TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS

They went over the top with this one. Good moments, bad moments and a lot of self indulgency. It was hard to listen to it all then and it is now. Reveling Science of God and Ritual are the truly stand out tracks that seem to have a coherent form. The other tracks have some good parts here and there, but they are surely exercises on virtuosity and ideas that really did not work out very well. I guess every major band had to do an album like this to try out their bounderires and possibilities. No wonder Wakeman never liked Tales From Topographic Oceans. It is no Close To the Edge, Fragile and much less The Yes Album. The fragile balance between simplicity and technique had been broken. Even Yes had its limits. Four massive opus a la Close To The Edge in such a short time were too much, no matter how good the musicians were in general and Anderson in particular, one of the most creative and imaginative songwriters ever.

Not a bad album but if you´re new to Yes (anyone here is?) this is not a good starting point. You have to have a lot of patience and time to enjoy it all. Better get to it bit by bit. I found it too tedious, even for a Yes maniac like me.