Topographic Oceans? You lost me there. It is a very sophisticated pop album, I will grant you that. I was relishing it on the first listen until I ran into a wall. I would count it amongst other "unconventional" Yes albums in that it defies what we deify about Yes, namely, spellbinding epics. In fact, the only thing I think it needs is one good epic with lots of instrumental passages, if not entirely instrumental. (Keep in mind, I said this exact same thing back in 1989 about the Anderson Bruford Wakeman and Howe album, and that album had 3 mini epics. I can remember saying to my friend Paul, "If it just had an epic it would be perfect.") I can appreciate Yes's "shorter song" albums, even if the overall effect of them underwhelms me, but on this album in particular you get to the point of "enough is enough" with the mellow ballads (even though in and of themselves they are mostly good). I would say that Steve Howe's Beginnings album, which is what The Quest reminds me of the most, is still way more diverse than The Quest because it has a 7 minute classical composition, a country guitar picking tune, along with this kind of artsy folk rock approach. If there's any reticence that I have about this album, it's that they really didn't take any chances, instrumentally speaking. A couple of songs have lengthier solos ("The Ice Bridge," "Leave Well Alone"), but there's oh so much more that could be done to spice this album up a bit with a little inventive arranging in the instrumental department. Other than that, I enjoy the album quite a bit.