TORMATO

While this album is largely panned, I think it gets a worse rap than it deserves. While I agree that Yes could have done better, if you compare this album to the albums that came later, there are very few that are better than this. There are indeed hints of greatness here. It seems to me that they did not spend enough time completing these compositions, nurturing them into something special, perhaps because they were under time pressure. The result are a number of songs with so much potential, but only half-realized. In particular, the songs "Future Times", "Madrigal", "Release, Release" and "Arriving UFO" are good but could have been great, as could have been "Onward" (which is still beautiful), and "On the Silent Wings of Freedom". The latter still manages to reach above the rest, it is such a powerful song - it could have been a real show-stopper. The most successful song here - in terms of reaching its potential- is the single, "Don't Kill the Whale". There is nothing I would have added to that one. The others are musical, but if they had been worked on more, and extended, could have been so great. So, the core musicality is there. There is only one song that I can't listen to here, "Circus of Heaven", which I find overly trite and sappy. The rest of the album is good and worth adding to one's Yes collection. I can listen to the rest all the way through easily (which I can't say for Drama, or any of the Trevor Rabin-based albums - Tormato is better than those). I give this album 7.0 out of 10 on my 10-point scale, which translates to 3 PA stars.

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