9. Tales from Topographic Oceans- Yes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w6jzRKz_m8 For those of you who only know Yes through their cheese-rock hit Owner of a Broken Heart, youre missing a lot. These prog-rock superstars fused rock riffs with classical music structures to craft a complex, hard-hitting and expansive sound. Prog-rock is, almost by definition, grandiose, but Tales from Topographic Oceans is grandiose even by these terms. This double album boasted a total of four songs: one for each LP side. Each song is a sprawling, complex mini-opera that blows the mind. And the album was based on Andersons interpretation of a footnote in an Indian yogis book. Need I say more? This album wasnt an obscure, little-selling piece of art; it topped the charts in the UK for weeks. I cant see 80s or 90s listeners taking such an album seriously, let alone buying it in droves. And few people would sit still long enough today to listen to a 30-minute song on Pandora.