TORMATO

A lot of cutting remarks have been made about this album - in large part justifiably so. I remember waiting for its release as the follow up to Going for the One; Chris Welch in Melody Maker had even pronounced that it could be the best Yes album ever. Well he was wrong, although there are some good tracks - "On the Silent Wings of Freedom" was the best with an almost funky sounding bass from Squire;"Onward" was a beautiful song, great done live. On the other hand we also got the twee "Circus of Heaven" with Jon's little lad (aahhh...) and the awful "Don't Kill the Whale". The cover says a lot - they're all looking on different directions; and the pun on the albums name (Yes Tor in Devon/tomato) was abysmal - bring back Roger Dean I said (which they did!). The production values were not as good as the Eddie Offord days. Still it's worth a listen; but they'd come a long way since "The Yes Album" and "Fragile" and were starting to run out of road.