If progressive rock is the barmy, eccentric uncle to popular music, then Tales from Topographic Oceans, Yes’s landmark sixth album originally released in December 1973, is surely the barmy, eccentric uncle to progressive rock. No other album in prog history has caused such hot debate as to its merits, its pitfalls or its musical legacy as this one, even within the band themselves. With just four long tracks stretched over as many sides of vinyl, it’s anything but accessible, but it sees Yes delivering what many view as the ultimate statement of prog rock intent. And now, Rhino have put together a Super Deluxe Edition box set that’s just as ambitious and audacious as the original album. I imagine some of you have been waiting all your lives for this.
With prices starting at a hefty £115 (or $125), it’s undoubtedly steep, but the good news is that you don’t have to re-mortgage your house just to listen to it! In an incredibly generous move, Yes and Rhino have put all 10½ hours of content on Spotify for our streaming pleasure. Without this, I wouldn’t have had the chance to hear the music myself. After listening to more than half of the set, I knew I wanted to review it fully, so a friend kindly scanned his copy of the booklet so I could comment on that as well.
If you’ve even read this far, there’s a high probability that you already know this album inside and out. But you don’t get many chances to review one of the most notorious albums of all time, so here I go. The album begins with The Revealing Science of God (I skip the track subtitles like Dance of the Dawn, when discussing them), which is definitely the most iconic and accessible side, broken down into easily digestible chunks of music that sound like classic Yes. You can’t really say that for most of the album.
My first edition of the album was the 2003 Rhino edition, which added two minutes of scrapped atmospheric music at the start, and it’s always quite startling to me to hear the original studio release, which jumps straight into Anderson’s chants. This undeniably brilliant section (which I’ve never quite been able to memorise fully) gives way to the album’s main theme, which will return in many forms throughout the album. This side is a good start, but features too many starts and stops that impede the flow.
Then, The Remembering. The cascading flute-like intro from the mellotron (which clearly made a great impact on the legendary NES soundtrack composer Tim Follin) leads us into some of the calmest, most pastoral and – I’ll just say it – dullest music that Yes put out in their first few years as a band. It’s slow, dreary, nonsensical and lacking in percussion. It used to put me to sleep. When I first owned this album, I’d always skip the first 9 minutes of this track and rarely listen to the rest.
But one day, I cottoned onto the track’s powerful finale. The last three minutes of this track are undoubtedly the finest on the album, like the Close to the Edge finale on steroids. The band’s power chords, Jon’s spiritual chanting, and Howe’s virtuoso guitar playing all make for a spell-binding finale that I couldn’t stop playing. But it felt like cheating to get to this climax (the pudding) without hearing the rest of the song (the meat and veg), so I’d opt to listen again to the song in its entirety.
And then it struck me how all of the soft themes from the first half of The Remembering are brought back in a harder, more satisfying setting in the second. It’s a bold songwriting style to make a slow/boring version of themes to prime the listener for when they’ll be more exciting later on, but it’s extremely satisfying when you start to make the connections. I still don’t think Anderson and Co. needed to spend a whole nine minutes laying the foundation for the rest of the song, but I do appreciate this track a lot more than I used to.
The Ancient is simultaneously the most progressive track on the record (in terms of pushing the boundaries) whilst sounding the least Yes-like. This outrageous experimental piece is the most likely to be skipped by any Yes fan, I’m sure, just like Revolution 9 from the White Album. Until this year, I was completely bamboozled by the first ⅔ of this song, but the eight (!) versions presented here have somewhat demystified the song’s elusive structure. There are some decent moments between the 4- and 8-minute mark, but a lot of the unusual, angular instrumentals that surround that are made all the more impenetrable by Howe’s bizarre atonal noodlings that feel completely at odds with the music.
Almost as a treat for making it through the first twelve minutes, there’s an inlay of serene music towards the end titled Leaves of Green. First, Howe treats us to an incredibly expressive and memorable acoustic guitar solo, featuring themes from other album tracks as well as from Close to the Edge, before Anderson sings about peace in a way only he could, without it sounding sappy. My only gripe with this part is Wakeman’s insipid accompaniment, which feels like an unwelcome third wheel, breaking the ‘acousticness’ of the part and feeling unnecessarily schmaltzy.
And then, at last, Ritual, the finale, which somehow brings it all to a close. The Remembering may have some of the best music on the album, but Ritual is certainly the best piece overall. There are fewer individual pieces of this track and they fit together far better, from the opening instrumental that dazzles in multiple time signatures, to the epic verse section, the 5/4 ‘party time’ as I call it, the percussion solo (that doesn’t seem to go on as long as I originally remembered it) and at last the calm reprise at the end. After the experimental excess of The Ancient, it’s great that the band don’t break too many rules on this one.
One can just imagine Jon Anderson thinking, “If we did so much with one Close to the Edge, imagine what we could do with four!” As ambitious as the band were, however, they simply didn’t have enough ideas to stuff four sides of vinyl and make all of them as compelling as their 1972 masterpiece. Combined with the loss of their visionary drummer Bill Bruford (who had migrated to King Crimson), who was replaced with still-new-to-prog Alan White (whose raw power on this album is nonetheless phenomenal), the result occasionally feels like a watered-down version of Yes. This is especially true on The Revealing Science of God, where the punches seem to land with much less impact than they did on the previous album. It also doesn’t help that Wakeman was also very aware of the album’s weaknesses during the recording and lost faith in it, turning in half-hearted performances from then on.
Still, while the finished product clearly has its flaws, it’s still one of the most remarkable records to come from prog’s golden era. This super deluxe edition honours the ambition that was present in the formation of the album by giving us a plethora of ways to listen to this album. So come on, let’s find out what happened to these songs we once knew so well.
After the original album mix, we’re presented with a new Steven Wilson mix; he previously remixed the album a decade ago, how the time flies! I did like this mix more than the original album, with better instrument separation and clearer mellotron and keyboard sounds, but I didn’t find it especially revelatory. Only The Ancient truly benefitted, with Squire’s labyrinthine bass licks sounding much higher in the mix, making Howe’s atonal solos sound more like an afterthought.
Then, instrumental editions of the Wilson mixes. It’s actually incredible what you hear when Anderson’s voice is taken away. Try to do the intro chant to The Revealing Science of God without hearing Anderson, and you’ll find it nearly impossible. Meanwhile, I found the tranquil, pastoral space of The Remembering a much more comforting place to be without Anderson’s twaddle. The Ancient barely changes, of course, and Ritual becomes a full-on karaoke sesh, with the song’s French subtitle becoming the key lyric. Can you remember how many times it is sung before the verse? I sure couldn’t.
At this point, we’re already six discs deep, but we’re only halfway through. On Disc 7, we find the only tracks under ten minutes: a spread of five single versions taken from across the record. I found it hard to believe that Yes had even tried to bother with singles for this album, but the 70s were a different time. Each of these single versions takes a snippet that feels something like a normal song. In a fascinating turn, the single version of The Revealing Science of God adds a couple of bars during the instrumental that must have been cut for the album version. I was astonished when I first heard them, as if I was finally hearing the true form of the song.
In fact, more of this is revealed on the working versions of the track, as heard on Disc 7, Track 6 (previously released on the 2003 Rhino reissue) and Disc 8, Track 1. Superfans of the band may be familiar with All Fighters Past, a discarded demo from the Fragile sessions that was discovered by Steven Wilson during his 2013 remix. This fast-paced fragment would eventually show up in The Revealing Science of God in a much slower form, but the demos show it was also included in its fast form, too, ahead of Wakeman’s solo. The extra bars on the single version are the last ‘official’ evidence of this ‘deleted scene’. Graciously, this boxset also offers the full studio version of the song with those two extra bars added (as well as the discarded atmospheric intro) as Disc 9, Track 3.
But Disc 8, Track 1 also offers a lot more insight into the working stages of this track and is easily the most revealing bonus track, if you’ll pardon the pun. At almost 28 minutes in length (a full seven minutes longer than the album version), it’s evident that Yes had a lot of cleaning up to do, as the ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ instrumental finale, featuring themes from all over the piece, feels messy and uncontained. It’s clear that some stuff had to go, but I fear the band may have overcut by taking out the All Fighters Past section, which honestly rocks hard.
For The Remembering, there are fewer delights. Disc 7, Track 7 features the same studio arrangement (with a few variations) alongside a vocal demo by Anderson, not fully confident as the relayer of the lyrics just yet, but finding his place. It’s not terribly exciting, but Disc 9, Track 1 is even worse. I’ve pored over this track again and again to look for differences from the album version and cannot find any. If there’s a difference in the mix or the vocal track, it’s too subtle to detect. I asked a legion of Yes fans on Reddit for help with this and came up with nothing. It seems as if the album version of the track has simply been re-included as a bonus track; if that’s true, it’s a serious problem indeed. I presumed the same mistake had been made with The Revealing Science of God on Disc 9, Track 3, until I noticed those extra bars. There’s an awful lot of disc space being devoted to music that sounds exactly the same.
For The Ancient, the barebones ‘studio run-through’ from the 2003 version is still present as Disc 7, Track 8, but listeners should be curious to hear the other ‘in progress’ version on Disc 8, Track 2, which runs about a minute longer than the album version. It’s not obvious where this extra minute arises until the end of the track: the swirling sound effect that closes the piece is left to fade out for much longer, reaching a far higher pitch than it did on the album. One feels grateful that such excesses were trimmed in the final edit. On the plus side, though, you can finally hear Leaves of Green without Wakeman’s interference. As I suspected, it sounds far better as an acoustic duet.
Ritual, the best track of the album, sadly only gets one ‘in progress’ variant. However, it’s still a delightfully different listen. Right from the start, Squire’s bass line in the intro is missing, and we hear only staccato notes amid silence before the rest of the band joins in. Some parts here (such as White’s drums) are the same as those used in the finished product, while Howe, Anderson and Wakeman are still figuring out what might sound best. These rough demos are an absolute joy and my favourite part of the package, although I’m still quite upset about Disc 9, Track 1.
But that’s still not all. There are yet another three discs of live material to get through. While the audio quality is pretty good, most of the tracks are unfortunately only presented in partial form, either from starting late in the song or because the tape ran out before the end. Disc 10 captures performances from Manchester and Cardiff in 1973. In a bold (and possibly quite foolish) move, the band had decided to play the entirety of Tales to bewildered audiences before the album had even been released. These two shows were taped roughly a week before the album’s release date of 7th December 1973.
The track ordering for Discs 7 through 9 had been rather merciful in the way they never included the same track twice in a row, making for more balanced listening. However, the tapes on Disc 10 unfortunately line up to have The Ancient twice in a row. Even for a Yes fan, thirty-six straight minutes of The Ancient is very hard to stomach. It’s made even harder by the fact that the reprieve, Leaves of Green, is cut off in the first tape, meaning that we only get the angular, heavy stuff for a good thirty minutes. However, the live tapes do reveal just how hard the band could rock and improvise during these sections, making them perhaps the most interesting bits of their live shows.
The final two discs are dedicated to the band’s penultimate show of their Tales from Topographic Oceans tour, recorded in Zürich on 21st April 1974. Perhaps having grown exhausted from all 80 minutes of their new opus already, the group had decided to eject The Remembering from their setlist after their American leg in March, and the European performances in April all featured the album without it.
For the first time after ten discs, we hear music not from Tales as the band launch into And You and I. It’s such a relief to finally hear something different after all this time. Up next is the classic Close to the Edge; having heard it played so many times in more recent live settings, it’s great to return to a younger, more energetic band playing their heart out. At the end, a spacey chord is held for over a minute before Jon signals the introduction of Tales. While it’s another ripping show, we sadly don’t get to hear the full thing. Besides The Remembering being cut, the tape also cuts out midway through The Revealing Science of God, so we don’t hear a full performance of that either. Interested fans may like to know that the full show (including Siberian Khatru and the encore performances) is available on YouTube as taped by an audience member, albeit with significantly lower sound quality than this soundboard recording.
At times, listening to ten solid hours of Tales from Topographic Oceans felt like a special kind of torture, but I have to admit, after the outro to Ritual had faded and the music simply stopped, I felt bereft. For a few weeks, I’d had a mountain of music to engage with and listen to, with each twenty-minute track shining a new light on an old classic (except Disc 9, Track 1, mind).
I didn’t want it to be over. I immediately found the booklet scans my friend had sent me for more background info. I think most fans are aware of the basic beats of this album’s formation: the fake cows in the studio and the makeshift ‘bathroom’ with tiles so that Anderson could sound as if he was singing in the shower. But author Syd Schwartz turned the making of the album into a fascinating, spell-binding read, beginning at Bill Bruford’s wedding in March 1973, when Jon Anderson had a chance encounter with King Crimson’s eccentric percussionist Jamie Muir. Schwartz narrates the tale with the verve of a seasoned novelist and fills in many of the gaps in my knowledge of the album’s conception. For example, I didn’t realise that Steve Howe was Anderson’s partner in crime when concocting this epic. It’s quite hard to picture the two being such good friends all these years later since Howe has kept Anderson at arm’s reach from the group since 2008. Schwartz freely admits that the album is controversial and has its flaws, empathising with Wakeman, but challenges the reader to meet Tales at its level anyway. While his scribblings veer towards being overearnest in his ‘Coda’, it’s nonetheless an engaging and informative read that I wish I’d penned myself.
Tales from Topographic Oceans has never had the same acclaim as Yes’s surrounding catalogue. Records like The Yes Album, Fragile, Close to the Edge, and Relayer all share an instant appeal to fans of progressive rock, while Tales will leave you scratching your head. That quality, whether by design or as a symptom of overambition, has nevertheless made this album one of the most enduring in the band’s career. Long after you’ve worn out your copy of Fragile, Tales will still be there with corners left uncharted in your mind. Whilst listening to the Zürich recording by the end of this box set, Close to the Edge barely registered with me, but I was still gleefully chanting along to every part of Ritual. Listening to the same album for ten hours over several weeks had not diminished its impact. That kind of staying power is nothing less than extraordinary.
TRACK LISTING
DISC ONE: Original Album Remastered
01. The Revealing Science of God (Dance of Dawn) (20:26)
02. The Remembering (High the Memory) (20:39)
Time – 41:05
DISC TWO: Original Album Remastered
01. The Ancient (Giants Under the Sun) (18:37)
02. Ritual (Nous Sommes Du Soleil) (21:35)
Time – 40:12
DISC THREE: Steven Wilson 2026 Stereo Remixes
01. The Revealing Science of God (Dance of Dawn) (22:28)
02. The Remembering (High the Memory) (20:31)
Time – 42:59
DISC FOUR: Steven Wilson 2026 Stereo Remixes
01. The Ancient (Giants Under the Sun) (18:38)
02. Ritual (Nous Sommes Du Soleil) (21:42)
Time – 40:20
DISC FIVE: Steven Wilson 2026 Instrumental Mixes
01. The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn) (Instrumental) (22:28)
02. The Remembering (High the Memory) (Instrumental) (20:31)
Time – 42:59
DISC SIX: Steven Wilson 2026 Instrumental Mixes
01. The Ancient (Giants Under the Sun) (Instrumental) (18:38)
02. Ritual (Nous Sommes Du Soleil) (Instrumental) (21:42)
Time – 40:20
DISC SEVEN: Rarities
01. The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn) (Single Edit) (3:53)
02. The Remembering (High the Memory) (Single Edit) (2:47)
03. The Ancient (Giants Under the Sun) (Single Edit) (3:25)
04. Ritual (Nous Sommes Du Soleil) (Single Edit 1) (4:19)
05. Ritual (Nous Sommes Du Soleil) (Single Edit 2) (3:47)
06. The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn) (Version 1) (23:20)
07. The Remembering (High the Memory) (In Progress) (20:36)
08. The Ancient (Giants Under the Sun) (In Progress) (17:18)
Time – 79:25
DISC EIGHT: Rarities
01. The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn) (In Progress) (27:51)
02. The Ancient (Giants Under the Sun) (In Progress 2) (19:29)
03. The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn) (In Progress 2) (21:52)
Time – 69:12
DISC NINE: Rarities
01. The Remembering (High the Memory) (In Progress 2) (20:42)
02. Ritual (Nous Sommes Du Soleil) (In Progress) (21:50)
03. The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn) (Version 2) (22:35)
Time – 65:07
DISC TEN: Live 1973
01. The Remembering (High the Memory) (Live at Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England – 28/11/73) (19:59)
02. The Ancient (Giants Under the Sun) (Live at Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England – 28/11/73) (16:09)
03. The Ancient (Giants Under the Sun) (Live at Capitol Theatre, Cardiff, Wales – 01/12/73) (19:55)
04. Ritual (Nous Sommes Du Soleil) (Live at Capitol Theatre, Cardiff, Wales – 01/12/73) (20:41)
Time – 76:44
DISC ELEVEN: Live at Hallenstadion Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland (21/04/74)
01. And You and I (10:13)
02. Close to the Edge (19:11)
03. The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn) (14:35)
Time – 43:59
DISC TWELVE: Live at Hallenstadion Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland (21/04/74)
01. The Ancient (Giants Under the Sun) (19:35)
02. Ritual (Nous Sommes Du Soleil) (22:38)
Time – 42:13
Total Time – 10:24:35
MUSICIANS
Jon Anderson – Lead Vocals, Percussion
Steve Howe – Guitars, Electric Sitar, Lute, Backing Vocals
Chris Squire – Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals
Rick Wakeman – Keyboards
Alan White – Drums, Percussion
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Rhino Records
Country of Origin: UK
Date of Release: 6th February 2026
LINKS
Yes – Website | Facebook | YouTube | X | Instagram | Boxset info at Rhino Records
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