Tales from Topographic Oceans |
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Released: December 7, 1973 Peak: 6 US, 12 UK, 4 CN, 13 AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.1 UK, 0.6 world (includes US and UK) Genre: progressive rock |
Tracks:Click on a song title for more details.
Total Running Time: 81:14 The Players:
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Rating: 3.353 out of 5.00 (average of 11 ratings)
Quotable:“Either the finest record or the most overblown album in Yes’ output.” – Bruce Eder, AllMusic.comAwards:(Click on award to learn more).
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Prog Rock at Its Best…and Worst“Either the finest record or the most overblown album in Yes’ output. When it was released, critics called it one of the worst examples of progressive rock’s overindulgent nature.” BE It has been “derided as being hopelessly overblown and pretentious.” TB Rolling Stone critic Gordon Fletcher called it “psychedelic doodling.” WKBassist “Chris Squire mentions listening to tapes of a live performance some years later and thinking ‘it does go on a bit,’ but then adding that he ‘really enjoyed it.’” WK Howe has “stated that some of his best guitar work was to be found on Tales from Topographic Oceans. Indeed, the album has also been celebrated as “the pinnacle of prog ambition in the 1970s.” TB It “is a sprawling, richly orchestrated work, awash with sudden changes in tempo and time signature, searing guitar solos, synthesizer flourishes, and impenetrable lyrics about Eastern mysticism.” TB A Commercial Success“Yes spent the latter half of 1973 attempting to fashion a record that would top all of the group’s previous releases.” TB “There was clearly a market for the band’s prog excesses in its day: Tales from Topographic Oceans was the group’s biggest commercial success to date.” TB “Public anticipation for Tales was so high that the album, a double, achieved gold status in the UK on the strength of pre-sale orders alone.” TBThe Concept“Jon Anderson’s fascination with Eastern religions never manifested itself more clearly or broadly” WK than on Tales. The album, the group’s “most ambitious to date,” TB was “based on the Shastric scriptures,” WK specifically “rooted in the spiritual text Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogandanda.” TB It is a “four-piece work of symphonic length and scope” WK with each piece filling one side of vinyl. The songs symbolize – “in track order, the concepts of Truth, Knowledge, Culture, and Freedom.” WKDrummer Bill Bruford said, “former King Crimson percussionist Jamie Muir introduced vocalist Jon Anderson to Paramahansa Yogananda’s work during Bruford's wedding in March 1973.” WK However, “one needn’t understand any of that to appreciate the many sublimely beautiful moments on this album, some of the most gorgeous passages ever recorded by the band.” BE Rick Wakeman’s Exit“Keyboardist Rick Wakeman left shortly after the album’s completion, unhappy with the direction Yes was taking.” TB He has “expressed intense dislike of the album, stemming in part from the fact that vocalist Jon Anderson and guitarist Steve Howe constructed the bulk of the album entirely on their own (as the sleeve notes suggest), leaving the remaining three members with relatively little to contribute (which the sleeve notes dispute).” WK Wakeman “spent much of the time playing darts with Black Sabbath members” WK who were “in the studio recording Sabbath Bloody Sabbath at the same time as Yes.” WKHe wasn’t the first to be frustrated with “Anderson and Howe’s studio behavior.” WK “Bruford had left the band for King Crimson a year earlier for similar reasons.” WK Wakeman has acknowledged “that he enjoyed some of the musical content of ‘The Ancient,’ and Wakeman has performed ‘The Revealing Science of God’ and ‘Ritual’ with the band often in the years since.” WK
ReissueA 2003 reissue added studio run-throughs of “Dance of the Dawn” and “Giants Under the Sun.” 2016 edition added a third disc of material, including single edits of each of the four songs. |
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First posted 6/7/2011; updated 9/21/2025. |
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