TORMATO

Definitely an underrated album, Tormato suffers more from its stupid name and appalling cover - with Steve Howe definitely coming off worst on the back sleeve photo - than the actual music inside. As a pre-teen this album, which had been out for a year or so, was both the first Yes AND the first prog LP I'd heard, although I haven't given it an extra star for sentimental reasons. The problem is it's so patchy - a stunning start with that Howe/Wakeman spiralling riff on Future Times leading into what I still think is an incredibly uplifting piece of music, but then Don't Kill The Whale plods, and the guitar solo has somehow always sounded just WRONG to me. Madrigal is all very nice and twee, I suppose. Release, Release has only one interesting part (where the vocals on the "Lost and wondering" bit kick back into "Power at first..."). Arriving UFO is among the craziest things the band have ever done. What IS that at the end? Speeded-up vocals? Circus of Heaven I've come round to over the years, and the lyric is rather nice and Sinfield-Karn Evil 9-type stuff, Onward is a beautiful Squire ballad and the closer, On The Silent Wings Of Freedom, is the other standout track. Bass heaven! Think Geddy Lee was listening? Check out YYZ a couple of years later... This was the last hurrah for the "classic" lineup until 1996. Every Yes fan should own it, but it doesn't translate well outside the prog world.