Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Yes - Harmonium (1976)


Side A:
1. Hold Out Your Hand - Chris Squire
2. One Way Rag - Alan White
3. Australia - Steve Howe
4. Flight of the Moorglade - Jon Anderson
5. Giddy - Alan White

Side B:
6. Lost Symphony - Steve Howe
7. Solid Space - Jon Anderson
8. Silently Falling - Chris Squire

After releasing the 1974 album Relayer, the five members of Yes took a break from recording, released a solo album in 1975 or 1976, and then regrouped to record the 1977 album Going For the One. This album was meant to be seen as a return to shorter songs but still included a long song as the album closer. A similar stunt happened in 1971 with their album Fragile where each band member contributed a solo recording to make up for lack of time. It led to the album having shorter songs but it also had a long song as the album closer.

This was an idea previously had by someone else, but I thought this user’s version of the album should’ve included a long song as the album closer, even if it meant making it a double album. Chris Squire’s album Fish Out of Water includes 2 long songs and was even called the most Yes sounding of the solo albums, even though he wouldn’t release another album for over 30 years.

Similar to Kiss’ Best of Solo Albums in 1978, this one originates as a promo album for radio stations called Yes Solo LP Sampler which uses 2 songs from each album for a total of 10 songs. The original user determined the track listing by looking at solo songs that were played during Yes’ 1976 tour. For my method, I’ll simply listen to all the albums and choose the best songs. But since Chris’ album has 5 songs like GFTO and also features Patrick Moraz and original Yes drummer Bill Bruford, his album would be a good place to start. 

The Steve Howe album Beginnings also feature Moraz and Bruford as well as then current Yes drummer Alan White so I thought these songs would pair nicely with the Chris tracks. It features a couple instrumental tracks we can get rid of, but the Alan White album Ramshackled also featured some instrumental songs. I ended up not using the Patrick Moraz album. 

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