TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS

This was taking prog rock to the extreme.. It took a while for me to play this right through. Its just too much to digest after the classic "Close To The Edge". It would have been a lot better if it was single album and each track was only 10 mins long, they drag each track out too long.. "The Ancient" could have just been a 4 minute track (Leaves Of Green) section. The drum section in "Ritual" is overbearing.. "The Revealing Science of God" as well as having a terrible title, is just dull. "The Remembering" doesnt get going at all (and it has 20 minutes to do so!!)

It does hurt me terribly to slag off an album by one of my favourite bands, but with "Tales" I was so disappointed.

I really felt for poor Rick on this album, and can fully understand why he chose to leave the band, it must irritate him that he still has to play tracks from the album live.