TORMATO

2.5 stars. The beginning of the end almost for the band Yes. Four years earlier, they had released Relayer, a magnificent experimental record. In 1978 they came up with this underwhelming mish-mash of ideas. What happened? Maybe the times were just changing. Yes could no longer take risks with their music and had to adapt to the changing music industry.

Tormato has moments of music that recalls the 'good old days' of Yes. Songs like "Future Times/Rejoice", "Onward", and "On The Silent Wings Of Freedom" all are fine in their own right, but they don't reach the heights as seen on The Yes Album, Fragile, etc. Other tracks just leave you wondering what the intent was. "Arriving UFO" and "Circus Of Heaven" are particularly strange.

The sound quality is also a bit disappointing. Tormato sounds flat, almost as if the life had been sucked out of the record and replaced with a tinny and hollow sound. Their previous effort, Going For The One, didn't have this problem. If you're a fan of Yes, you will probably like this one just fine, but for the casual listener there are much better albums you could choose. Tormato is a somewhat weak and underwhelming effort considering what this band had done in the past. To quote "Release, Release", "is there lack of concentration."