TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS

After the mega succesful Close tot he edge, Yes embarked on their most ambitious work they ever done, but in same time one of their most unintresting ones, to say the least. Tales from the topographic ocean from 1973 caught Yes in a love/hate zone, to some fans this was absolutly their most ambitious album they ever done so far then and of course they really gone with the band vision, some said this is almost a disater after marvelous Close to the edge and for that resone almost hate it, to me is something in between, definetly I don't hate it but for sure I don't love it either. A double album consisting only of 4 pieces, one piece on each face of the vinyl or 2 on one CD now, this album is definatly their most excentric , elaborated, pretentious, cerebral and religious work Yes ever done in their entire career. To my ears the first piece The Revealing Science Of God - Dance Of The Dawn is by far the best of this album. 20 min of pure magic, some of the best Yes moments are to be found here in this tune, top notch musicianship, the bass of Mr. Squire is absolutly not on this earth here, impressive bass lines, some chops are simply complex as can be, the druming of the new member Alan White is great, the Steve Howe guitar is complictaed and Wakeman is one the bariccades and Andersone done some of the his most beautiful vocal lines he ever written and sing so far. To me is a a fairly good towards solid album, the rest of the 3 pieces , while are ok most of the time, not have that special magic going on of previous albums, and in places they reach so far with the progressive arrangements, that sometimes they gone to far even for the usual prog listner. To me this album is one of the most progressive, to progressive in many parts albums ever written, in a the true sens of the word, meaning literaly speaking this is to progressive for my taste, if is possible something like that Tales from the topografic ocean really done it. 3 - 3.5 stars.