TORMATO

BACKGROUND: Yes were one of the most loved bands of the 70's progressive rock movement. The previous six album to Tormato were 'The Yes Album', 'Fragile', 'Tales from Topographic Oceans', 'Relayer', 'Going for the one', all six are amongst the most loved prog albums to this day. A year after the lauded 'Going for the one', Yes came out with Tormato, so how is it?

ANALYSIS: I actually like the material on 'Tormato' (or Tormento, for those of you who don't like it!), and think that it is nicely diverse, for example the medieval 'Madrigal', the tender ballad 'Onward', the rocking 'Release Release', etc.

I must be the progarchives adversary, everyone else was saying that 'Don't kill the whale' was a 'Great Pop Song' and that they hated the "rediculous" 'Arriving UFO'. But I was really disappointed by Don't Kill The Whale; sure it's got great lyrics, but the song itself is sloppy, really sloppy. Anderson rushes through a few (brilliant) lyrics before 1:45, and the remainder (more than half) of the song was a lot of aimless soloing. I thought 'Arriving UFO' was interesting, and found Wakeman's birotron (Bore-o-tron for those who think it stinks, I think there are quite a lot of you out there) to be really enjoyable. I thought this was a really pretty song.

But this album is sloppy. From performing to song structure to song-writing, this is a sloppy album. The only really well done song is 'Onward', a tender ballad, and the brief 'Madrigal' the other songs are sloppy; what with Wakeman and Howe soloing as fast as they can and Anderson singing as fast as he can to try and keep up with the band. Actually 'On the Silent Wings of Freedom' starts out very good, slips around 3 and a half minutes, progressively (no pun intended) becomes worse until the very moment 7:10 when the song becomes excellent again. But it's over not long after that! 'Release Release' is a good one, a stab at a rocker, done Yes-style. The chorus is catchy and there is some good instrumental music as well.

CONCLUSION: The material on Tormato is likable, but it is done quite sloppily. I know YES are a prog band, but I feel as though this album is quite sloppily done; the songs are not structured well and so forth. I am not quite sure of the rating, but 2 1/4 (2.25) seems about right.

Share this YES review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Brendan
• Report this review (#372492)
• Buy YES music online with PA partners
• Show all YES MP3/Stream
• Go to YES page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Tormato page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for YES related discussions