445. Yes, "Close to the Edge"

 


A little prog for your post-attempted-coup listening, perhaps?  Well here you go.  Wanna know how prog this is?  There are only 3 songs on this album, and one of them is a whole side (albeit in 4 different movements, I guess).  

I liked the first 42 seconds a lot, which consists mostly of absolute silence and nature sounds.  The remaining 37 minutes I did not love, but I'm not a huge prog guy.  There's a lot of noodling.  We should also discuss Jon Anderson's voice, which is truly otherworldly in its extremely high pitch and elfin quality.  And the lyrics are very "meditating while focused on a crystal:"

The time between the notes relates the color to the scenes
A constant vogue of triumphs dislocate man, so it seems
And space between the focus shape ascend knowledge of love
As song and chance develop time, lost social temperance rules above

Ah, ah

Then according to the man who showed his outstretched arm to space
He turned around and pointed, revealing all the human race
I shook my head and smiled a whisper, knowing all about the place

Groovy.  I was struck by how dry the vocals are in a lot of places on this record - that is, recorded with very little effects like reverb or delay or what have you.  It has the effect of making them more conversational, which I don't know, maybe is the effect they were going for?

There is a pretty, folky song on side 2, "And You and I," with an interesting lilting melody, but of course it also includes plenty of noodling and is 10 minutes long, probably 5 minutes longer than it needs to be.

Recommended if you like getting baked while reading Tolkien.  Who has the time these days.

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