You are correct. (Thanks!) Ignorance fought. And vote corrected.
This is true. I have always ascribed it to Anderson (a) wanting to be all philosophical and metaphorical, and (b) being high on pot when he wrote. 
None of this is wrong, but part of it is he liked to use his voice as one of the instruments and often the lyrics were chosen to harmonize with the actual instruments.
Which is a little spacey for me and beyond my actual real understanding but I recall that from an interview in I think Yes Magazine or whatever that was called. I was subscribed in the late 80s through mid-90s.
I believe I remember reading an interview where he said pretty much that same thing–that he approached his vocals as another instrument in the arrangement.
That said, I’d much rather listen to a guy singing “Sad preacher nailed upon the colored door of time” than a guy rhyming “facts is” with “taxes.”
I voted for Fragile but it’s pretty much a three way tie with The Yes Album and Close to the Edge. Ask me tomorrow and my answer might be different.
More recently he admitted that a lot of it was due to being really, really high.
Agreed. I loved Anderson’s Olias of Sunhillow album because of the impenetrable lyrics, rather than despite them. They conjure up for me images of Tolkien’s elves.
Was literally reaching to hit Reply to say exactly this, and then saw your post. Just re-discovered this album a few years ago and love it again.
I went with Tales From Topographic Oceans because I saw them perform it live and it blew my mind.
I don’t know about hard nipples, but I love Fearless. Love love.
I voted for Fragile, but it’s really a tie with The Yes Album.
Tied for second place would be Close To The Edge and side one of Topographic Oceans (“The Revealing Science of God/Dance of the Dawn”)
That’s why I picked it, too. I was sitting in the front row, tripping. It was awesome!
Close to the Edge.
It took me almost a year to hear the end of the title track because I kept falling asleep during the slow bridge.
I’m with you. My All-Time Favorite song.
Fragile really dominated. I’m pretty sure it was also their most commercially successful album unless/until 90125 managed to beat it out.
Fragile has a three enormous, eternally soul-shaking songs and a bunch of almost total filler. Close to the Edge might end up the winner for me on that basis.
90125 has a couple of really great songs, but it mostly plays like something out of 80’s toothpaste commercials.
I really have to delve into the Yes album now.
Part of that might be the fact that five of the album’s nine tracks were effectively solo pieces, one by each band member (though most had some support from other band members). Two of those are particularly forgettable, IMO: Bill Bruford’s “Five per Cent for Nothing” is less than a minute long, and Rick Wakeman’s “Cans and Brahms,” which even Wakeman hated – his contract with another record company prohibited him from writing an original piece for the album.
Yes, that is the well-known reason for the extremely uneven content of Fragile. Still, it’s like the worst stuff a band put out in 50 years of making music, paired with the very best they ever did. I can’t think of many such albums.
I just listened to Fragile all over again, and can confirm that I like every song on it.