TORMATO

The ninth studio album by YES with the same line up as preceding 'Going for the One' album. Well, it was 1978 and progressive music had started to face its tough challenge from musically more accessible New Age. Although great album like Rush' 'Hemisphere' was still released in that year, other progressive majors like ELP and Genesis released respectively 'Love Beach' and '...and Then There Were Three', which are seen by many reviewers as a sign of decline in the progressive rock scene. Unfortunately YES was no exception. After their series of glorious standard-setting albums (at least ? from 'The Yes Album' to 'Going for the One'), 'Tormato' was lighter in composition.

One great thing in this album is that the bass and drums sections are really exciting and somehow dominant. The chemistry of Chris Squire and Alain White is just great and very creative. Check them out in 'Future Times / Rejoice' and 'Release Release'. The band also explored a lot of new sounds in all instruments (including studio sound effects), and the overall sound they generated. "Arriving UFO' is an example of the distinctive new sound.

'Don't Kill the Whale' is a short track with strong composition, catchy riff and great instrument playing. Rick Wakeman solo is awesome, both in the melody and its unique sound. 'Circus of Heaven' has a nice playful mood, with unique guitar sound (nice use of delay effect) and fluid bass riff. The wordy lyrics however makes unnecessary sense of urgency in Jon Anderson yet beautiful singing.

There are two tracks with calm mood. 'Madrigal' is a nice heartwarming song. The harpsichord sound for me is too high of a pitch. I like better the version of this song with piano such as in Rick Wakeman solo in 'An Evening with YES Music'.

'Onward' ; written by Chris Squire, has a nice guitar fills and vocal harmony. A great live version of this song with more dominant acoustic guitar is performed in the 'Key of Ascension'.

The last track 'On the Silent Wings of Freedom' is the longest track (7:47) in this album. It has remaining symphonic rock features, but the overall composition is a bit dull. Overall, this is still a considerably good album for progressive music fans, but in the catalogue of YES, it might fall into middle lower rank.