This is one of those albums that puts a big mirror up to your sonic sensibilities and sheds light on your core as a music lover. What you love, what you hate, and what you will and will not tolerate. Thus,
Tales From Topographic Oceans is the ultimate test of endurance for quite a few, and not the happy kind of test either. For others however, this will comes across as something like a post-rock album from the 1970's and they'll be in nirvana the whole trip through.
Personally, I love this album (been giving it a spin or two lately) and from there I can deduce that
A. I have a better attention span than most people,
B. I don't judge the how good or bad an album is on how pretentious it is and
C. Progressive rock is and always will be the place I go back to when I get tired of everything else.
Recommended for anyone (who hasn't heard it it yet anyway) looking for something challenging.