Yes – Tales From Topographic Oceans (2LP Vinyl) Original Japanese Pressing
Atlantic Records (1973)

2 reviews for Yes – Tales From Topographic Oceans (2LP Vinyl) Original Japanese Pressing
Atlantic Records (1973)

1. 

   5 out of 5

   Geoff – June 14, 2017

   A visionary, challenging epic that has superb motifs, melodies and rhythms, as well as having some of the band's most creative performances. There has never been (and never will be again) another album quite like 'Tales From Topographic Oceans'. Universally loved by Yes fans ("a masterpiece") and loathed by critics ("pompous twaddle"), this is Yes music taken to the extreme. Recorded in a time of total artistic freedom (1973), 'Tales' was a double LP with one "song" on each side. It is a visionary, challenging epic that has superb motifs, melodies and rhythms, as well as having some of the band's most creative performances. Jon Anderson leads and shapes the project with main co-writing and exceptional guitaring provided by maestro Steve Howe. 'Tales From Topographic Oceans' was the first studio Yes release that drummer Alan White appeared on (talk about being dropped in at the deep end!) and his percussive contributions are extraordinary. Chris Squire, as usual, plays some of the best bass work you're ever likely to hear and is particularly impressive on the final piece "Ritual". Unified by an imaginative, all-encompassing thematic concept (influenced by the book 'An Autobiography of a Yogi'), the album's lyrics touch on spirituality, philosophy, history, art, genetic memory and modern life. It is a positively rewarding experience for those who care to take the time to listen carefully and try to comprehend it. If there was a "Greatest Prog Rock Double Album of All Time" award, then 'Tales From Topographic Oceans' would surely win it!
2. 

   4 out of 5

   AMG – June 14, 2017

   If one can take the plunge into these particular sonic oceans, and comfortably stay under long enough, it's a journey that will reward. Four decades after its release, this is still the most controversial record in Yes' output. Tales from Topographic Oceans was the place where Yes either fulfilled all of the promise shown on their previous five albums or slid off the rails in a fit of artistic hubris, especially on the part of lead singer Jon Anderson and guitarist Steve Howe, who dominated the composition credits here. Actually, the group probably did a bit of both here across 80 minutes of music on a fully packed double-LP set; the group's musical ambitions were obvious on its face, as it consisted of four long songs (really suites) each taking up a side of an album, and each longer than the previous album's side-long "Close to the Edge." And Tales had a jumping-off point that was as far advanced in complexity and density as Close to the Edge had been out in front of its predecessor, Fragile, -- and all of it made The Yes Album seem like basic rock & roll. Anderson, by virtue of his voice and lyrics, is the dominant personality on Tales, and his fascination with Eastern religion is fully manifest, as never before (or since). Confronted by song titles such as "The Revealing Science of God," and a concept derived from the Buddhist Shastric scriptures, the casual listener might have felt in need of both a running start and a sheet of footnotes: Yes keyboard player Rick Wakeman clearly felt something along those lines, as it was while making this record that he decided to exit the group. And, yet, Tales contains some of the most sublimely beautiful musical passages ever to come from the group, and develops a major chunk of that music in depth and degrees in ways that one can only marvel at, though there's a big leap from marvel to enjoy. If one can grab onto it, Tales is a long, sometimes glorious musical ride across landscapes strange and wonderful, thick with enticing musical textures; it offers the Yes fan the chance to be a true "astral traveler." Apart from one percussion break by Alan White that doesn't come off (if there had to be a Yes album with a percussion solo, why couldn't it have come along when Bill Bruford was in the band?), the music never falls flat, and it's a pity that Wakeman couldn't appreciate the richness and vitality he brought to the album. And Anderson and Howe get to work in an extraordinarily wide range of musical voices. In another reality, perhaps the gorgeous, folk-like passages on Tales would have spawned songs of four or five minutes, but here they are, woven into these long-form pieces, and if one can take the plunge into these particular sonic oceans, and comfortably stay under long enough, it's a journey that will reward. But it's not a trip for everyone -- or even every Yes fan -- to take, especially not too soon after discovering the album.