So, here we go then. Who would have thought I would be reviewing this...This was a very controversial album, in many ways.
Yes took their prog rock indulgence to the nth degree and produced a four track double album of four separate, extended suites of music. It made The Yes Album look like frantic, breakneck punk. Opinions were divided on whether the group had achieved the acme of their innovative potential or otherwise had completely lost the plot. For me, it is 30% of the former and 70% of the latter.
The excellent drummer Bill Bruford had left after the last album and keyboard genius Rick Wakeman got pissed off halfway through and left as well. These were my two favourite instrumentalists from the band gone. The somewhat pretentious singer/composer Jon Anderson’s quasi religious-philosophical influence is all over the work - just take a look at the song titles, and indeed the album’s title - along with that of guitarist Steve Howe. Despite there being some impressive parts that give pleasure and deserve respect, I cannot help but listen to this and, between the good bits, think “what a load of old tosh”.
In many respects, an album like this can be see as one of the main inspirations and catalysts for the rise of punk. The sprawling, instrumental passages, the high-pitched vocals, the classical-styled keyboards, the constant changes in ambience and tempo, the phantasmagorical lyrics, and yes, just the sheer over-the-top smug pretension of it all can seriously grate. On the other hand - and there always is another hand - it can be credibly hailed as a work of imaginative genius. Personally, writing as not a “proper” Yes fan, but a dilettante ex-punk, I have to say that I much prefer the previous albums and find this a bit of an indigestible listen.
The good passages are fewer and more far between than they are on say, on Close To The Edge. I am not really capable of analysing each track in the way I do other tracks on other albums other than to simply say that I like some of the drum parts (but I preferred Bruford’s drumming, listen to the third part for audible evidence that Alan White was no Bruford ), there are some nice bass lines and the occasional riffy bit (too few - the heaviest bit briefly arrives at the end of part three), but Anderson’s voice irritates me more on this one than on any of the others. Howe’s guitar is always superbly melodic and clear, though.
Maybe I should let Steve Howe say what each side had to offer?
"Side one was the commercial or easy-listening side of Topographic Oceans, side two was a much lighter, folky side of Yes, side three was electronic mayhem turning into acoustic simplicity, and side four was us trying to drive the whole thing home on a biggie."
There you have it, from the old proggy’s mouth. In spite of some of the album’s noteworthy aspects, I will end with the question - why did punk feel it needed to briefly strip things down in the way it did? Take a listen to this. It stands as a living symbol of prog rock excess. At times, I can appreciate bits of it, at other times I find myself thinking that it stinks worse than a vegan's fart. Either way, after a listen I find myself craving other genres.
