In 1990, Anderson felt pleased with three quarters of the album, with the remaining quarter "not quite jelling", but felt the too soon release deadline given to the band resulted in a lack of time to listen and alter the music properly. Squire recalled the album's period as not a happy one, and deemed the album "a difficult one". He commented on Anderson's attitude then: "Jon had this visionary idea that you could just walk into a studio, and if the vibes were right ... the music would be great at the end of the day ... It isn't reality". Wakeman continues to hold a critical view. In 2006, he clarified that his total dislike of the album is "not entirely true" and thinks there are some "very nice musical moments in "Topographic Oceans", but because of the format of how records used to be we had too much for a single album but not enough for a double, so we padded it out and the padding is awful ... but there are some beautiful solos like "Nous sommes du soleil" ... one of the most beautiful melodies ... and deserved to be developed even more perhaps."