the DBA 5.1 it sounds good, it's just that the music is not doing it for me as much as the other SW remixes.

Same here, can't get into Relayer (I also have all SW Yes remixes)

 

[fcormier]

1. Fragile
2. Close To The Edge
3. Going For The One
4. 90125
5. Drama or The Yes Album (yes, they're on the opposite end of the spectrum)

 

[Bill B]

Same here, can't get into Relayer (I also have all SW Yes remixes)

Try listening to it on acid.

 

[Petr Kropotkin]

Try listening to it on acid.

Or listening to just Side 1 if you're heading off to war (though you should stop when the "soon" section begins as it may lower your motivation).

 

[birrrdy!]

Easy to rank, without much hesitation except between #1 and #2. I am also a lifelong diehard Yes fan.

1) Fragile. Fabric of my childhood and, like Tommy by The Who, changed how I listened to music. Stunning, dreamlike Roger Dean artwork breaks the tie with #2.

2) The Yes Album. Musically their most complete effort. Howe’s guitar on Yours Is No Disgrace exudes pure joy, only to be matched by Squire’s thundering bass on Starship Trooper. Wow, and Perpetual Change on the same album barely getting notice by comparison. Unreal.

3) 90125. For a band that had gotten lost in years of self indulgence and seemed dead in the water musically, Yes completely redefined themselves and what progressive rock was and could be. Total bravery by Squire and Anderson to pull this off, and also pull in and harness the young genius that was Trevor Rabin. (And even add some pop minimalism to the Yes sound,.. whaa?)

4) Big Generator. Most underrated album of Yes’s career. So much pressure following 90125, yet has so many moments of brilliance shining through and proving Rabin’s well ran deeper than many thought. Unabashed rock-out that is their best album played loud, the louder the better actually.

5) Classic Yes. Not ashamed to put a compilation here. So simple, and yet perfect in its execution. With perhaps Roger Dean’s best work on the cover, and an extra 45 in the vinyl version showing off their live chops, and the transcendent And You And I without having to trudge through an unfocused CTTE. Stands up to heavy repeat listening.

Honorable Mention: Yessongs. Simply an iconic live album that redefined what a live rock album could be and has few, if any, flaws.