TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS

Okay, don't get me wrong here; I love Yes, and I LIKE this album. In parts. I have listened to both discs all the way through back-to-back a number of times, and the conclusion I always come to is that there is some brilliant stuff there, but that the whole thing could be abut half the length it is and still include all those great moments. The Remembering is, in my opinion, the only track that holds the listener's ear all the way through in the same way, as, say, Close to the Edge or Heart of the sunrise might. I find that all the other tracks, although good (I mean, this is mid-70s Yes; the band's best period) tend to get a bit tedious in parts, and, in some parts are a bit rudimentary for my taste (the endless major runs of The Revealing Science of God and the stringy cheese of The Ancient)- however, there are moments in these tracks which are pure genius- check out the synth solo on TRSOG, and the dreamlike first movement of The Ancient for evidence of this. A good album by general standards, but not up to that of Close to the Edge or Fragile.