Tales From Topographic Oceans
by Yes
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Yes bestography
Tales From Topographic Oceans is ranked 7th best out of 71 albums by Yes on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Yes is Close To The Edge which is ranked number 86 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 13,412.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Tales From Topographic Oceans on YouTube
Tales From Topographic Oceans track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 83 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Tales From Topographic Oceans rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 4 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | MrOlan | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1970s | 39/100 | 12 |
| 2026 |  ExTeaSea | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 43/100 | 56 |
| 2026 |  Helios | Top 60 Music Albums of 1973 | 36/60 | 2 |
| 2026 | adbrack1988 | Top 41 Music Albums of 1973 | 21/41 | 3 |
| 2026 |  zags7000 | Top 100 Music Albums of 1973 | 55/100 | 2 |
| 2026 | Moondance | Top 100 Music Albums of 1973 | 43/100 | 3 |
| 2026 |  Robert Anton Wilson | Top 44 Music Albums of 1973 | 13/44 | 4 |
| 2026 |  jeremy9 | Top 34 Music Albums of 1973 | 22/34 | 2 |
| 2026 |  DommeDamian | Top 78 Music Albums of the 1970s | 76/78 | 1 |
| 2026 |  RockyRaccoon | Progressive Rock #101-200 | 88/100 | - |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 217 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 831 | |||
Tales From Topographic Oceans collection
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Tales From Topographic Oceans ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 424 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 08/22/2026 00:59 | averagewolfie | 2 | 100/100 |
| ! | 05/10/2026 19:23 | emnasut | 153 | 87/100 |
| ! | 05/10/2026 11:54 | Adhura | 1,731 | 77/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 11% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 74.6/100, a mean average of 74.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 74.7/100. The standard deviation for this album is 18.2.
Tales From Topographic Oceans favourites
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Tales From Topographic Oceans forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 09/01/2026 16:00 in Monthly overall chart movements BestEverAlbums 08/01/2026 16:00 in Monthly overall chart movements BestEverAlbums 07/01/2026 16:00 in Monthly overall chart movementsTales From Topographic Oceans comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
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ponkine 03/13/2012 18:59 | #38264 | TOP COMMENT
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This is probably the most maligned, bashed and dismissed album in Progressive Rock. All the well-known prog haters (Rolling Stone, Robert Christgau, etc) had a field day with this album, but if you really LISTEN to all the 4 pieces is such astounding musical experience. My favourites are 'Ritual' and 'The Revealing Science of God'. Don't pass this one up and listen with open ears and mind
Trust me ponkine it's not just the "prog haters" that hate Tales From Topographic Oceans it's a much more diverse crowd than that. I appreciate and respect Prog Rock and I love Yes. This album is maligned, dismissed, and bashed for a reason. A lot of good reasons actually. Unfortunately this album is where Yes slipped from prog rock command and came tumbling down with tremendous force. After losing incredible drummer Bill Bruford Yes tries to go too far too fast. It's like a marathon runner who loses his leg and then skips rehab and decides to run another soon after getting the prosthetic leg put on. It's just asking for failure. And that is exactly what Yes got. An uninteresting, pompous, overly-grandiose, Japanese scriptures induced failure. This album sounds forced, like they were trying way too hard to impress the "prog rock cult" that they had help create instead of just kicking back and doing what they do best and appealing to all audiences. Instead of the usual epic success they found out the hard way what it is like to have an epic failure. Not to worry though... They would be back making good stuff soon after this.
I really don't see why this album is so divisive; it has all the standard Yes melodies and atmospheres, everything to please a Yes fan. It has beauty (eg in most of side 1 and the first half of side 2) and power (the finales of sides 1,2 and 4) and just interesting, even catchy, music everywhere. The only regrettable part of this album is the drum solo in side 4 - not good!
The album certain members of Yes never liked apparently. I don't understand why, I really like it. One of the best prog album sleeve designs of the era with some truly progressive music to immerse oneself in! (Edited)
I put this album on when I want to fall asleep and I don't mean that as an insult. I really do like to relax to this album, It puts me in a relaxing mood. (Edited)
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