Yes: Worst to Best Albums 

Your completely subjective non-technical approach is interesting.

My opinion may be unpopular but I think 90125 is an amazing album. Leave it is a nice, catchy song, Owner of a lonely heart is a great song and IMO Changes is absolutely fantastic.

To me the best Yes album is (by far) Relayer. Love Close To The Edge, TFTO, Fragile and GFTO.

You think Yes with 19 albums is a lot...try doing a worst to best of Zappa.

My top 5 1- Close To The Edge 2- Relayer 3- Fragile 4- The Yes Album 5- Tales From Topographic Oceans

Magnification above Fragile and Relayer? The mind reels.

1 - Tales From Topographic Oceans 2 - Fragile 3 - Relayer 4 - Close To The Edge 5 - The Yes Album My top 5

I was reading Frank Herbert's "Dune" when Tale from Topographic Oceans came out. Every time I hear a TFTO piece, it casts images from the book. In my mind they were made for each other.

Wow. 90125 and Big Generator were two of my favorite albums, probably due to my age, 56, because they were a part of my musical "rebirth" in the late 80's along with Metallica and Anthrax, for example. Trevor Rabin rocks! You have given me an entirely fresh and exciting point of view. I am going to listen to these in your order and I will update this comment (or make a new one) at that time. I am definitely becoming an aficionado of "smaller" RU-vid channels such as yours. I love how you provide specific details of your own personal experience in your commentary so we can all enjoy your "opinion" without judgement.

WOW! I disagree SO MUCH with you! But nice vid :)

Tales From Topographic Oceans is a masterpiece beyond masterpieces

90125 at #17??? Are you high?

It makes me happy to hear Tales from Topographic Oceans get this much love.

The Yes Album is my favorite

The album on his right (our left) side is Olias of Sunhillow from Jon Anderson.

Always wondered how Chris Squire got that fabulous bass tone that no one else had, but now I know...He was playing with strings made of 'Derilium'....

90125 was such an important album for me and for millions of others, I probably would have never known of Yes ever. The Owner of a Lonely Heart video was the first time I had ever heard of Yes, and it was amazing to hear it! The production, nothing had ever sounded so futuristic and fresh as that! It sounds like it could be released today.

“I can feel no sense of measure”...........in your review.

The Remembering.... great song, don't think it gets enough recognition!

Wow, I love 90125. An excellent transition into the 80's for the band.

Changes is an amazing song

i'm sorry , gates of what? by the way relayer is top 5 easy. magnification over relayer?

Its Gates of Delirium, not Derilium; and Relayer should be ranked higher.

The Yes Album is my favorite mainly because of Starship Trooper and I've Seen All Good People.

Inspired by your slightly approximate renditions of some Yes titles, I've come up with this food-themed shortlist: Going for the Bun Close to the Fridge Portato Onion Tomato Revealing the Science of Cod (unit for a Catering course?) Wonderloaf (track from Open Your Eyes) Cans and Beans And of course, I forgot.... Fish P.s. I've since found out that Rick Wakeman calls Union, "Onion" already, because it makes him cry.

The best song by Yes (one of the greatest of all time in any band) is Awaken. Hands down.

"Keys to 'Assertion'" was bad enough, but "Gates of 'Derillium'"? "Cans and 'Brams'"? "Giants Under the 'Sea""? "Siberian kxhtrtrruhhchhxxx"?!? (Hint: The correct pronunciation is SUNG IN THE SONG) Your video has a hundred obvious cuts so I know you edited it - so why the hell didn't you fix the pronunciation??

Relayer is rated too low I feel like. I love this album. Patrick Moraz's influence especially in "war" (the second bit in gates of delirium) and the entirety of sound chaser. The crazy kind of odd beat timing that later resolves itself seems to be a trend. I love it so much. I would probably rate that at number one. I feel like soon is a bit repetitive, and the first bit of gates takes a bit to get going, but you know what, its all worth it.

Relayer isn't in the top 3. why should I continue watching.

Nice list, but wrt Relayer @11:50 & @12:17, I believe it's "Gates of de-LEER-e-um", not "Gates of de-RILL-e-um". My all-time favorite YES piece.

Van Der Graff Generator worst to best please!!

Waaay off on ‘Talk’, dude One of the best, in my opinion (from a life-long fan)

My Top Ten 1. Close to the Edge 2. Fragile 3. The Yes album 4. Relayer 5. Tales From Topographic Oceans (not a big fan of Giants under the Sun) 6. Going for the One 7.Time and a word 8. Drama 9. Yes 10. Tormato

I was really hoping you'd have relayer on or near the top, it's my favourite yes album and the gates of delirium is one of the very very best prog rock songs ever, the middle section with the battle going on between guitar and keyboards is just so so good, it's god tier prog, and below magnification? Come on now

Thank you for the List. Ranking is such a subjective exercise. I have many disagreements with your analysis, but it doesn't matter. Our criteria will be different, apples and oranges. The band was in a different mind set for every album and different players with different objectives. The only (almost) constant is the message of "Yes." What is the message and how well was the message communicated? My favorite song, for the message, is To Be Over - "After All, Your Soul Will Still Surrender. After All, Don't Doubt Your Part, Be Ready To Be Loved." That is the essence of Yes. That is on Relayer, so that is the best album, for me. Among other things, the song Awaken says, "Oh Closely Guided Plan , Awaken In Our Heart." So, Going For The One is #2. And You And I says, "There'll Be No Mutant Enemy We Shall Certify . Political Ends, As Sad Remains, Will Die." Which is a concise statement to look beyond others' corrupt action and thought; Don't waste your time because it won't last. So, Close To The Edge is #3 for me. I've seen Jon Anderson many times, live and on recordings. I marvel at his consistency and the joy he projects. Something to strive for . . .

My faves from Yes are : 1- Yes debut album 2- Relayer 3 -Fragile 4- Drama

I consider myself a strong Yes fan, but each album they produced has some songs I don't particularly like. Like, I almost gag over them. Like most of you, I could very easily give you my top 10 Howe-era songs, and my top 10 Rabin-era songs. These two groups shouldn't be compared. They stand on their own. For every Starship Trooper, there's City of Love. For every Close to the Edge, there's Endless Dream. And for every Yours Is No Disgrace there's Shoot High Aim Low. All different, all incredible, all incomparable (in many ways)

Ah well…. I really love Talk… For me it's up there on my list…

I'm a 1970s SNOB... yet I can admit MOST of the material on 90215 is KILLER. "Changes", "It Can Happen", etc! UNION is absolutely worthless. TALK also has a LOT of cool sounds / great melodies etc. It seems like you are biased for 1970s and are not being FAIR.

I’m kind of upset by how quickly he glossed over Going for the One, without even mentioning Awaken. That is a masterpiece!

I see your it’s always sunny dvd. I also love 90125- how can you not like Changes?

1. Close to the Edge 2. Relayer (would have been 1st if not for Sound Chaser) 3. Tales from Topographic Oceans (Could have been first if they wouldn't have filled it with endless garbage music just to fit into the 4 sides of vinil..) 4. Fragile 5. Yes Album All the others don't make it to the list, Although Going for the One and Time and a Word have some ok songs.. Even Steve Howe said that Awaken was the very last piece that he and Jon wrote together that had this magic of their cooperative writing that started in Fragile.. I thinks Roundabout is the most representative yes song, and To Be Over is their most beautiful and only flawless, seamless one..

Derilium? Brams? Kratu? Songwritership???

I ... I ... I can't even ... Dude ... You have ears, right? I see them. Okay, fine. Your channel. Your mispronounciations. Your opinions. :)

Also could you make a King Crimson worst to best as well?

We see eye to eye on a lot of this, especially #1. I understand why you didn't include ABWH, even though it was a great album. I loved how ABWH's management called them "Classic Yes" and the 90125 band "Diet Yes". Anyway, my top five would be: 1) Close to the Edge 2) Fragile 3) Going For the One 4) The Yes Album 5) Relayer

The "Gates of WHAT? ROFL!!! Did you say "Gates of DeRilium"? You lose 10pts. of "Prog-Rock Cred" for that one, but thanks for the laugh.

Very interesting analysis, but my three best are: 1. Tales From Topographic Oceans 2. Close To The Edge 3. Fragile Tales from Topo's I think it's masterpiece and colosal, the music & lyric is sophisticated but beautiful. Also the album cover is better than Close to edge, still CTTE is Yes very very best song.

Tormato is better than Time and a Word

1. Close To The Edge 2. Fragile 3. The Yes Album 4. Going For The One 5. Relayer 6. Tales From Topographic Oceans 7. Drama (underrated as hell) 8. 90125 (a good album for what it is - pop) 9. Yes 10. Time And A Word 11. Magnification 12. The Ladder 13. Fly From Here 14. Tormato 15. Big Generator 16. Talk 17. Union 18. Open Your Eyes 19. Heaven & Earth

Great list and I agree with a lot what you say, but I disagree that the short length of Talk is its only saving grace. I think Endless Dream is a legitimately great song. The rest is really meh though.

1. Close to the Edge (a no-brainer objectively) 2. Relayer (subjectively- I love that album)

Love Close to the edge studio, but live these three tracks capture the raw power that we all know and love.

Close to The Edge is edited together and created in the studio. They had to learn how to play it live. But a great work of art nonetheless.

20. Heaven and Earth 19. Talk 18. Open Your Eyes 17. 90125 16. Big Generator 15. Fly From Here 14. Yes 13. Union 12. The Ladder 11. Time And a Word 10. Magnfication 9. Tormato 8. Tales From Topographic Oceans 7. Drama 6. The Yes Album 5. Going for the One 4. Fragile 3. Relayer 2. Keystudio 1. Close to the Edge Although, ironically and justifiably, my favorite song is "Shoot High, Aim Low" on one of their worst albums!

My top 5 5. Time and a word 4. Relayer 3. Fragile 2. Close to the edge 1. The yes album Union sacked, but the tour was phenomenal.

I think gates of delirium wins for me

My Top 8 1. Fragile 2. Relayer 3. CTTE 4. Yes Album 5. Drama (I truly love this album!) 6. Going for the One 7. Tales From TopoGraphic Oceans 8. 91125(Why not 80'?? amazing album!!!)

Best Yes Albums: 1) Close to the Edge 2) Fragile 3) The Yes Album 4) Going for the One Worst: Who cares? The worst Yes album is still better than most band's best albums....

Relayer is too low. It’s a MUCH better album than Tales.

Derilliam? LOL. Agree with 1st three. CTTE was the precursor to TFTO...the all time Prog masterpiece to usher in the age of Prog. Set the bar for future progressive music to be measured by.

Tormato is a miracle. You lost me after that

Not bad but I really think Tormato is so underated but other than that not a bad poll.. cheers..

1. Going for the One 10/10 2. The Yes Album 10/10 3. CTTE 10/10 4. Fragile 10/10 5. Relayer 10/10 6. 90125 9/10 7. Magnification 9/10 8. Drama 9/10 9. Talk 8/10 10. TFTO 8/10 11. Tormato 7/10 12. Time and a word 7/10 13. Big Generator 6/10 These are all the ones I’ve listened to so far

My favs: 1 Tales 2 Fragile 3 Relayer 4 Close 5 Going 6 Tormato 7 Magnification 8 Keystudio 9 Yes 10 ABWH 11 Time 12 Fly 13 Yes (debut) 14 Drama 15 Ladder 16 Big 17 Union 18 Talk 19 90125 20 Heaven 21 Open (urgh)

Dude relayer>magnification no doubt

Rush or ELP next?

Gosh, It´s just your opinion, I don´t care at all. It´s not the "Worst to Best Albums" for real. What the Heck??? "Fly from here" and "Ladder" near the best ones?. And how in the world you changed the name "Ascension" to "ASSERTION" ????? haha. Anyway...

1, 2, 3 (in any order) The Yes Album, Fragile, Close to the Edge: all classics. One of my personal favorites: Relayer Magnification? I have been a big Yes fan since the late 70s..........never heard of it.

Close to the Edge is as perfect of an album as you can get and Tales is a masterpiece, but Magnification over Relayer? I suppose next you'll be telling us that you prefer Phil Collins voice over Peter Gabriel's although Seconds Out is awesome!!!

Quite an interesting list you have there. As someone said, no two Yes fans would have the exact same list, yet I was still surprised at how low you put 90125. But each to their own, I guess. I was glad you gave Magnification such a good review - it's a really solid album. Going for the One would be top of my list, Tormato would be a lot higher, Union (well, half of it) would be a bit higher, and Drama would be considerably lower. But all in all, a very interesting list that I really enjoyed listening to 👍

One of my favorite moments is that weird guitar solo that opens "The Ancient" It is SO solemn and cerimonial, but also deep, intimate, delicate and, a feature that defines one of their best skills as composers, surprising that thrills me ever since I decided to give it a second (or fiftieth-second chance after almost 10 years of chances) hahhahaha nice review

0:41- Keys to what??

Ultimately mostly agree. GFTO, Fragile, CTTE, Relayer, Yes Album, Tormato, Drama, Magnif, Ladder, etc...

Nice list -- but I truly love 90125. I know you weren't reviewing the expanded releases, but that is one that is truly worth getting, IMO. By the way, I love Magnification, too -- and think it was VERY underrated, and VERY overlooked. That said, well...this album was released on September 10, 2001, so...you can kinda see the reason why, at least in part, that it has been lost to the ages.

TALK is my favourite album post G F T O... its romantic + huge in sounds + range + exciting !

Good review, but: Keys to *Ascension*, Gates of *Delirium*: you butchered those names. And Rabin (RAY-bin), Tormato (tor-MAH-to) and Drama are all mispronounced.

My DIY (Desert Island Yes) 10 Yessongs Close To The Edge Tales from...... Relayer Time And A Word Tormato 90125 Yesshows GFT1 Yes (1969)

'Soon' isn't a track! It's a part of 'The Gates of Delirium' that was extracted by US disc jockeys to be radio-friendly. IMO 'Soon' isn't great except in context, where it contrasts the chaos of battle and the surviving soldiers melancholy wish for a better future - only then does it become great.

I actually love 90125, Big Generator, and Talk. My feeling has always been that those albums don't have to be Close to the Edge and Fragile to be good. Drama is also underrated.

To me 90125 is onw of my fav and was a great tour.

My Yes top 10 would be: = 1) Going For The One = 1) Close To The Edge 3) The Yes Album 4) Fragile 5) Relayer 6) Time And A Word 7) Yes 8) 90125 9) Tormato 10) Drama

Yes in the round. Wicked

pretty much on the same lines - interesting as a wrote below then watched;top4 equal; close, relayer, tales, going. runners up; magnification, yes album.consolation prizes; drama, keys, fragile

I cannot differentiate between Fragile and Close to the edge and Tales However, and you and I is somewhere else isn't it. Nice to hear that someone else loves YES. Now do Gentle Giant..........................

90125 is a great record. A landmark. An absolute classic. How many late 60's prog bands were able to reinvented themselves for the 80's and have MTV hits? And Drama is great, front to back, every song. But you got The Ladder 100% right.

How can you not recognize the "Keys To Ascension" studio recordings - especially when packaged together as "KeyStudio"- as YES canon ? One of the most cohesive sets the band ever recorded ("Mind Drive" & "Bring Me To The Power" are justification alone, but the whole album's great) Plus you have to consider that quintet had not been in a studio together since the aborted 1979 Paris Sessions with producer Roy Thomas Baker, but the "magic" was still there. My top 3 YES albums oddly enough are the same 3 you chose but in this order : # 1) "Going For The One" # 2) "Tales From Topographic Oceans" # 3 ) "Close To The Edge"

1. Tales Of Topicgraphic Oceans 2. Relayer 3. Close To The Edge 4. Drama 5. The Yes Album 6. Time And A Word 7. Talk 8. Fragile 9. The Ladder 10. Magnification 11. Fly From Here 12. 90125 13. Yes 14. Tormato 15. Big Generator 16. Open Your Eyes 17. Going For The One 18. Union 19. Heaven & Earth

I could go either way on Close to the Edge, and Topographic Oceans. I think what puts Oceans on the top for me, comes from seeing them perform Ritual on their Yes Symphonic Live DVR. That is the most unbelievably great live performance of a piece of music, that I have ever seen. I say that even though I have seen them live in person, on four occasions.

Sorry I'm late..... here's my top ten: 10. Keys to Ascension Studio Material 9. Big Generator 8. Fragile 7. 90125 6. Tales from Topographic Oceans 5. Drama 4. Going for the one 3. The Yes Album 2. Relayer 1. Close to the Edge

Pretty hard to top Close To The Edge. Quite an achievement. I'm not even a huge Yes fan, but seriously…how does a band even THINK of something like that.?! Just mind blowing in both imagination and execution.

Top 5: 1. 'Going for the One' 2. '90125' 3. 'The Yes Album' 4. 'Close to the Edge' 5. 'Drama'

For me, #1 is Topographic Oceans. "The Ancient" was my favorite track when I first heard it, but later on I got to like all of them just as much. The ultimate "adventurer" album because it takes you so many places.

Tales From Topographic Oceans is still Yes' most controversial album and is still divided among hardcore prog fans and rock critics, mainly because of its "pompous" tone. I've never thought of it as bad though, though. On the contrary, Tales is certainly Yes' most beautiful album. I think the first record contains its most beautiful, if not haunting, songs, and I think "Nous Sommes du Soleil" was a great way for them to end an album.

If you're not including it here, I'd like to hear your thoughts on the ABWH album at some point in a future video. Great list though.... By and large my list would roughly look like yours. The two biggest differences is that (while I do enjoy the album) Magnification would be several albums lower, and Relayer much higher... In fact Relayer would take my #1 spot. It is, in my honest opinion, one of the greatest prog rock albums of all time, "The Gates of Delirium" is what I would consider the best prog rock "epic" of all time. But that's me.

Rick Wakeman calls 'Union' 'onion' 'cos he says it always makes him cry. 'Going for the One' became 'Going for the Bum' 'cos of the nude guy on the cover.

I have only listened to the albums of the 70s 1 Tales from Topographic Oceans 2 Relayer 3 Close to the Edge 4 Going for the One 5 Fragile 6 The Yes Album 7 Drama 8 Time and a Word 9 Yes 10 Tormato

Fly From Here, Heaven and Earth, Open Your Eyes, Yes, Time and a Word, Magnification, Tormato, Big Generator, Union, Talk, 90125, Drama, The Ladder, The Yes Album. Fragile, Tales From Topographic Oceans, Going For the One, Relayer, Close to the Edge. That's my order give or take a couple. And buddy...It's Keys to Ascension not assertion and it's Gates of Delirium not derilium. And Khatru is really simple. Kah-True.

Did Trevor Rabin inflict some sort of personal harm on you or a loved one? My goodness. 90125 was ground-breaking. Union was not -- cobbled together to the dismay of everyone in the band.

Only from 71 to 74 1. Close to the Edge 2. The Yes Album 3. Fragile 4. Relayer 5. Tales from Topographic Oceans