I get up! I get doooown!! One of my favorite records ever and maybe THE definitive headphone album of all time. (Pink Floyd doesn’t have a pipe organ, sorry.) I haven’t listened to enough prog to really say this is the high mark of the genre, but it sure as shit feels that way. I really think it has so much to do with Jon Anderson’s voice. The rest of the band all go ten directions at once, but that voice - it always cuts through the mix and invites me in. In some ways, it’s a really sweet record; the main melody of “And You and I” feels like it could be a Cat Stevens song sung in a higher register. I think that’s what makes Yes the G.O.A.T. When they’re at their best, the vocals and melody isn’t there just to support the progressiveness of the composition of what the other instruments are doing. It soars above all that. But goddamn the instruments. Insane. The synthy moment in the 2nd movement of “And You and I” always makes me think of 2001: A Space Oddysey. It’s transportive and catharsis in such a specific way. Ditto that pipe organ in the title track. Craig, I’ll recommend finding a clip of them playing the title track live back in the day. They’re on YouTube. You kind of have to commit to taking in that song without doing anything else for it to click, but if it clicks look out. Also, you know damn well that a bunch of teens saw these dudes playing twenty minute songs while literally dressed in capes and were like, “Yeah, fuuuck that.” And thus punk was born. Which is awesome! But so is Yes.