TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS

Following this site's classifications, I'nm giving this album 4 stars - it is an excellent almost essential addition to any prog rock fans collection, but part of the reason for this is it was a milestone in the music of Yes, where having been close to the edge they went over it (ouch, sorry for that!). It is of course the album which caused Rick Wakeman to leave (for the first time)! Parts of the album, particularly the first and fourth sides, show Yes at their very best; but in places very weak tunes are expanded and re-worked until nothing much is left. For me, the opening section of side/track three - Ancient under the Sun - is pretty turgid although I understand it was impressive live. I've come to appreciate side 2 - the Remembering - as being quite atmospheric but it's not in the same league as CTTE, or some of their later meisterworks. Another criticism is that with the arrival of Alan White, they lost that subtle, jazzy touch of Bill Bruford; it wasn't unitl the next album, Relayer, that Alan White really made his mark in Yes.

However, no self respecting prog rock fan should really be without this in his or her collection!