Customer Reviews

Tales from Topographic Oceans

5 star:		(87)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(25)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I can imagine the time when this album first came out. Yes fans must have praised the album for its daring, its ingenuity, its LENGTH. Now I can imagine things ten years later, with rock critics ridiculing the album for everything from its mystic lyrics, pompous songwriting, indulgent musicianship... everything for which progressive rock has been derided. Even Yes' diehard fans have decidedly mixed feelings regarding this epic work. To them, it could be the pinnacle achievement of Yes' estimable career, or it could the be the most grandiloquent album EVER.

Time and time again I've tried to empathize with those who dislike this album, thinking that perhaps their criticisms have some merit. Still, I can't get over the fact that this is truly excellent work. I think the music is simply sublime, many of the most wonderful passages that Yes ever recorded. Not as cohesive as the epics on "Close to the Edge" (still my favorite Yes album), but certainly more dynamic, it takes countless listens to fully appreciate. Even 25 years after its release, I'm still finding new elements to this richly absorbing work.

It's all anchored by that awesome rhythm section of Alan White's drums and Chris Squire's mammoth bass guitar, while Wakeman's lush synthesizers add ambiance and depth, and Steve Howe's guitar artistry is sophisticated and engaging. Jon Anderson's trippy lyrics and soulful, radiant singing are topnotch. Although the lyrics are mostly confusing, I believe their meanings are meant to be vague. They rely on surreal and romantic imagery to generate feeling in the listener in musical context. It doesn't really matter because the lyrics attain an emotional connection regardless of what they are actually about. I've always believed that Yes' individual elements are impressive, but less important than the unified result of their efforts.

The songs could enjoin a complete review for each one, as each song is brimming with depth and complexity. "The Revealing Science of God" is absolutely spellbinding. From the moment you hear the unmistakable thematic development in the vocal section at the beginning, you know it's going to be something great. A mostly placid epic that occasionally drives into fast-paced energy. Approaching the song's finale, this one climaxes with a mind-bending solo from Wakeman. Cryptic lyrics focused on metaphysical objective values (I think; who really knows?) are tied some of the group's best arrangements.

"The Remembering" is a standout for Rick Wakeman. There's moments of fierce swirling synths and mellotrons, and him and Howe alternately repeat the song's main theme on different instruments. Lots of memorable melodies here, and the song gets pretty intense at times (like the "Relayer" passages).

"The Ancient" is the most difficult song to appreciate. Because most of the vocals are relegated to the ending of this 18-minute beast, its heavy focus on abstruse instrumentation bores many people. I can't help but be captivated, however. I'm a huge fan of music that implements Eastern influences, and this track is filled with them. Dominantly Middle Eastern, the band shows incredible versatility in their endeavor to underscore the idiosyncratic beauties of these cultures. Towards the end of the song, Howe's acoustic wizardry is displayed. Awesome!

"Ritual" is a sprawling piece that is very symphonic at times. A lengthy instrumental passage opens this one, and just when you think the track is starting to meander, it gets back on track. This one never gets too pretentious, and it's beautifully melodic and excitingly played and arranged. At the 15-minute mark, there's this unforgettable orchestral interlude with devastating percussion and harrowing strings (synthed, of course). The ending is gorgeous, with clean electric guitar/piano interplay and Anderson's delicate vocals.

Like complex jazz, some of Yes' music is far too esoteric to be appreciated by everyone. That's perfectly fine. I don't consider myself intellectually superior to the many who have no taste for this admittedly convoluted work of music. Still, it moves me, it engrosses me, and it never bores me. It may not tap the conventional spirit of music, but to me, that's part of what makes it special. I wouldn't want it any other way.

(If I've bored you, blame no one but yourself. You read the whole review, so it's your own damn fault! ;-)

A concept album from Yes' Golden Age, the Tales are a stunning tour de force that explore the more mystical side of the group.

Although these lengthy tracks intimidated me at first, after repeated listenings I discovered tremendous depth and ingenuity. This is Yes in all its majestic glory, with everything you'd expect from them and a lot that may surprise you, especially if you are new to the group and its wandering ways.

Although the first track, The Revealing Science of God, is probably the most famous (and utterly spellbinding in concert), I found the second, less-known track, The Remembering, to be my personal favorite. It's worth noting, however, that the over 80 minutes of music that comprise this double-disc album contain literally dozens of threads that must be followed from song to song to truly be appreciated.

As with all Yes music, there is no limit to its richness and brilliance. This is music I will listen to again and again throughout the rest of my life (I've only been listening to Yes for about 15 years now), and it transcends generations: my teenage kids love this stuff (!!).

Yet another modern classic from some of the best musical talent ever assembled in human history.

After reading many of the previous reviews and having heard many opinions by listeners and the actual band members alike I feel annoyed and angry about the process of judging this piece of music. I read people saying which piece they like, which section they like, that this should have been left off or this is good or this is bad. A piece of music and especially this piece of music is a living, breathing thing. The Ancient is a great piece of music because it is so jarring, because of the "ugly" sounding slide guitar that precedes the eventual resolution to acoustic guitar. I hear from beginning to end inspired and awesomely original music that doesn't follow a pattern originated on Close to the Edge for how a 20 minute composition is supposed to be structured. I worship every "ugly" sound that resolves into something beautiful. I know of no other Yes composition like it nor of any other music in the world like it. I believe it has a sound, style "tinta" that begins from the very first note and never waivers till the end of Ritual. And I become the most angry when I realize that Yes let themselves be lead off the amazing path they were following by letting all the negative reactions affect their development. This music should be appreciated as a whole and hopefully someday they might play the whole thing live again so we could hear what it can become.

How do you rate an album with the scope of "Tales from Topographic Oceans", which seems to be an album which you either really hate or you really like? First, you listen to it carefully, and often. So I listened to this album for four days straight before sitting down to write this review.

This album would have to be classed as progressive, because I am unaware of what to call it. If you think of a classical symphony or concerto, played in a rock music style by rock instruments, you would have what this album really is. Because of the extensive nature of each piece, there is a lot of opportunity to create a musical theme and then to exploit it. However, each piece really is part of the whole, and should be considered movements, as an example the movements in Bach's Brandenburg concertos.

The first movement is titled "The Revealing Science of God: Dance of the Dawn". I read the lyrics a lot before I got it (at least, I think I get it). The lyrics have no meaning, and they also have meaning. Confusing? Oh yeah. Understand that the point of the movement is to get the listener to realize that there are bits and pieces, and understanding is something that rarely, if ever, comes all at once. Jon Anderson uses the sound of the words to create an almost meaning, but more of a subliminal meaning. The whole point is that you are to realize that we do not understand, but we have to keep trying. I suppose to a certain extent that a further meaning to the song is that when you have found the meaning, you found it within yourself, which is where true understanding must derive anyway. It matters not your faith on this one, because all the major religions say this in one way or the other. Buddhists focus on meditation, the purpose of which is to discover truth within yourself. Christians rely on faith, which comes from where? Within you! Sufficient examples to make the point.

The second movement is "The Remembering: High the Memory". This song is about a concept that I struggled with quite a bit. On the one hand, the song is about the breadth of knowledge that is available to humankind and to any one individual. However, the song is also trying to say that while that knowledge is available, each of us can only access that knowledge when it becomes a part of our personal knowledge, and more than just having it as personal knowledge, it must be accessible and understood to be useful. Another way of saying this is that we have realms of knowledge that are potentially available to each of us. However, only that knowledge which we personally understand and can access will be of any value to us. Therefore, the first movement describes the seeking for knowledge and truth. This movement says that only that knowledge which you understand and have made part of you will have value in that seeking.

The third movement is "The Ancient: Giants under the Sun". The concept of this song is relatively simple compared to the first two movements. This song pushes through the envelope of recorded time to access forgotten knowledge from civilizations that came before. While the song is relatively easy to understand, the music is more interwoven and complex, and intertwines elements that are intended to evoke those earlier cultures. Therefore, the instruments flavor this movement with musical elements from around the globe to help give the feeling that the song of our knowledge is made up of many parts from many people. While the music sounds relatively simple, it is as technically detailed and complex as any concerto or symphony I can recall. While Steve Howe's guitar may be pivotal in this song according to Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman's keyboards are essential to the ethnicity of the various portions of the music. Incredible composition. This movement adds to the seeking of the first movement, the understanding of the second movement, that there is knowledge yet available to be discovered from all cultures and civilizations that may no longer exist, but that understanding is still available if we know where and how to look for it.

The fourth and final movement is "Ritual: Nous Sommes Du Soleil". Interestingly enough, this composition is relatively accessible philosophically, because it is a description of the human condition. This piece is intended to communicate that we have the ability to seek knowledge and understanding. Part of that knowledge and understanding is the constant struggle between good and evil, and how that plays a part of how we view that knowledge. However, this piece also reinforces the earlier movements in that we have the ability learn and to understand. We were granted this ability by a higher power.

I've read that Rick Wakeman complained that there was too much filler in this composition. I suppose that could be said of many of the classical compositions by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Bach, and on and on. However, I've also read that later Steve Howe thought that this was some of his best work ever. This work is magnificent in conception and scope. It is not readily accessible to the casual listener. The very best way to understand this music is to get a bottle of really good wine, sit in the middle of the room in a recliner, turn out most or all of the lights, and listen and feel. Start by paying attention to the emotion and feeling of the words, because that was the intent of the lyrics. Once you begin to understand what was intended, then this work becomes accessible. It is one of the most incredibly complex pieces of music I've ever heard, and I have listened to everything from classical to death metal. This music isn't for everyone, but those who can get into it, it is fantastic.

This was the first Yes album I got, and it is still one of my beloved ones. It was also among the first progressive music I ever heard. For me, Tales from Topographic Oceans is a rock symphony in four movements, and it is also an Hymn to God and all creation. I love most of its keyboard and guitar playing, and also the vocal parts. Although the sound is a little dull, it can be fixed with a good equalizer (I hope the remastered edition sounds better). I have to admit that this is not an album for most rockers, you should have a special taste for the sublime to enjoy it!. After more than 20 years of hearing it, my feelings about this masterpiece are almost the same, even though now I'm more into classical music than before. I think that the people who says that this is a bad album is not capable to unveil the treasure behind this music.

This has always been my favorite Yes record since it came out in 1973, but I always suspected that only I and my friend Gerry appreciated it. After reading and hearing 25 years of comments, I think I'm on track with the general consensus. This is both a deep and satisfying record, and also a frustrating - and at times tedious - one. My vinyl copy is almost worn out on sides 1 and 2, and almost unused on sides 3 and 4, so that should tell you something. The album was supposed to be based on a Buddhist concept, but I couldn't follow it. The lyrics, like most Yes lyrics, always sounded to me like computer-generated sentences that sound profound until you try to make some sense of them. (What does "Coloured in pastures of chance dancing leaves cast spells of challenge" mean?!) Unless I'm missing some profundity, I suspect that the lyrics are probably best appreciated as just word-shaped sound impressions. The music is where the real content of this album exists. The first side, or piece, or whatever you want to call it, The Revealing Science of God, is definitely the best. It carries you in and then leads you forward through a complex and very emotionally evocative process that feels like a journey. This is music that demands to be listened to, not just played in the background. The second side (The Remembering) is almost as good, but a little less deep, and able to be listened to in the background a little easier. The third side (The Ancient: Giants Under the Sun) is what my friend Gerry called "The Making of Plastics music." Sounds like a '60's soundtrack from industrial process films. And the fourth side (The Ritual) is just meandering and draggy. Yes, all four sides have their moments, but all in all I'd say they spent their inspiration early on this record. Still, just the first two sides make it probably the best thing Yes ever did. "Oceans" also rates a "2" from me on the Stale and Dated scale of 1 to 10 when heard 27 years later (where 1 is "The Basement Tapes" and 10 is "Saturday Night Fever"). My kids would disagree, but a lot of what they like sounds like Side Three to me anyway.

I'll start out by saying some things about myself that may or may not be relevant. I am a YesHead; all the way. This is my favorite group of all time. Period. I listen to all kinds of music and own over three hundred classical CDs. I am classically trained guitarist. Have been to many classical concerts as well as jazz shows featuring the likes of Miles Davis, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock and many others. Does this mean that I should be qualified to review "Tales"? Not necessarily. It just tells you a bit about myself; that's all.

As for "Tales", I will be as brief as possible. This is an INCREDIBLE recording. It is fragmented in many ways and if we were to only listen to it while doing the dishes or reading a book, then the fragmentation is further augmented. By "fragmented" I mean to say that this is a recording about ideas, instead of simply a recording about complete songs. If we head into this recording expecting to hear well-formed pieces of the intro-chorus-bridge-chorus-etc variety then we are in for shock. That's not what this recording is about.

This recording is about blowing your mind with some of the most incredible short musical stories ever put on tape. This is not to say that there aren't any "songs" on this recording. There all songs, but not the songs we are accustomed to hearing on the radio; even from Yes. This is not Roundabout or Owner of a Lonely Heart. This is Yes throwing their balls to the wall and giving us a monstrous amount of material that cannot possibly be assimilated in one, two or even one hundred listenings.

If there is any problem with this recording is that there is so much good music that never gets re-played. In other words, when you are listening to a passage that's totally blowing you away, the band never comes back to it again!!! That may or may not be a bad thing. That's where the fragmentation may be noticed; if one is to view it in such a way. Perhaps the "healthiest" way to view this fragmentation is that the band didn't want to do the same thing twice. After all, it's their recording, they should do as they feel.

I simply LOVE this recording and have gained further appreciation for it ever since hearing the band play "Revealing Science of God" last year in Denver; on Yes' Reunion Tour(Wakeman and White). It was one of the MOST INCREDIBLE live shows I have ever been to.

As for saying that Yes is "pretentious"? Well, if that were our sole criteria when judging music, or art in general, then we would have to discount the work of countless classical composers. Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Bartok come to mind. There's nothing wrong with BIG music. It's necessary sometimes to shock our senses with larger-than-life works. Minimalism has its place and time. So does big music.

I recommend this recording for fans of prog rock bands like Genesis, Kansas, Emerson, Lake and Palmer; as well as fans of classical music who also enjoy more adventurous escapades into the unknown.

If I were to be going off into the proverbial desert island and could only take a handful of CDs, then this one would be going with me.

-JR

There is no middle ground with Tales from Topographic Oceans - you either love it or wonder how Yes could go so wrong.

I happen to love it. It does not rock the same way that the songs on Close to the Edge and Fragile rock. This is a composition of Mahlerian length. The original LP was a double album with only four songs - one side per song at an average of 20 minutes per song.

But the results! The opening Revealing Science of God has amazing vocals and great instrumental interludes. The final Rituals builds to a great climax and ends with one of the loveliest moments in Yes. The Remembering has great keyboard work by Wakeman and also builds nicely. OK, for me The Ancient does wander off course despite Steve Howe's excellent guitar work. But for such a long album that's the only weak spot.

This is not a dance album or an album to jam to, despite some great rock moments. This is for you to listen to on the headphones and meditate/dream/whatever. True this is a LONG journey, but there is so much you will encounter along the way.

If I was stuck on a desert island and could only have one Yes CD with me, I'd probably select Close to the Edge - but I'd want this one too if I could. Close to the Edge may be my favorite Yes album, but Tales may be their best. Certainly their most amazing.

Make no mistake: this is Jon Anderson's masterpiece.

The ambition of the Topographic project may seem ridiculously high-minded -- naive, even. (How many faiths really want a rock composer with little experience of the religion to write a vocal symphony about its core beliefs?!)

Before this album came out on LP, there was much rumour. (I had it on pre-order from Simon's, a UK mail order company, when they believed it was a single-disc offering called 'Tobergraphic Oceans'.) When it came out, the Yes bubble burst. Most critics just weren't prepared to put in the effort required to get into this record -- Yes's melodies are rarely catchy, and appreciation usually comes with familiarity. The New Musical Express wrote about 'Cosmic Underpants' to deride Anderson's vision.

For Wakeman, the album was the final straw. Superb musician though he was, he couldn't break into the core Anderson-Howe writing team. Though he would later write his own religious epics (several times!), he chose to return to sessioning, bizarrely for 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath', and his own solo career, already launched with 'The Sixth Wives'.

Alan White was no Bill Bruford. But strangely, it doesn't matter. For the rock fan unfamiliar with Yes, track #1 on CD2 is the best entry point, and here Alan White's drumming is more than adequate. But really the rock fan unfamiliar with Yes should avoid this album entirely, and start with a compilation such as 'Classic Yes'.

In the 27 years I have owned this album, I cannot recall ever listening to this intently, giving it my 100% attention. Life is too short not to be doing something else at the same time. Maybe that was the problem the critics had with this album -- they needed to devote at least five hours to give it the listening it deserved.

But in the end, this album repays multiple listens. Bruckner never wrote the 4th movement of his religious masterwork -- the unfinished 9th symphony. This album is Anderson's equivalent, and all four movements are here.

Yes, which the author Bill Martin has noted began changing the rules by which rock albums were made with Fragile in 1972; left a lot of Roundabout fans behind in 1973 when they locked themselves away for the summer to cut this record. With this venture they go into music areas here previously explored only in classical and jazz music. In fact, for this album Yes really stopped being a rock band, becoming a group of serious musicians who wrote what Zappa called "serious music" (when Frank referred to Varese or Schoneburg) but in the framework of the rock band. This record is a key precursor (along with Yes singer Anderson's solo Olias of Sunhillow) to what we know now as World Music and New Age. This was made at the height of prog's openness to classical influences- and Yes, which had previously been driven by their interests in Jim Hall, Stravinsky, the Beatles, and Mozart; are here given over to a musical ethos dominated by Sibelious, Mahler and Mahavishnu. The first 2/3 of THE ANCIENT amounts to a practical revolution in sonics and composition in an improvisational context, as the Mahlerian and Mahavishnu influences collide spectacularly. This album ranks with King Crimson's Starless & Bible Black, THe `Lamb' by Genesis, In a Glass House by Gentle Giant, and Apocalypse by Mahavishnu Orchestra as one of a supreme handfull of avant-garde musical landmarks that came from this time.

Not for your average FOGHAT fan.