Yes - Tales from Topographic Oceans
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Free Music Notes for Tales from Topographic Oceans
Free Music Review: Tales Is Yes At It's Best
Hit: 4 Stars
This 2 CD set allows you to hear the band not constrained by a 4 or 5 minute song. All the songs are long, and they weave in and out of the various sounds that made Yes so distinct.
The Rhino recording is just OK, a bit too flat sounding to me, but it's been a few years since I've heard the original album. It could be the original was not audiophile quality either.
A good set for real Yes fans - lots of memories here.
Free Music Review: Yes - 'Tales From Topographic Ocean' (Elektra/WEA) Expanded 2-CD reissue
Hit: 4 Stars
Review no. 94. Originally released in 1974,as this was the seventh record from Yes. This longplayer features four lengthy tracks that deal with vocalist Jon Anderson's interest in Eastern religons. Rest assure, 'Tales From...' is quite nicely put together, I thought. Two cuts that I was most impressed with were "Revealing Science Of God" and "The Ancient-Giants Under The Sun". This pressing comes as an expanded 2-CD reissue with two bonus tracks and informative liner notes.Ideal for any true Yes fan over the age of forty. 'Tales From...' MORE than proves that Yes is and always will be at the top of the heap of the progressive/art rock bands. A real keeper. Recommended.Free Music Review: memories of youth
Hit: 5 Stars
Playing this album in my little truck in 1973 transformed me from a highway in Tennessee to distant stars where God told me secrets of the universe, and that was before I hit 5th gear. You have to be spiritual to appreciate this to the max I would think. But shouldn't we all be spiritual beings? We have one life here on this big blue ball, what a treat to have moments when music touch you and make you think. One of Yes best!Free Music Review: Pretentious, NO! Ambitious, YES!
Hit: 5 Stars
Dammit, this is not pretentious. There was a time in rock when bands not only had the ambition to make something different and challenging, but actually did it with the blessing of their record company. And people bought the stuff in droves. Yes were enormously popular at this time, and people liked their ambitions. This is one of my all time favorite albums. I loved the fact that in its original LP format, it had 4 side long songs, roughly 20 minutes apiece. It is a work not dissimilar to a long work by any famous composer. I love all the tracks here. From the intense opening verse of The Revealing Science of God to the playfulness of Ritual, this maybe Yes's greatest album. While punk musicians hated bands like Yes, ELP, and Pink Floyd, these bands' music has outlasted any crap punk threw (sometimes literally) at us. The punk bands that went on changed their musical outlook (like The Clash..their later work was much more ambitious than their earlier stuff) made lasting work. Do not fault those who are ambitious and are trying new things...fault yourself...
Free Music Review: A masterwork of staggering scope and depth
Hit: 5 Stars
Released in late 1973, this album would come to be known as THE concept album in prog rock, and is perhaps the most loathed recording by individuals that feel compelled to attack the genre. One of the most significant criticisms leveled at the album is that the pieces are simply just too long, and that the sheer length strained the band's compositional resourcefulness to the breaking point. In short, Yes was viewed as "milking" a theme for too long. In contrast to this view, I feel that the album is absolutely perfect (it is a personal favorite), and would not change a single note. Then again, I am a huge Yes fan, and in no way objective.
Written by Steve and Jon during candlelight sessions held while on the road, Tales from Topographic Oceans is comprised of four, inter-related movements that were apparently based upon Shastric scripture. The pieces themselves can largely be divided into two spacey, more subdued movements including The Revealing Science of God and The Remembering, along with two, more adventurous pieces including The Ancient and the remarkable closing movement, Ritual. Ritual features an amazing bass solo by Chris (on his trademark trebly sounding Rickenbacker) and the live version of this track on the Yesshows album (1980) is truly something to behold. One other item of note is that Squire used a fretless bass on The Remembering, although he does not play it like a fretless (i.e. with lots of glissandos). I even have to admit that Rick turns in some nice performances here, in spite of his general dislike of the entire album (he left Yes after Tales..., only to rejoin for the Going for the One album). His mini-moog solo on The Revealing Science of God is excellent and the loads of mellotron throughout the four works really make this album work for me.
The remastering effort by Rhino is remarkable and the CD package boasts a huge booklet loaded with color photos and informational tidbits that will prove useful for old and new fans alike. One of the most thrilling aspects of the new and improved "Tales" is the addition of a very spacey intro to The Revealing Science of God - a long piece made even longer! The restored cover art took me back to a time when I first heard this album (on vinyl no less) as a teenager. Although the two bonus studio run-though tracks are cool, they really do not add much to the overall listening experience.
Although I could easily go on forever, raving about this album I won't - this is a review after all, not a bloody essay. Suffice it to say that this will provide one of the more challenging and ultimately rewarding listening experiences you may encounter. So ignore all of the negative stuff people say about it and give it a spin. Highly recommended along with all Yes albums released from 1971-1977 (The Yes Album through Going for the One).