It is hard to deny that what some critics said in 1973 and 1974 is not completely true - yes, Tales from Topographic Oceans is excessive, drawn out, and maybe even a bit pretentious. However, if any of you have seen my thoughts on Oasis' Be Here Now, you know that I can have some fun with albums that are overly produced and excessive, and I think this album is no different at all. When your shortest song on an album is comparable in length to "Close to the Edge", itself an 18 and a half minute song that was previously the group's longest to date, you know you have yourself a serious listening experience on your hands, and indeed Yes does provide such an experience. The biggest argument against this album that I have heard is that it would work great as a single disc, with each song being trimmed down to 10 or so minutes - part of me fails to understand this criticism, as I'd argue trimming down some songs would actually make them worse. The first track (or movement if you want to get fancy), "The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn)" immediately gets the record off on solid footing with a 22 minute epic that is every bit as gripping and memorable as "Close to the Edge" was, and one that evolves just as much as the aforementioned track. This song also showcases two of the album's heavy hitters - Rick Wakeman and Jon Anderson. That isn't to discredit the work of Steve Howe on this track, which is highly impressive, but Anderson's clean and soaring, often beautiful voice, carries the track through successfully, and Rick Wakeman's walls and layers of keyboard creates an added depth to the material, and it often plays nicely with Chris Squire's always prolific bass work, which I'm pleased to say is just as fantastic as it's always been.
The momentum gained from "Dance of the Dawn", luckily, carries throughout most of the album as well. That isn't to say that the album's general bloat doesn't affect it at points, as there is a definite drop on Side C's "The Ancient / Giants Under the Sun", mostly because the first half is largely a meandering piece. Even still, this third movement is saved by the final quarter's acoustic parts, which displays some of my favorite guitar work be Steve Howe on the entire album - more subtle and gentle than the rest of the album, and his playing leans somewhere between classical and flamenco at points. It's very flavorful, and it helps save Side C, even if only just a bit. It also helps that the following side, the bombastic finale that is "Ritual (Nous Sommes de Soleil)", which carries some of the more experimental elements of "The Ancient / Giants Under the Sun", but does so much more effectively, while also keeping the more traditional sound of Yes in tact - this latter element is also what makes "Dance of the Dawn" so appealing, given that it's mostly your stander Yes affair. The album strikes a good balance of this relationship for the most part - a tug of war between the established style of Yes from Close to the Edge and previous albums and the more experimental, unpredictable style of Topographic Oceans - one moment, we could be in a bass-heavy, rhythmically complex section, and the next we're in a gentle lute-lead section that feels out of the Medieval age on "The Remembering / High the Memory". This balance makes for a record that is assuredly never boring, even if it doesn't always manage to stick the landing. The other thing that keeps it certifiably in Yesland is the lyrical content, which, while based off the concepts of four Hindu texts, stick to the same intellectual style of Jon Anderson's lyrics. To be quite honest, I never thought much of Yes' lyricism, which isn't to say it's bad, but it lacks the directness of Pink Floyd, the humor of Jethro Tull, or the intrigue of Genesis. This album does not show such an improvement on that front.
In some ways, Tales from Topographic Oceans represents an ending of an era for Yes - not long after the album, keyboardist Rick Wakeman left the group over disagreements with the band's artistic direction. The following year, after the release of the Relayer album in 1974, the group went on hiatus - Yes wouldn't release a proper new studio album until 1977, and by that point, punk rock had made the whole genre of progressive rock excessively uncool. Did Tales from Topographic Oceans mark the end of Yes' success? Well, no - Topographic Oceans was a chart-topping album in the UK, and Relayer hit the top 5 in the UK and US, so clearly the group had no problems with sales. In a way, though, Topographic Oceans marks the group hitting a peak of ambition that they couldn't quite seem to match afterwards, and arguably one they didn't match in the first place. In the years that would follow, Topographic Oceans became a symbol of progressive rock's excess and bloat - is it possible the album helped cast a negative perspective on the genre? Well, that's hard to say, especially since punk's rise was an antithesis to progressive rock, and not just musically. In retrospect, though, there's something to appreciate about Yes pushing themselves as far as they could on Topographic Oceans, and I think it helps that much of the album ultimately succeeds musically in creating an epic experience, unrestrained by the group's previous limits. It may not be Yes at their absolute best, but the album is certainly Yes at their biggest, and in more ways than one.
RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯
Listen to Tales from Topographic Oceans.
Comments
Post a Comment