As a long time fan of the music of Yes, I purchased this compilation as a condensed overview of their entire recording career. Given the variation in Yes' personnel and musical styles over the decades, and a proclivity for producing compositions often in excess of 10 minutes in play time, this was not an easy undertaking. As a result the package consists of five very full CDs. On balance I give the effort very high marks. On the positive side, several hours of Yes music! Load up the CD player, kick back, enjoy. Life is great! To be more specific this collection does a very good job chronologically hitting selections from just about every studio album balancing the very early "groovy 60s" era(Time and a Word, Every Little Thing), the epic classics of the 70s (Heart of the Sunrise, Close to the Edge, Revealing Science of God, Gates of Delirium), the Trevors - Horn then Rabin (Machine Messiah, Rhythm of Love), the "real" Yes - aka Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe (Brother of Mine), the (re-)Union (I Would Have Waited Forever, Lift Me Up), some l990s hidden gems (The Calling, Universal Gardens, Homeworld, Mind Drive), and one from their only '00 decade studio effort (In the Presence Of). This variety is the collection's biggest strength. I must confess I tuned the band out a bit in the 1990s and the samples offered here motivated me to explore some music I had not paid close attention to at the time. This has been very rewarding. Very little on the negative side. In "limiting" the set to five CDs a couple of masterpieces are omitted - And You and I, Awaken, (and I'm sure every other Yes fanatic out there would cite a couple more). I suppose one could also argue that Yes music needs to be heard in the context of each individual album so by definition a "best of" Yes has limitations. Neither of these concerns detracted from my enjoyment of the product. The one negative that does merit some mention are the handful of tunes that were not released prior to this collection. Though not terrible, none of these tunes measures up to the rest of the material in the collection. So, overall this Yes fan is pleased with "In a Word: Yes". I'd recommend it to anyone who has even a slight interest in exploring the band's work as a solid soup to nuts sampling of all of their work. If this overview leads to deeper exploration of the individual albums and a next generation of Yes music admirers, all the better!Read full review
At one time I had their original vinyl albums but over the years I traded them away. So here is an excellent opportunity to get back into YES. Maybe does not go deep enough for the hard core fans but for the casual fans of YES and progressive rock this is a great value.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
This is a great collection of music from one of the greatest music bands who also leave the listener with powerful positive messages. The talent on these cd's is amazing.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I decided 2 buy it because I'm something of a Yes completist. So, even though I already have a couple of Yes box sets (& several DVD's), I already had all of their material on other CD's and/or vinyl record albums. I love the booklet. I love the quality of the Cd's. I also love the selection of material. All in all a very worthwhile purchase and I can't believe I bought it but I'm so glad I did.
The most complete collection of the band.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
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