Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The cynical will openly insist that any remix or even reissue is taken with perhaps more than eye on the pension coffers and lifestyles of the older statesmen and women of music, or worse…to line the pockets of the label owners who still revel n the success of those they once treated as cash cows.

Time is in flux, yes arguably the money it costs to recapture a once loved dream could urge the 21st century musicians on, that those who inhabit the hard working circuits and ever dwindling number of small scale venues should be given a wider appreciation to ensure that the world understands that art is the truth we cannot afford to lose; however it must also be acknowledged that those older, and often adored bands didn’t have the opportunity of having the internet in which to place every song in emo form or as a live event, and in the full reissue of Yes’ 1971 semi self-titled recording, The Yes Album, some parity of age might be seen to take place.

Taking in the remastered original album, the Steve Wilson 2014 remixes and instrumentals, rarities, two sets of Yes recorded live, as well as the vinyl disc which stands as the keeper of the band’s eternal flame, what comes across is an exercise to showcase the definitive article, to highlight the album that arguably became the standard bearer of what was to come to pass over the initial following decade was a light that shone across the genre and the world.

To have so much information to hand, to be able to be immersed in the album that saw the now legendary Steve Howe join the group and playing alongside Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Tony Kaye, and Bill Bruford, is to feel a kind of serenity and explosion of style take place as if you were in the birth of myths and folklore.

Cynical and serious observers will roll their eyes at the illusion, but for those who seek extra, who weren’t around for the package to be initially unveiled, this direct affirmation of the status of Yes in their early years is one of intense investigation, a flexible boundary of illumination that was imminent and powerful.

A tremendously important album reissued with full bangs and whistles, this is the album made on Saville Row, a recording created by the impossible showing a human face, and it remains steadfastly glorious.

Ian D. Hall