Tormato: Yes
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Recommendations/Featured albums
Forum Description: Make or seek recommendations and discuss specific prog albums
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=101211
Printed Date: April 29 2024 at 10:32
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Topic: Tormato: Yes
Posted By: SteveG
Subject: Tormato: Yes
Date Posted: February 04 2015 at 09:55
| Is Tormato the last great Yes album of the seventies or does the vegies thrown at the cover really describe it's contents? |
Replies:
Posted By: Walton Street
Date Posted: February 04 2015 at 09:57
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I hate fresh tomatos and to this day the cover turns my stomach. Having just unearthed all the yes vinyl in my collection, i'm going to have to give them all a spin to better participate in the discussions ... but that cover .. ulp, ulp, ulp ... ------------- "I know one thing: that I know nothing" - SpongeBob Socrates |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: February 04 2015 at 10:15
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^Yes. it's their worst without a doubt. ------------- This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State. |
Posted By: omphaloskepsis
Date Posted: February 04 2015 at 12:42
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I like Tormato, although I think the last Yes masterpiece was ironically Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and Howe. I feel Tormato has been dissed by fans and band members alike, but I would have loved for Yes, in 2014 to have released an album as good as Tormato.
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Posted By: fudgenuts64
Date Posted: February 04 2015 at 13:47
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It does have some good songs, but it's produced so poorly. Sounds like sh*t. And Then There Were Three by Genesis suffers this same problem, although that one kicks ass so I can forgive it and still give it 5/5. This one... 3/5. ------------- 
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Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: February 04 2015 at 15:05
| I like it mostly. Madrigal and Circus Of Heaven are weak but Onward , On The Silent Wings Of Freedom, Release Release and Future Times are all very acceptable to me. Arriving UFO is the one track that I guess divides opinion most. Silly lyrics even by Anderson's normal standards but there is some great playing especially from White. In fact Alan is excellent throughout. Overall I find it a very listenable album, something between 3 and 4 stars maybe. |
Posted By: dr prog
Date Posted: February 04 2015 at 15:37
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Madrigal weak? Great track with nice harpsichord. I quite like Tormato but Rick could have used a nicer synth. I like it more than relayer, gfto and tales ------------- All I like is prog related bands beginning late 60's/early 70's. Their music from 1968 - 83 has the composition and sound which will never be beaten. Perfect blend of jazz, classical, folk and rock. |
Posted By: Dellinger
Date Posted: February 04 2015 at 22:34
| Among the albums I like the least, along with Big Generator and the two albums with Billy Sherwood (and perhaps Heaven and Earth too). |
Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: February 04 2015 at 23:38
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Maybe it's Wakeman's Polymoog that he flogged to death on the album that gives it a block of cheeze, however, I give it the 4th star because I still think that it is very good for a 1978 Prog album. I love the flanged bass sound Squire was using here. White sounded great, too. Actually, there's not much I dislike on the album, and I thought the cover was an amusing idea. |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: February 05 2015 at 01:23
yep the good ole Harpsichord. For me Gentle Giant nailed it when they did Free Hand. I also like Francis Monkman's work with Sky. We should have a separate thread about the Harpsichord in prog
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dr prog wrote:Posted By: Moogtron III
Date Posted: February 05 2015 at 01:43
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Definitely not as good as GFTO, but a fine album nevertheless, and I like the original Hipgnosis cover. And yes, I like Madrigal...
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Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: February 05 2015 at 02:06
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Posted By: someone_else
Date Posted: February 05 2015 at 06:18
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Compared to what they've done before, the well-aimed veggie projectile seems quite appropriate for this one. Though there may be found some good work on this album yet, it is hard lines on my ears that the masterpiece era is really over here. ------------- 
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Posted By: Chris S
Date Posted: February 05 2015 at 09:53
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Love the whole album even the preschool like Circus Of Heaven. This was the prequel to Short Stories so there is no denying Anderson's direction after leaving for a while. To think Damien Anderson must be in his 40's now! Onward for me is one of Squire's best pieces.....hope I'm right on the credits there :-) ------------- ...As I venture through the slipstream, between the viaducts in your dreams...[/COLOR] |
Posted By: nautilusprog
Date Posted: February 05 2015 at 10:02
| I love this record! great bass sound! at least 3 excellent compositions, the rest is decent. a disk born when punk was raging. should be re-evaluated! |
Posted By: Svetonio
Date Posted: February 05 2015 at 14:03
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Tormato is the last great album by Yes in 70s; an album without a weak moment except that Anti-Roger Dean "artwork". |
Posted By: Rednight
Date Posted: February 05 2015 at 14:06
 Talk about fishing!
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Posted By: Rednight
Date Posted: February 05 2015 at 14:26
| And the worst Yes album covers go to Talk (sorry, Peter Max) and Big Generator. I mean, let's keep things in perspective. |
Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: February 05 2015 at 15:33
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Been quite a while since I heard it....I'll give it a listen before I comment. ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: Argonaught
Date Posted: February 05 2015 at 15:41
 ------------- Thank you, Fripp, for our daily Prog (Red 39:54) |
Posted By: Dellinger
Date Posted: February 05 2015 at 22:31
Now that you mention it, I guess you're right, there isn't much that I really dislike on this album either... perhaps I would have to listen to it again. But there isn't much that I really love either. |
Posted By: Star_Song_Age_Less
Date Posted: February 08 2015 at 01:04
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Uuugh. The only thing I can stomach on this one is "Don't Kill The Whale." And even that isn't something I ever look to listen to. This is at the bottom of the Yes album barrel for me along with Open Your Eyes. I don't mind the artwork. But I also don't particularly care about the artwork. :) ------------- https://www.facebook.com/JamieKernMusic |
Posted By: Raccoon
Date Posted: February 08 2015 at 01:34
------------- Check out my FREE album: A one-man project The Distant Dynasty |
Posted By: Stereolab
Date Posted: February 14 2015 at 20:03
| Just heard this album and I love it. I prefer it over Relayer and GftO, but not by much. It's a very different type of record, more of a throwback to the pre-Fragile Yes. I'm also not noticing the terrible production that some see. Could it use a remaster? Sure, but I'm not offended by the sound as it is now. |
Posted By: Argonaught
Date Posted: February 14 2015 at 22:35
That, and the somewhat idiotic cover art - otherwise, one of the best Yes albums, IMO> ------------- Thank you, Fripp, for our daily Prog (Red 39:54) |
Posted By: SquonkHunter
Date Posted: February 14 2015 at 23:40
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A bit of a letdown after GFTO. Still, not bad. I think tensions within the band kept it from being as good as it could have been. A foreshadowing of the group splintering over the Drama album a bit later? ------------- "You never had the things you thought you should have had and you'll not get them now..." |
Posted By: geekfreak
Date Posted: March 06 2015 at 12:41
I`m a fan its supersonic prog... ------------- Friedrich Nietzsche: "Without music, life would be a mistake." Music Is Live Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. Keep Calm And Listen To The Music… < |
Posted By: verslibre
Date Posted: March 06 2015 at 13:18
Beginning with Fragile, Yes really could do no wrong up through Drama, or at the very least, Tormato. They're both still essential if you're a dyed-in-the-wool Yesfan. I've never had an issue with the songs, the production, Rick's synth sounds, etc. Simply another superb album from the guys. ------------- https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ipg=50&_sop=1&_rdc=1&_ssn=musicosm" rel="nofollow - eBay |
Posted By: HolyMoly
Date Posted: March 06 2015 at 13:35
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Probably my least favorite Yes album (that I've heard... still haven't attempted Union or Open Your Eyes), but even that is pretty good by my reckoning. I have yet to hear a truly bad Yes album. ------------- My other avatar is a Porsche It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased. -Kehlog Albran |
Posted By: Imperial Zeppelin
Date Posted: March 06 2015 at 14:36
Really? How about this one?  Even I can do better than that.  See? ------------- "Hey there, Dog Man, now I drink from your bowl." |
Posted By: omphaloskepsis
Date Posted: March 06 2015 at 14:50
I love "TALK". I think updated version of TALK with 2 minutes added to the middle of " The Calling" is an improvement. I like every song and "The Endless Dream" is the West Coast Yes's " Close to the Edge." I like the way Rabin, Anderson, and Squire trade off lead vocals and their harmonies are flawless. "Talk" is very under rated, and in my opinion, Yes has not topped TALK since...
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Posted By: sukmytoe
Date Posted: March 06 2015 at 15:05
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I really quite like this album but it's taken a long time to grow on me. I can't stand the Trevor Rabin involved Yes albums. |
Posted By: verslibre
Date Posted: March 06 2015 at 15:15
There are those of us who beg to differ...  ------------- https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ipg=50&_sop=1&_rdc=1&_ssn=musicosm" rel="nofollow - eBay |
Posted By: omphaloskepsis
Date Posted: March 06 2015 at 16:48
Yeah...I knew a wise man would bring up Keys to Ascension after I opened my big mouth and Talked! I totally respect your opinion. I know I'm in the minority. Still, I like Talk better, yet I totally see and understand why most Yes fans prefer Keys to Talk. I like Keys as well, yet I find myself drawn to Talk time after time...Now I will hush.
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Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: March 10 2015 at 04:26
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When I discovered/explored Tormato when I first got into Yes (1987/88) - my thoughts were that this album was a perfectly correct sounding Prog album for 1978 ( to my (then) limited understanding). I still enjoy this one, and I still think the cover is amusing, and not knowing the 'true background' of it, I think it's far from the worst I've seen. I never judge a book by its cover, but ELP's Love Beach was all so wrong in more ways than 17. Had the thing been given a skeric of thought, it may have been welcomed a frad more than it did. I prefer the cover of Tormato to ATTWT by Genesis........ |
Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: March 10 2015 at 07:30
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Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: March 10 2015 at 16:07
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Posted By: Dellinger
Date Posted: March 10 2015 at 22:16
Actually, I don't like The Ladder very much. Nothing particularly horrible, but nothing particularly enjoyable either. As a matter of fact, I hardly enjoy stuff that's related to Billy Sherwood (except for a few songs, and the covers stuff he's been related to are fun to listen to, at least). And Keys to Ascension... well, I like the live stuff a lot, but the studio pieces are hit or miss. Be the one is great, and Mind Drive is frustrating, for it got the potential to be one of Yes's best tracks (the Howe acoustic bits and what I understand was suposed to come from the XYZ sessions... but what Anderson added to the song is just annoying). As for Talk... I don't really care for much of the album either, but Endless Dream is pure genious, and just for that I apreciate the album, and find it my favourite from the Rabin era albums. The album that I would really put as an example of Yes having done something better than Talk since it was released would be Magnification, which has really many wonderful songs within (I guess that one would be their best album since... Drama, or perhaps even Going for the One). |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: March 11 2015 at 02:37
| Magnification is also very good. I find good things in all these albums (Talk , Magnification, Ladder and Keys) but they are all uneven and a bit patchy. I suppose the question would be though would we rather have this and an active touring band that Yes still are or would it have been better for them to have packed it in? Obviously my view is the former. |
Posted By: Rednight
Date Posted: March 11 2015 at 05:25
Jon Anderson, as overheard during the sessions for The Ladder: "You want me to sing what?" |
Posted By: Dellinger
Date Posted: March 11 2015 at 23:17
I think they should keep on getting albums... from time to time. There should usually be something worth enjoying on most of them (though I must admit the last one was a difficult one to find something memorable, and even the two songs I actually liked have something that I don't like... apathy would be what bothers me on them, I guess), also, I find very little to like on The Ladder and Open your Eyes. However, as is the case with Talk, Keys to Ascension (or rather, keystudio, I guess), Magnification, and even Fly from Here, they all have songs I really love, though I don't really love the whole albums... but that is something I could say also about most of their albums in the 70's, actually, except for Fragile and CttE which are the two I really find wonderful as whole albums. |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: March 12 2015 at 02:18
For me CTTE is the only one I love from start to finish. Even Fragile has those solo bits that jar a tiny bit
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Posted By: Dellinger
Date Posted: March 12 2015 at 22:29
Yeah, the solo bits on Fragile, but they are short enough that I can ignore them and won't bother me. Actually, Mood for a Day is very good from it's own, and even adds to the album. The Fish is perhaps even better, but mainly thinking about it as an extention to Long Distance Runaround (I think about The Fish as the instrumental bass solo of the other song... and Long Distance Runaround doesn't really sound complete without it). I even enjoy We Have Heaven because of it's weirness, and it's good as a prelude to South Side. Five Percent for Nothing... come on, it's barely half a minute long... in a blink of an eye it's done. Perhaps the one that bothers me the most is Cans and Brahms, which is not so very short and it's not particularly good as some of the other bits... but it's not terribly bad either, and I can still consider Fragile as a Masterpiece even with that song on it. What bothers me most about Cans and Brahms is what could have been and was not... mainly that it was used instead of what Wakeman really intended as his contribution to the album: the song that eventually became Catherine of Aragon... but somehow because of record company contracts he was forbidden to contribute any songwriting for Yes, so he had to go with this other classical adaptation. I don't know if Wakeman would have had Catherine of Aragon played wholly by himself, or if he would have "cheated" and played it with the rest of the band (as was actually played on 6 Wives), but if it had been on Fragile the album would have ended up even better than it is. The only bright side to this is that Catherine of Aragon ended up on 6 Wives, which is another wonderful and brilliant album that I completley love and would miss that song on it (I guess Rick would have come up with something else to take it's place, but I wonder if he would have been able to come up with another equally strong song). |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: March 13 2015 at 03:27
| When I think about it Six Wives is the only purely instrumental symphonic prog album that I absolutely love. The themes are incredibly strong and the playing of all concerned is off the scale of brilliant. I wonder though about that missing track 'Henry'. The record company didn't allow that onto Six Wives (later included on the Hampton Court live DVD) so maybe that could have been used instead of Cans and Brahms? |
Posted By: verslibre
Date Posted: March 13 2015 at 11:06
How about Criminal Record? I've always enjoyed that as much as (if not more than) Six Wives. ------------- https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ipg=50&_sop=1&_rdc=1&_ssn=musicosm" rel="nofollow - eBay |
Posted By: Rednight
Date Posted: March 13 2015 at 12:33
| ^Long live Bill Oddie! |
Posted By: Dellinger
Date Posted: March 13 2015 at 23:40
Well, the track for Henry that was played on the Hampton concert wasn't actually the one Rick had thought so many years ago. I'm not sure about this, but as far as I understand, Rick had some idea for that track on his mind, but since he didn't use it, well, he wouldn't remember it after so many years. Who knows, perhaps those ideas ended up in some other song from a later album. By the way, I got to see that Hampton concert live  (well, not the one on the DVD, but the one the previous night, however, that's just about the same).
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Posted By: Dellinger
Date Posted: March 13 2015 at 23:44
Criminal Record is also brilliant, and I do love it, however, I like 6 Wives better. CR is less consitent, I guess, first it's got 3 wonderful songs with Chris and Alan, all of them very much alike, then comes 2 rather weaker songs (the breathalizer or whatever particularly annoying, if I remember well). Then, of course, the album is redeemed by the absolutley wonderful Judas Iscariot. |
Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: March 14 2015 at 02:01
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I find Birdman and Breathalyser 'light relief' after side 1, and then we get the 'biggie' - Judas Iscariot. Crimes Of Passion is my fave track from CR though. |
Posted By: Dellinger
Date Posted: March 14 2015 at 23:03
Perhaps Wakeman was trying to pull off an ELP. However, Birdman doesn't really harm the album enjoyment... it just isn't as great as the other songs, but it's still a nice piano piece, if I remember well. The Breathalyser I could really do without... still, I'm not sure if it's as annoying as the "light reliefs" ELP were so fond of including on their albums. |
Posted By: Upbeat Tango Monday
Date Posted: April 14 2015 at 15:08
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Another Tormato lover signing in! One of my favorite veRgetables. Joke aside, I do like the album quite a bit.
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Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: April 15 2015 at 01:39
The Sheriff > Are You Ready Eddy? > The Breathalyser > Jeremy Bender > Benny The Bouncer |
Posted By: bhikkhu
Date Posted: April 15 2015 at 14:16
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------------- a.k.a. H.T. http://riekels.wordpress.com" rel="nofollow - http://riekels.wordpress.com |
Posted By: justin4950834-2
Date Posted: April 15 2015 at 14:26
| Not great but not bad like people make it out to be. Yes it has a bad production, but past that bad production is a few really decent songs. |
Posted By: Rednight
Date Posted: April 15 2015 at 15:30
| I see it as a good production with a few really decent songs. |
Posted By: Dellinger
Date Posted: April 15 2015 at 22:30
From all this songs the only one I actually enjoy is "Are You Ready Eddy?". |