Fundametal Flaw in the Archives

It's very true what you say. But is this phenomenon really a flaw in archives, but more a flaw in basic human charateristic?

Having this week read reviews of Relayer and Tormato been given three and two stars respectively and Albums like Alpha by Asia given 5 stars i'd like to discuss this great flaw in the system.

Almost Universally CTTE by Yes attracts a high score and it seems here on P. A. that this is held up to be the masterpiece of Prog. This is all very well but what happens next is that other Yes albums are judged against this benchmark. The Relayer review did just that and accorded Relayer 3 stars. Likwise Tormato was rubbished against the greater canon of yes works that preceded it  eg. "Lyrically, however, Jon really falls down on this album. He falls into the trap of producing lyrics that sound campy. In the tracks on Close to the Edge, for example, Jon's lyrics were majestic and obscure." There are many examples throughout the yes reviews.

Now take that great Prog band Asia for example and an album called Alpha is reviewed and once more it is copared to the previous work the self titled Asia

Incredibly Alpha is given 5 stars. Yes 5 stars, you read that correctly.

My argument then is this....How would Tormato be rated if it was an album by hundreds of bands that appear on Prog Archives, would it be a 2 star album. What if it was an Asia album?

What if some lesser known band had made it would it be held up as a classic of the genre?

I'm not sure but i am convinced that the lesser works of yes and other great bands are being hard done by because they are directly compared to that bands great works and that the better efforts of weak and average bands are grossly exagerrated in their importance. There are of course exceptions to this rule.