TORMATO

We have our classic yes line up again of Anderson, Squire, Wakeman and Howe, plus Alan White on drums. This line up made up the love it or hate it "Tales From Topographic Oceans", as well as the disapointing "Going For the One". "Tormato", named after the Yes Tor, follows a similar pattern to going for the one but is split into 9 tracks. Yes haven't had more than 5 tracks on an album since Fragile in 1972. It is said that Rick Wakeman was disapointed with this album. He left after this and threw a tomato onto the album cover to show his disgust.

"Tormato" has quite a promising start, don't expect any epics on this album, as this album has some rather disapointing shorter tracks which aren't as proggy or as atmospheric as all their albums between 1971's "The Yes Album" and 1974's "Relayer". This makes this album quite a dissapointment and it is clear that musically this is no way as good. "Future Times" and "Rejoice" are good, not great, but they start this album off in quite a positive trend. There is some very harsh sounding piano and synth work and the bass sounds less apparent. The vocals aren't up to scratch either but Jon still has a lovely voice.

As the album goes on it sounds less impressive. "Dont Kill the Whale" and "Madrigal" are dull and boring and don't really show off anything that Yes can normally do. They haven't pushed themselves at all here and it is very evident. "Release, Release" is quite lively but it sounds so irritating. For some reason there are cheering sounds followed by some drum work with a guitar solo over the top, well its ok, not much to cheer about though. This track gets humourously dramatic and frantic. Jon puts in some emotion but his voice, alongside the high pitched keyboards, sounds squeaky. Overall side 1 of the album deserves to fall just inside the 3 stars category.

Side 2 kicks off with the stupidly annoying intro to "Arriving UFO". The vocal work is good here but not much praise can be given for the rest of the band. There is a horrible piano section that the begining leads into. This track ends with a funny piano section, kind of similar to Gates of Delirium but sounds much worse. Some of the guitar work is commendable but by now the album sounds boring and irritating.

"Circus of Heaven" has a promising start as far as this album is concerned. Jon rushes his way through lots of poor lyrics, there is barely any noise made by the band but Chris Squire gets his soptlight, there is quite a mellow and dreamy atmosphere here which is then destroyed with the most horrendous ending, Damion Anderson talking about tigers and lions! It's hard to believe this is actually Yes!

"Onward" is quite tolerable, not too bad really, a quiet moment with some good orchestration, it is not wild and frantic like the songs before. This track is short and doesn't build to anything, this album is barely prog. "On the Silent Wings of Freedom" is nothing new, bringing this album to a terrible close. A big disapointment here, it barely sounds like effort has gone into this and it is definetly a step back from what Yes have delivered before. This one is even worse than "Going for the One".

Oh and just so you know, to quote from the album booklet, "Yes Tor is situated two and a half miles from Okehampton, Devon in England, on a clear day, from the top, you can see far away places with strange sounding names". Also, "Thanks to Damion for being a chip off the old block on Circus of Heaven. Hahahahahahahathisalbumsuckshahahaha.