Yes - Tales from Topographic Oceans
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Free Music Notes for Tales from Topographic Oceans
Free Music Review: I HATED THIS, UNTIL...
Hit: 5 Stars
this was my least favorite album yes released during their classic period. and then one day, out of the blue, i got it. and it hit me hard. it now ranks as my favorite yes album and that's saying something considering the competition. better than the yes album? better than fragile? close to the edge? relayer? yes, yes, yes and again yes. if you do not have hours and hours of free time on your hands you may never get it. this is the ultimate recording for those who enjoy music that works on multiple levels. to those who have nothing but contempt for this album, i truly understand. and i feel sorry for you. you are missing one of the seminal experiences a human can have. give it time. lots of time. trust me. it's worth it!Free Music Review: Oceans of Sound
Hit: 5 Stars
I think this is Yes' most essential album because it contains all of the important characteristics of the musical spirit of Yes. More than any other Yes album, "Topographic Oceans" gives a complete picture of what Yes is really all about. In other words, everything you could want on a Yes album can be found on this album.
*However, I really wish the bonus tracks were left off - I mean it's absurd to ruin an album's integrity by including demos and outtakes of the same material you just heard...
Free Music Review: Yes Fan from Chile
Hit: 5 Stars
I only want to say one thing. And I am writing in english
for all folks understand me. I am really tired of read
sick reviews here in amazon and from other sources, about that it is a bad album, boring or a disaster. **This is far the best Yes Album ever **, perhaps not for everyone, but clasical music is not for everyone too, and this not mean that it is bad or boring or a disaster.
Please have respect for the wonderful Tales from Topographics
Ocean, and many thanks to Jon Anderson and Steve Howe for
this epic effort.
Free Music Review: reminiscing a timeless Gem
Hit: 5 Stars
I started out a YES freak @ the age of 14 in'77' Yes' 1st song I recall was 'Starship Trooper'. From then on I was hooked! So begins my admitted biased critique of 'Tales' When I 1st heard this Album around about '79' I thought 'this might be a little out there. After listening to the whole set (4 songs)a couple times I came to realize there were 2 excellent masterpieces in my opinion. 'Revealing Science of God' & 'Ritual'. Those 2 songs, like many other yes songs were more like Journeys. I never was a 'pop' fan & these definitely dont fit that category. These were flowing epics of beauty. These artisit are perfectionists & play so well together. This album illistrates when they hit the 'Zone' as in my 2 aforementioned songs. & also when they went over the edge, As in the ancient & the remembering. I still have a hard time listening to those. I read previous critiques praising the imagery & philosophy behind those 2 songs, they sold me into getting this again. But I like to listen with my mind on auotpilot & let the music take me. Not have to study to try & like something. 'Revealing' flows. As Jon Anderson once said in an early interview. his lyrics are more word notes, not necessarily said to mean anything, but to fit the melody of the music(I'm paraphrasing). Thats how I prefer to listen to this. His opening mantra ascends to a symphonical climax where the band continues those heights to his closing exit. Now I do get meaning out of the lyrical side. But thats not what I look for. Music to me is freedom & why get bound to one aspect when all the dimensions set you free. Great music takes grabs me & pulls me along for the ride, not make me 'look' for it. Ritual' to me is a love song. I've paralleled that with so many relationships in the past. Now I see it as a relationship with my God. This music can do many different things with other people. Thats what it does for me! & will continue to do! Revealing & Ritual were more than enough to let me relive this over & over again! My taste are varied now days. I'm a big fan from Stevie Ray Vaughn to Boney James. So you see I like talent. 'YES' billows with talent. This cd is fine fine example of unsurpassed musical excellence few artistst to this day have equaled!Free Music Review: Nothing Quite Like It
Hit: 5 Stars
I would say that this is the least of Yes's absolute masterpieces (_The Yes Album_, _Close to the Edge_, _Relayer_, _90125_, and maybe _Fragile_), but that wouldn't quite catch what this piece is all about. This unfolds almost glacially like a Sibelius symphony with a few schizoid stretches thrown in for good measure. This is Yes's most ambitious album and if you take it for what it is, the truest thing you might be able to say is that it is their most mind-expanding album. It's extreme length led Rick Wakeman to disavow it as a misguided project, but he was always the one with the most questionable judgment in the "classic line-up." If you have a few hours to sit back and let your mind drift, there might not be any better album in the history of rock. The only rivals in genres related to what Yes is doing here have names like Stravinsky and Bartok, not ELP or King Crimson, neither of whom were able to make a work of quite this breadth, scope, and intriguing execution.
The whole suite starts out meditatively with the whispering tones of "The Revealing Science of God/ Dance of the Dawn." Again, no rock album I can think of builds this slowly short of some of the stuff coming out in post-rock lately (and it's arguable if that's rock). This isn't the kind of album I'd play on the way to work--you wouldn't even get past the build-up. And that's another thing that makes this album such a treat. If you are able to clear your agenda to be able to digest all of this, well, I would certainly call it an enriching experience. One that only comes at special times for most of us in this hustling, bustling world.
Things pick up a little with "The Remembering/ High the Memory." The band starts to "rock" around the ten-minute mark of this with a trademark Steve Howe workout to help the band soar. The stops aren't completely loosed until "The Ancient/ Giants Under the Sun" with a kitchen-sink jam that has Alan White hitting sheet metal (!!!), among many other thrilling turns this song takes after the unforgettable gong and bells intro. Actually, this song has Alan White's best drumming short of "Hold On" on _90125_, amongst a storied career. The insert of the excellent Rhino package tells the fabled entirety of what led to production decisions such as White's unique instrumentation choices. Needless to say, Eddie Offord was pretty much at his producing best here, his touch setting Yes apart as well as he had on previous classics.
The whole thing goes back to shimmering evocations on "Ritual/ Nous Sommes de Soleil" and ends the entire suite with our minds contemplating hearts of sunrises and other such transcendent signifieds that Yes is unparalleled in interrogating musically. They only had a few releases that measured up to this one afterwards, so this is pretty much Yes at its peak.
Another review elsewhere says that this isn't for every Yes fan, but I have to disagree. It's not for every MUSIC fan, as thick as the world is with AC/DC and Britney Spears devotees. But as far as a Yes fan goes, you really haven't heard Yes until you sit with this one and let it work its magic on you. Actually, I think this one may very well be the "gauntlet" of Yesdom and progdom. While it may not be jam-packed with extreme scintillation from second-one to second-last like _Close to the Edge_, this is the kind of composition that builds up to the chills. When they come, the musical moments are absolutely unparalleled and they transport you in ways like none other that you have ever felt. Just say Yes!