Love for Tales from Topographic Oceans

Dayvenkirq wrote: DiamondDog wrote: For me, this album is the point of no return for Yes, a bridge too far. What do you mean?

Apparently DiamondDog doesn't like it

Tom Ozric wrote: Indeed this one is a tough nut to crack - I still find Genesis' 'Lamb' harder to penetrate  - although both are very special and intense Prog essentials.............they just don't make 'em like this anymore....

As I said, though I find Tales a tough nut to crack (to use your own words), I still find quiet a good amount of beauty to it, and from time to time feel compelled to return to it. About The Lamb, I just don't like it... right, some songs are nice on it, but there are more I just don't like, and I find the lyrics and concept in general un-enjoyable. Apart from both albums being double concept albums, I would say The Lamb is the Anti-Tales from Topographic Oceans; mainly because with Tales Yes went to do a full double album with only four extra progressive songs, while Genesis filled the Lamb with lots of shorter songs, less progressive and less impressive than the beauty they had achieved on their previous 2 or 3 albums.

And as mentioned by someone earlier in the thread, the part you reference right on through "Stand, on hills of long forgotten yesterdays" might just be the be all and end all.  I'm gonna have to listen to it again tonight.

Bought this album back in '78, and it has remained one of my all-time favorites ever since, with The Remembering as the highlight for me.  The extended beauty and majesty of the whole composition is remarkable.  The magical spark of Yes resounds throughout the four movements.  Even though I've always loved CTTE, after listening to Tales for the first time I realized that CTTE was too short.  Even though it is amazing in it's own right, I prefer the extended atmospheres and "meanderings" of Tales, if I had to choose.

Tales has never been my favourite Yes album, though I apreciate the work of the band and really love "The Revealing Science of God". The rest, I do may consider a bit overlong, and may agree with Wakeman that it might have made a wonderful single album, with shorter versions of the songs (once again, except for "Revealing Science"). However, every time I read people about how great they find this album, I get some longing to hear it again; often enough, I end up not getting it though, and when I do I end up not liking it better than before, though sure enough I enjoy the listening.

^ Look, any person can figure out where to go for that on this forum. Don't just post about it in every thread that comes your way. Makes one think of spam. 

Edited by Dayvenkirq - February 04 2013 at 16:33

I have to say that TFTO is up in the top ten symphonic prog albums of all time.....My top ten probably fluctuates in order and TFTO has been at No 1 a few times. Put it this way - I have listened to the album at least once per year (some years probably 10-15 times) since I bought it (Vinyl) in 1981/2 ish - I haven't listened to The Lamb for about four years.....

Edited by M27Barney - February 04 2013 at 14:55

Please, don't advertise your band in several irrelevant places. There's a special lounge for that.

Considering that it was basically my introduction to prog outside of Rush and Pink Floyd, Yes' Close to the Edge is definitely my favorite Yes album. In fact, it's definitely in my top five, along with Rush's A Farewell to Kings, Tull's Heavy Horses, VDGG's Pawn Hearts, and Gentle Giant's The Power and the Glory.

But this thread isn't about Close to the Edge.

I do love and hold a special place in my heart for Tales from Topographic Oceans. For me, it's definitely the fullest "concept" that Yes has ever done, and for that it gains extra respect from me. It's one of those albums that I'm not always in the mood for, but when I am in the mood for it, I might listen to it four or five times in a row before I want to hear something else. It's a journey, for sure, and a "can't miss" album, along with the rest of Yes' classic period (I'd say Fragile through Going for the One, although I think one could make a good case for The Yes Album as well.)  Even later Yes, (I'd say post-Going For the One) is still fantastic, as is their earlier (i.e. pre-Fragile) output. In fact, I'm listening to their self-titled debut right now, and it's amazingly competent, even spectacular, for a debut album-I've always thought of it as having splashes of Beatles influence/similarity here or there (and of course, we've all heard their not-so-subtle nod to "Day Tripper" on "Every Little Thing,") but even at this early stage they already had that unique "Yes-ness" that keeps bringing me back to them.

But, of course, this thread isn't about Yes' self-titled debut LP.

ProgMetaller2112 wrote: Dayvenkirq wrote: ^ Way to go, then. Have a ball.  Dawn of the light lying between a silence and sold sources, chased amid fusions of wonder, in moments hardly seen forgotten. that opening line is  but in a good way

Another case of "weird".