Awesome / Yes

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• The proud tradition of opening their concerts with the finale from The Firebird.
• The entire final movement of the title track of Close to the Edge. The song comes together with Jon Anderson's vocals, multi-tracked so it sounds like the entire band is singing...the scale is just epic.
• "Roundabout" being used as the ending theme for the first season of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime series, no doubt thanks to the original manga author Hirohiko Araki's influence (his love for classic rock is prevalent throughout the entire series, judging by character names alone).
• Their trilogy of prog-rock masterpieces: The Yes Album, Fragile, Close to the Edge, as well as Relayer and Going for the One. Some people also add Tales from Topographic Oceans. Close to the Edge has the unique distinction of having been the top-rated album on Prog Archives for something like five years. Not just the top-rated album by Yes. The top-rated album by anyone. It's rare for an album to receive that much universal acclaim from a fandom, but somehow they pulled it off.
• Chris Squire's solo album Fish Out of Water, especially track 1, "Hold Out Your Hand".
  • If we throw in solo albums, Anderson's Olias of Sunhillow certainly belongs on the list.
  • As does Howe's The Steve Howe Album, especially "Double Rondo", where he plays with a 59-piece orchestra.
• The Ladder.
• 90125 counts as well, for fans of their '80s pop-prog style. It arguably was one of the more revolutionary and influential albums of that decade. Even the notoriously prog-skeptic hipster tastemaker Pitchfork praised the album. Modern re-releases include an A Cappella version of "Leave It" as a bonus.
• While their 1987 album Big Generator is often regarded as inferior to 90125, the entire first side along with "Love Will Find A Way" from side two is some of the most well crafted and catchiest rock music of the late '80s.
• Drama belongs here as well. For anyone that doubted that a couple of new wave nerds could fill two of progressive rock's most hallowed seats, they deliver quite handily...and for anyone that doubted Yes to floor people with terror, they responded with "Machine Messiah".
• "Endless Dream" from Talk. Also doubles as a Moment of Awesome for Trevor Rabin, who proves here he can write epic songs on the same level as Jon Anderson or Steve Howe.
• Union might be widely regarded as very inconsistent in terms of style and quality, but the best tracks on it are fantastic. "Lift Me Up", "Miracle of Life", and "Take the Water to the Mountain" particularly stand out.
  • "I Would Have Waited Forever" is a pretty good opener.
  • Minus the odd hip-hop breakdown, "Dangerous" is a surprisingly rocking tune.
• "The Gates of Delirium". All 22 minutes of it stand of it as the single most effective argument against war ever made. Catchy, heavy, headbangable, riffy, devastating, depressing, moving.
• Their 2017 induction into the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame, featuring a dream team line-up of long-time members (including Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, and Trevor Rabin) performing "Roundabout" and "Owner of a Lonely Heart". And who did they recruit to sit in for the late Chris Squire for "Roundabout"? Geddy Lee from Rush! As sad as fans were that Chris didn't live to see the band's induction, they universally agreed Geddy was the perfect replacement.

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