Yes – Going for the One Review

The return of Rick Wakeman to Yes, even now, seems to suggest a reform of quality. His brief departure from the band led to the creation of Relayer, one of the better progressive rock offerings from the group. A sabbatical is what you can call Wakeman’s in-and-out experience with the band, rather than a departure. He was only gone for one studio recording, and the success of his solo works kicked on from that. Going for the One features Wakeman again, and some would think this is the missing piece that Yes needed. But this last piece of the puzzle revealed further complications, another tonal shift for the group. They heard the successes of Electric Light Orchestra and were flummoxed. Going for the One sounds like their response to the popular progressive rock heard elsewhere in the mid-1970s.  

Financial woes and a delay by Emerson, Lake and Palmer in the studio paved the way for Yes and Wakeman to reunite. It is a sweet revisit, considering how brief a break it was and how little Going for the One changes the Yes routine. The title track is some of the best work Yes has made from after their self-titled album because it does not focus on the inherently British blur of maudlin and tongue-in-cheek tales. Wakeman often felt like the instigator behind those tones, but his revised role as a session musician turned keyboardist once more is a welcome sound for Going for the One. There is a soft conformity to Yes in this recording session. They are chasing the times, the tones of the modern day, with efforts like Turn of the Century trying to mould the Pink Floyd appeal into their sound. It works, and however limited it is, it is a stretch better than their earlier works.  

Incredible fretwork on Turn of the Century certainly helps haul Yes into the modern world. Jon Anderson’s vocal work is a nice accompaniment to it but never feels like more than just another instrument. His lyrics still provide a subconscious effort, a disjointed and series of disconnected moments which, at the very least, have a welcome and sensible flow to them here. A vast improvement. Parallels perhaps best captures this big band appeal; the knowledge of power and Wakeman hammering away on a church organ is a great thrill. The first side of Going for the One has the band sounding trim and focused. It all falls away on the B-side. Wonderous Stories is a bit on the barebones side, and the fifteen-minute long album closer, Awaken, hears Yes fall back into bad habits they had sworn off after Tales from Topographic Oceans.  

Wakeman plants himself as the centre of attention on the album closer. There is a sense of it being his right. He is the beating heart of Going for the One and is frequently a brilliant collaborator, hammering away on this keyboard or that synthesiser. But his go-for-broke attempt on Awaken is a taxing listen. Yes continually tries to run before they can walk, and as a result they crack the foundation of what they had so achingly, brilliantly built in those early moments. Going for the One collapses into a gluttonous instrumental swerve on its final song which is neither interesting enough to warrant its length nor long enough to exhibit any enlightened meaning. Wailing and whipping their instruments into an orchestral, religious-like experience is all well and good if the core is not hollow. It is for Yes here, but at least they precede this blowout with some solid works, chasing the ghost of a genre that had abandoned them.