Going for the One by Yes

Going for the One, Yes's eighth studio album, came out on Atlantic in 1977, and it's the sound of the prog giants finally packing light. Off in Montreux as tax exiles, cutting the record at Mountain Studios, the band lost keyboardist Patrick Moraz during rehearsals and got Rick Wakeman back, three years after he'd walked out over Tales from Topographic Oceans. They produced it themselves, cut the cord with longtime producer Eddy Offord, and traded Roger Dean's fantasy vistas for a stark, geometric Hipgnosis sleeve.

The songs, mostly from Jon Anderson, Steve Howe and Chris Squire, are tighter and punchier than the sprawling epics of the previous four records, with Howe slinging pedal steel and a vachalia, Wakeman spraying Polymoog color, and a church organ in Vevey piped in down a telephone line for the long closing voyage, "Awaken". Critics cheered the return to melody, the album went to the top of the UK chart, and "Wonderous Stories" became their biggest British single.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.