Trio of albums: Genesis vs Yes?

Progishness wrote: I sort of agree too about TFTO - all four tracks tend to be a bit unfocused and rambling, but possibly with much tighter editing it could have been a terrific single album with 4x 10-minute tracks.

Something of the sort, I guess. Though, for me, The Revealing Science of God should remain very similar to the way it is (though I still might like to trim just a little bit of it), so at least some of the others would need to end up rather shorter.

If you'd started with 'The Yes Album' it would have been easy.  I still voted for Yes, though TFTO drags it down a bit.

Steve Wyzard wrote: I've been a Yes fan for almost 40 years, and I've still never been able to "get into", or fathom, Tales from Topographic Oceans. Believe me, I've tried on multiple occasions. I always find myself siding with Rick Wakeman's famous views of this album. So even though I find TLLDoB overly long, I will go with the trio from Genesis.

I sort of agree with you about Topographic Oceans. I do love The Revealing Science of God (even if it can get a bit patchy), but the rest I just don't love, and sort of think it would have been better if the other songs had been shorter. But still, it does help if I put the whole album without interruptions, and paying attention. Also, besides my own appreciation about the album, I do have the impression that particular album is something else, something that transcends the rock (or even prog) genre... and I can glimpse that greatness if I listen to it as I said.

richardh wrote: Fragile and SEBTP are very similar to me - 3 amazing tracks and a bunch of other stuff (''filler''). Both are overrated imho but thankfully there is no Epping Forest like track on Fragile!

The trio of albums of Genesis.

Yes all the way. And I do love Fragile too, my favourite along with CttE. And I don't really hear what's so wrong or inconsistent about it. The solo numbers aren't really that bad, and are short enough that they don't really hurt the album, and the rest of the songs are among their best. I guess the one that hurts the most is Rick's part... if only he had been able to include the one he intended, the one that became Catherine of Aragon (which he couldn't because his record company prohibited him to write music for Yes), then it would have been a truly perfect album. But the other solos fit just perfectly. We Have Heaven is very short, and sounds really nice opening for South Side. Bruford's doesn't even last half a minute. Squire's bass solo actually sounds like an extention of Long Distance Runaround, and for me that song doesn's sound complete without it. And Mood for a Day is really a very good piece of guitar... so, what's the problem about it? For me Fragile and CttE go together, my two favourites from the band, and it's almost like a mandatory listen to have them together, having both the same Line-up and the same great sound. As for The Yes Album, that one's actually not among my favourites from the band, since the only song I really like on that one is Starship Trooper, and I like the Keys to Ascension version so much better that I don't really feel any need to hear the original version ever again.

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: Am I the only one on here who thinks Fragile is one of Yes's strongest albums? I see a lot of dumping on that album here and I don't get it. I think the solo tracks make it more interesting.

Am I the only one on here who thinks Fragile is one of Yes's strongest albums? I see a lot of dumping on that album here and I don't get it. I think the solo tracks make it more interesting.

 Voted Genes because I'm not a big fan of Tails. If it was TYA, Fragile & CTTE then the vote would have gone to Yes. 

Yes for me, even more so had it been Relayer rather than Fragile. It's a close thing but I find myself going off TLLDOB a bit over the years.