Yes are one of the most well-known progrock bands of all time, even though they haven't really put out anything good since the 70's. The album I am reviewing,
Tales From Topographic Oceans, is an album that proggers such as I either love or hate. Or at least, that's what is said. I don't hate this album, nor do I love it, but I think it's average to good. It's incredibly overrated, and I know some are going to say "OMG D00D U TOTALLY DON'T UNDERSTAND TEH MAGNIFICENCE OF DIS ALBUM d00d!!", but I don't care. Anyway, enough rambling. Here's the review:
The Revealing Science of God - Dance Of The Dawn
A 22 minute opener, and it's actually pretty good. The beginning of it has the sounds of an ocean, and then a guitar comes in, and after a while, Jon's vocals come in and the music continues. It's actually a very good track, possibly the best on the album, and it's also the longest track, 22 minutes and 37 seconds. A very complex song as well, and it all goes on and on until the music fades out and this epic song has ended.
The Remembering - High The Memory
After such a good opening track, one would expect the follow-up to be good too. Unfortunately, this is the second worst track on the album, but that doesn't mean it's not an alright song. It's another epic, going on for just seven seconds off of 21 minutes. If you can't do math well enough to figure that out, then I'm sorry, because I won't give you the answer. Anyway, this song doesn't build-up and get better and better like the last one, and it just doesn't really "progress" as progressive rock should I suppose. Some very good riffs in this track, but overall, it's not as great as the opener. Not nearly as good.
The Ancient - Giants Under The Sky
The third and penultimate(next-to-last) track on TFTO is also the shortest track, clocking in at 18 and a half minutes, plus five seconds. Ha ha, you have to use math to figure that one out as well. Anyway, like the previous track, this one isn't that great either. It's really a build-up for the fourth and final track, and it just sets it up. This is the first worst track on the album. I read another review for this album, and the reviewer was right. There isn't a sense of direction at all. But that's no matter, because the next track is very good.
Ritual - Nous Sommes du Soleil
The fourth and final track on the album is 22 minutes minus 8 seconds. Figure it out. It's a very good track, but not as good as the opener. This long track has many different vibes to it. "There are soaring, flowing parts, and tense, dramatically dissonant parts, all accenting and offsetting each other and creating the overall mood of a struggle, with a distinct sense of resolution, not only for the song but for the album." This person is absolutely right. That's what I think of this track. Well, the instrumentation is very good, and overall, it's a pretty good track.
Well, that's it. Four tracks, 83 minutes, a proggers delight. I personally think that this is overrated, because two good tracks and two mediocre tracks equal up to about a 2.5 or 3. So a 3 is what it gets.
Recommended Tracks:
I'm only going to recommend one track, since there are only four of them, six on the remastered version, but I haven't heard that version. Anyway, the song that I've decided to recommend is the opener:
The Revealing Science Of God - Dance of the Dawn
Download that track.
Overall, Yes's
Tales From Topographic Oceans gets a 3 out of 5. I really wish I could give it a 4, but I can't because of the two middle tracks.
3/5
