The San Bernardino Sun with: "Not since ... Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band has there been one side on an album that expressed such a complete and exciting a musical thought as side one", and thought it presented the group with a new level of sophistication. He praised the group's vocal harmonies and Bruford's "deep irregular bass drum" on the opening of the title track, but picked its third section as the most interesting with the trading vocals, Wakeman's "dream-like" and "powerful" organ playing. Mendoza described side two as more "uninspiring" than the first, but praised the vocals and harmonies on both tracks, noting they sound like its own instrument on "Siberian Khatru". The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal printed another positive review by Jon Clemens. He called the title track a "virtual sound trip", moving "quickly, loudly, in a frenzy" that "contrasts brilliantly" during "I Get Up, I Get Down", and praises the vocals during the section. Clemens thought highly of Howe and Wakeman's interplay throughout, but thought the group's tendency to change tempo frequently risks distracting the listener. For the San Mateo Times, Peter J. Barsocchini thought the album is "good in concept and performance", with the title track "quite likely the best piece of music" the band had recorded in its career. "And You and I", Barsocchini thought, is "an interesting meshing of acoustic and electronic music" that is "tightly, integrally produced". To him, "Siberian Khatru" was comparable to their Fragile album that does not further the group's sound like the album's other two cuts do. The album has continued to receive many positive retrospective reviews. In his review for AllMusic, Dave Thompson gave the album five stars out of five, hailing it as a "flawless masterpiece". Paul Stump's 1997 History of Progressive Rock asserted that Close to the Edge, with its equal measures of ambition and heartfelt playing, "even today draws grudging respect from Yes's most trenchant critics." In a special edition of Q and Mojo magazines published in 2005, Close to the Edge came in at number 3 in its 40 Cosmic Rock Albums list. The record is also listed in the musical reference publication 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die by Robert Dimery. In a reader's choice of the 100 Greatest Guitar Albums of All Time for Guitar World, the album came in at number 67. Sound & Vision ranked it number 32 on