The Entire Yes Discography

Imagine listening to 23 albums in a month to pick out maybe 20 minutes of music you recognize.

So I’ve got a friend that serves as a kind of “musical pen pal”. We send each other songs at the end of each month, though sometimes we send each other so much music to listen to that we need quite a bit of time to digest everything the other has suggested. We’ll usually include some YouTube links to a track that we like, maybe one with a music video or lyrics, and describe something about the song that we like. Or dislike. It makes it easy to feel like we’re keeping in touch while also exposing ourselves to the musical curation of another person.

I know he’s really into the British prog band Yes. The old prog group that started in ‘69 or so and, surprisingly, is still going today despite there being no members of the original lineup with the band. The guitarist died, vocalist had a soft retirement, drummer died, bassist and keyboardist moved on, but the band itself still released an album in 2023. I know my dad used to play some tracks of theirs, as he likes Yes as well, but I couldn’t really put my finger on any of the particular songs even though I know he’d played them for me growing up.

So I decided to go on a deep dive for my month of June. I decided I’d kill two birds with one stone: I’d send a list of recs to my friend, and I’d check what Yes songs I remembered from my childhood (surprise: I remembered next to nothing). I decided to listen to the entire Yes discography and pull my highlights from each album. Then, I could rank each album next to each other in a kind of tier list and see what I thought about their discography.

Begin album play-by-play

• Yes (1969)

I don’t recognize anything from this one, so my faves are “Yesterday and Today” and “Sweetness”. I actually really like this album - if I were to describe it I’d say that it’s well balanced. Off to a great start!

• Time and a Word (1970)

This is also completely new to me. My faves are “Astral Traveler” and “Time and a Word”, though I like them for different reasons.

• The Yes Album (1971)

Faves are weird here, because they’re parts of songs. It’s the last half of “Starship Trooper” flowing into the first half of “I’ve Seen All Good People”.

• Fragile (1971)

Definitely a proggier album, I didn’t realize that it literally opens with “Roundabout”. Outside of that, I don’t recognize anything. I think my fave is probably “The Fish”, since it’s funky, has cool use of a xylophone and cowbell, and is such a great segue into another instrumental “Mood For A Day” (which is a close second). I actually think I prefer “The Fish” + “Mood For A Day”, when played together, over “Roundabout”, though “Roundabout” is still a classic.

• Close to the Edge (1972)

This is definitely their proggiest album so far, at least by release date, and I’ve definitely never heard this before. “I Get Up, I Get Down” (or “Close to the Edge pt. III”) is good but I think my favorite is “Siberian Khatru”. It’s a genuinely cool sound with funky jams.

• Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973)

I take it all back. This is the proggiest. Haven’t heard any of these before, but they all feel distinct from anything so far. It feels like “Ritual” is the most cohesive single song with multiple sections that I like. Each song on this album is around 20 minutes long and by the time I was done with the album I didn’t really know what I had just listened to. Listening to all of it, and attempting to do something else at the same time, turned my brain to scrambled eggs and I was ready for a nap at the end of it.

• Relayer (1974)

Never heard this. Love “Sound Chaser”, though the others are great, too! Probably my fave album thus far. They definitely have some great jams on this one without feeling stretched out like on Tales.

• Going for the One (1977)

Haven’t heard any of this. Favorite is “Turn of the Century” because of the synths, whereas “Wonderous Stories” gets a nod for the vocals and general mood.

• Tormato (1978)

I think at this point there are very few Yes songs that I’ve heard. I know that “Owner of a Lonely Heart” is going to be somewhere in the 80s, but this album is also new to me. I’m surprised by how little I’ve recognized so far. “Onward” is my favorite from this album.

• Drama (1980)

Not my favorite album of theirs, but I do like the funky, poppy vibes of “Does It Really Happen?”. On a second listen of a few tracks, it isn’t entirely obvious that Trevor Horn (of the Buggles) is the vocalist. Very similar to Jon Anderson.

• 90125 (1983)

I found it! The album with “Owner of a Lonely Heart” on it! Just like “Roundabout”, I’m surprised that this opens with the big single. I also recognize “It Can Happen” - a song that I’ve had stuck in my head for years and couldn’t confirm if it was by Yes or not. It’s so satisfying to finally know where this is from. Then I heard “Changes” and I was like “I recognize this, too”. Anyways, this is probably my favorite album so far (even though it’s got a lot of stereotypical 80s pop elements). I think my favorite is “Changes”. This track is just too good - the intro/closing on the xylophone and big guitar sounds are so epic.

• Big Generator (1987)

I haven’t heard this album and I don’t know if I like it or not. Songs like “Big Generator” and “Shoot High Aim Low” are memorable but not because I liked them. “Final Eyes” is probably my favorite from the album, though “I’m Running” is also quite fun.

• Union (1991)

“Lift Me Up” and “Miracle Of Life” are the standouts. I think Yes has adopted more of a pop sound at this point (or should I say, they’ve adopted new instrumentation and radio-friendly tracks), but they’re still making it into their own. I guess this album had a troubled history.

• Talk (1994)

This is pretty solid as far as albums go. I like how it’s less poppy, even though it definitely still is, but it feels more like their pre-80s work and actually has a really heavy feel. My fave is probably “Walls”, which is probably some of the easiest listening of the album. My notes for this album just say “Heavy!”.

• Keys to Ascension (1996)

I think this and part 2 are live albums with some new material speckled inside. I guess I just have to choose between “Be The One” and “That, That Is”, in which case I think I’ll go with the latter. Neither is amazing in my mind.

• Keys to Ascension 2 (1997)

Yeah, the first half of each album is from when Yes played in San Luis Obispo in ‘96. I think my favorite bit of new material from this album is “Sign Language”, an instrumental at the end of the second side, though this album is better than K2A part 1.

• Open Your Eyes (1997)

I really liked this album - it has a mood of optimism about it. I heard the hit single “Open Your Eyes” and was very impressed, though my favorite might be “Love Shine”. It’s poppy, with a prog zing to it. Overall, this album features more harmonica and folky influences, though it is still good overall.

• The Ladder (1999)

This album may take a few more listens to really understand - the tone goes all over the place in the beginning. My favorite though is probably “To Be Alive (Hep Yadda)”, which has a really satisfying start and fade out.

• Magnification (2001)

Again, this one’s new to me but this is also the last album I’d have really expected to hear around the house as a kid (based on release year). It’s got a lot of orchestral aspects to it and it’s definitely an album full of love songs, but for whatever reason “Don’t Go” moved me to tears (even though it’s a little goofy). I feel like Anderson’s vocals have always had some sort of optimism or curiosity in them such that, hearing the stories of breakup in this song, his voice comes across as complete bewilderment. It’s like the lover was self-destructive or allowed life to run them down, and didn’t reach out for the love they needed. The ‘uplifting’ tone of the song only adds to the underlying sense of pain, confusion, and remorse to a certain extent in the lyrics (at least how I interpret the chorus). I don’t know - the rest of the album is all about love and “if we were flowers we’d worship the sun” optimism, but this track comes in really early on and all of the recent Yes I’ve listened to so far just fell apart in sub-5 minutes. The way one half of this relationship desperately wants to stay together, but is allowing them to go if they need to. I decided to look it up after listening to it and Anderson wrote the song about his relationship with his daughter, but I don’t know much more about it.

• Fly from Here (2011)

So this was Yes’ first album without Jon Anderson on vocals and it seems like it was written by a different cast of characters. It certainly feels different in tone and sound, especially since it’s 10 years since Magnification. I think my fave track is “Hour Of Need”, which has a variety of different vocals and some nice guitar parts on it.

• Heaven & Earth (2014)

I really like “The Game”, particularly the guitar intro and the ethereal backing vocals. Otherwise, it still feels a little like they’re finding their feet with the new lineup.

• The Quest (2021)

I think I’m satisfied with The Quest relative to the other more recent albums - it feels like they’ve settled into the new lineup and they have their flower power back. A standout song that speaks to me is “A Living Island” - perhaps the first Yes song that feels a little like a warm blanket. I also think “The Ice Bridge” and “Future Memories” are good.

• Mirror to the Sky (2023)

Last album of the month and I think I’ve noticed a propensity to have my fave track be the last on the album. “Circles Of Time” hits differently from anything else on the main disc (for the bonus disc, I think “One Second Is Enough” is my favorite).

Post-list discussion

Sure enough, I only recognize songs from two albums - Fragile (“Roundabout”) and 90125 (“Owner of a Lonely Heart”, “It Could Happen”, “Changes”). That was a huge surprise to me, considering they have 23 studio albums released as of 2025. I guess the singles that get airtime have never stuck in my mind, though, as a prog band, I wouldn’t expect them to get as much air time as say, Van Halen or MJ. There is still a huge amount of good music in there that I hadn’t heard before, though.

There were several albums that I could see myself buying. Fragile is the most obvious one to start with but Relayer, which came out a year or two later, is also solid. Pairing with 90125, I like their ‘97 album Talk and ‘01s Magnification, even though the latter doesn’t have as much quality on it.

I feel like Yes is a Bactrian two-hump camel of quality. They hit it off early, with nonstop classic prog hits (Time and a Word - Relayer) until the next hump of 80s pop-prog (90125 - Talk).

But yeah, I was surprised to enjoy some of their discography as much as I did. I think of King Crimson and Jethro Tull as big prog weird stuff, but Yes had a lot of pop and space rock. I was sitting around playing Tank Mechanic Simulator for a good chunk of June and it was actually very relaxing to just listen to the latest Yes album as I pieced together my 3rd Vickers E.