TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS: YES ALBUM LISTENING GUIDE
Kevin Mulryne FIVE PER CENT FOR SOMETHING
Assiduously in-depth study of prog’s cause célèbre.
In late 1973, Yes released what’s either the highest or most divisive pinnacle of prog: Tales From Topographic Oceans was 80 sprawling minutes of sometimes abstract, sometimes inspired experimentation. It’s been eulogised, panned and argued over ever since, but an album of such volatile stature surely deserves a book of intense, borderline-obsessive detail, and, boy, is this that book.