Relayer [Bonus Tracks] [Remaster]

Performer: Yes
Engineer: Eddie Offord
Producer: Eddie Offord; Yes; Bill Inglot
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Yes: Steve Howe (vocals, guitar); Chris Squire (vocals, bass); Jon Anderson (vocals); Patrick Moraz (keyboards); Alan White (drums). Recorded in Summer and Fall 1974. Originally released on Atlantic (19135). Digitally remastered by George Marino (Sterling Sound). Yes: Jon Anderson (vocals); Steve Howe (guitar); Patrick Moraz (keyboards); Chris Squire (bass); Alan White (drums). Recorded in 1974. Originally released on Atlantic (18122). Includes liner notes by Doug Gottlieb, Glenn Gottlieb. Personnel: Genaro Rippo (tapes). Audio Remasterers: Dan Hersch; Bill Inglot. Liner Note Authors: Glen Gottlieb; Doug Gottlieb. Recording information: England (1974). Author: Don Lehmkul. Photographers: Michael Putland; Paul Canty; Jean Ristori. Unknown Contributor Roles: Mike Allison; Mansell Litho. Arranger: Yes. Yes had fallen out of critical favor with Tales from Topographic Oceans, a two-record set of four songs that reviewers found indulgent. But they had not fallen out of the Top Ten, and so they had little incentive to curb their musical ambitiousness. Relayer, released 11 months after Tales, was a single-disc, three-song album, its music organized into suites that alternated abrasive, rhythmically dense instrumental sections featuring solos for the various instruments with delicate vocal and choral sections featuring poetic lyrics devoted to spiritual imagery. Such compositions seemed intended to provide an interesting musical landscape over which the listener might travel, and enough Yes fans did that to make Relayer a Top Ten, gold-selling hit, though critics continued to complain about the lack of concise, coherent song structures. ~ William Ruhlmann Carnivorous, alcohol-loving Rick Wakeman was always at odds with the health-food mindset of the other Yes members, though his brash pomp was at the heart of their sound. When he was replaced by Patrick Moraz (late of '70s prog obscurites Refugee and Mainhorse), it freed the band up to dive headlong into the ethereal, spiritually oriented themes that had always been Jon Anderson's stock in trade. Thus, RELAYER consists of three extended cuts (the 22-minute "Gates of Delirium" was once jokingly assessed as the reason punk became necessary). Even on the inside cover's band photo, the Yes boys look like they're in the middle of a prayer meeting. The elaborately structured arrangements take the band's loftier side to previously unreachable heights (even compared to TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS). However, it's all done so skillfully (with much credit going to Moraz) that RELAYER draws you in to its complex sonic web and fully captivates you. First things first. It's unlikely that this remaster will convert anyone who rejected Relayer in the past. Even more than its predecessor, the sprawling Tales from Topographic Oceans, Relayer was the sound of a band that built its reputation on vast, ambitious ideas, facing up to the fact that it had completely run out of them -- and the so-ponderous intro to "The Gates of Delirium" remains the most disappointing opening that any Yes album has ever endured. How sad that they didn't forget the final mix and go with the studio runthrough instead. Closing the three bonus tracks that pack out the 2003 remaster of Relayer, a full-length blast through that side-long disappointment packs a sparkle and energy that the released version absolutely lacks. The guitars and keyboards shimmer, Anderson's vocal is alive with enthusiasm, and there's a dynamism to the rhythms that simply echoes through your head. Elsewhere among these remasters, the alternate versions of familiar songs have offered little more than a rough blueprint of subsequent majesties. This time, the outtake is the best thing in sight, with the closing "Soon" section standing among the finest Yes recordings of all. "Soon" reappears again among the bonus tracks, in the form of a tight little single edit; "Sound Chaser," too, made it onto 45, and it's intriguing to hear its original nine minutes cut down to just over three, dominated by guitar lines and a loping rhythm that wouldn't have been out of place on a Led Zeppelin album. The "cha-cha-cha" chorus is still annoying, though, and the bulk of the remastered Relayer will doubtless languish unplayed in your CD collection. For that astonishing reappraisal of "Gates of Delirium," however, it's worth the cost of admission. ~ Dave Thompson

The longest-running prog-rock group in the business, Yes flew on the strength of Jon Anderson's high, angelic voice and the group's instrumental virtuosity. The band began in England, rising from the ashes of pop-psych outfits like Tomorrow, Bodast, and Mabel Greer's Toyshop. Extending the technical facility of psychedelia and downplaying the trippiness, it helped forge the template for progressive rock and reigned as its most popular practitioners in the '70s. Over the years, Yes has weathered personnel changes, lawsuits, and changing public tastes while holding on to its original vision.

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