TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS

I cannot bring myself to really call this, or better yet any prog album, a pretentious work. This and ELP always seem to get that label. I don't see it as clearly. I think their was alot of excitement here and these musicians are out of this world and can do pretty much anything they want, so this is what you get. And I cannot understand how one cannot hear the brilliance on this record. Almost every song has some incredible melody or moment. I am not as huge a fan of this album as some can be, but I enjoy it very much. This is definitely a break in the perfection of YES, and I think the band must have been having a few problems at this time, I know Wakeman left afterward and claimed he did not enjoy working on this...so I guess that is what did it. Although I find Wakemans choice of notes and rhythm on here to be brilliant.

This is a very long album and a difficult sit through at times, you really need to be ready for ALOT of YES. But every song is enjoyable and some are complete masterpieces; Revealing Science and Ritual...YES would come back to form with a sleightly different line-up on Relayer next, keeping with their new found auras and moods for years to come...this album signifies the end of their golden time for me, though, and everything to follow, while still at times perfect and incredible, would not fulfill the perfection of that line-up ending here. This is a highly enjoyable album, give it a shot, check out the great melodies coming through as always to be expected from YES, pretentious or not this is all genius.

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