On their debut album, Yes were vocalist Jon Anderson, guitarist Peter Banks, keyboardist Tony Kaye, bassist Chris Squire, and drummer Bill Bruford. At the time of its release, they were a fast-rising band on the London scene, with a few prominent gigs under their belt, most notably opening for Cream at that group’s final concerts. They were also a much more conventional rock band than they’d become in the early 1970s.

The album includes covers of the Byrds’ “I See You” and the Beatles’ “Every Little Thing.” The former features Bruford whipping up a surprisingly swinging groove, over which Banks takes an extended, jazzy solo; meanwhile, the vocal harmonies recall the Fifth Dimension. The latter, while also interpolating the riff from “Day Tripper,” begins as a hard-charging instrumental, mostly driven by Squire’s thundering bass and Bruford’s barrage of (very slightly phased) drums; the vocals don’t begin until the two-minute mark. Once they kick in, the arrangement begins to stop and start, lurching forward at speed, then halting, then resuming.

The Yes originals are interesting in that they barely display any of the characteristics of the band’s classic-era music. “Yesterday And Today” is a quiet, acoustic guitar/piano/vibes ballad, while “Beyond And Before” and “Looking Around” are fast, uptempo rockers with a few changes here and there, but the complexity their work would exhibit in the coming years is barely present. “Harold Land” has nothing to do with the hard bop saxophonist for whom it’s named; it’s a character study, like something Genesis or Pink Floyd might have done at the time. “Sweetness” is another soft-focus ballad, and “Survival,” the album’s closing track, features a jazz-rock arrangement and high, pristine vocal harmonies.