The Ultimate Yes--35th Anniversary Collection--an unarguably accurate, slimline two-CD appraisement of their most defining work and one which still manages to defy the laws of physics by squeezing in the luxury of a Roger Dean poster--arrives at time when Radiohead's self-gratifying awkwardness is universally admired and where--as a possible consequence of this--the 1970s prog-rock era is undergoing a begrudging critical reappraisal. Suddenly, free-thinking rock bands … mehreverywhere want to attempt algebraic time signatures, play songs that last longer than the three-minute punk curfew and indulge the repressed "muso" within themselves by allowing their fingers to wander into unchartered fretboard (or even keyboard) territory. Yes--five proficient musical eggheads in one very large and quizzically unique basket--may yet come to be regarded as the obvious role models. Despite incessant criticism to the contrary, Yes (at least when they were at their pre-Tales from Topographic Oceans best) were always more interested in the artistic ends than the means. While the music of leviathan contemporaries Emerson, Lake and Palmer was sometimes nothing more than a bucking bronco on which to ride and show off their rodeo skills, Yes were an ego-crushing tour de force (which may explain the manifold personnel changes) whose creative peaks ("Starship Trooper", the seismic violence meets heavenly grace of "Heart of the Sunrise", the Trevor Horn produced pop perfection of "Owner of a Lonely Heart") could only have been scaled by communal map reading. Of course, they had their troughs; "Nous Sommes Du Soleil" (taken from Tales from Topographic Oceans, the longest suicide note in history) is grandiloquent poppycock and 1987's "Big Generator" is disgracefully gluttonous fat funk in the mould of Duran Duran offshoot The Power Station. Shame about the inadvertent inclusion of a work-in-progress version of "And You and I" (a blessing for completists but a curse for those seeking the definitive Yes overview) but other than that The Ultimate Yes exceeds expectations. There may well never be a smaller, better Yes collection. --Kevin Maidment weniger

1 - Yours is no disgrace
2 - Survival
3 - Roundabout
4 - Then
5 - I've seen all good people… mehr
6 - Heart of the sunrise
7 - Starship trooper
8 - Ritual (Nous sommes du soleil)
1 - Siberian khatru
2 - Long distance runaround
3 - Wondrous stories
4 - And you and I
5 - Soon (single edit)
6 - Going for the one
7 - Don't kill the whale
8 - Owner of a lonely heart
9 - Leave it
10 - Big generator (remix)
11 - Calling (single edit)
12 - Homeworld (radio edit)
13 - Awaken weniger