TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS

I admire the scope of the vision captured in Tales. I tried really hard to like this album, to love it even. But for all my trying and admiration I can't. All albums need a vision behind them, but Tales shows what too much vision and not enough reality will do for an album. Things come and go throughout these 80 minutes without any apparent reason or direction. The music changes but it doesn't grow or go anywhere. It has some really great moments, but at times they seem to be just out of luck, like in their roundabout meandering they finally hit on something good.

The only consistently good part of this album comes from the rhythm section which has been pushed into the back for Tales. Instead we have far too much of Steve's guitar. Take that in unison with Steve giving one of his most indulgent and uninspired performances and the good results are few a far between. Wakeman has some great parts, but mostly just boring ones. I've never been a huge fan of Jon's voice, but it certainly has its amazing moments. Hear though it just wears on me though thankfully it's not all too present.

I don't think this is the worst thing ever recorded, and Yes would certainly put out worse than this later on. However, the lack of direction really detaches me from the whole experience even when a moment of beauty does creep its head out of the dark.