TORMATO

Tormato has already been reviewed several times and as to be expected, the reviews are mixed, most people considering this album one of the band's weakest. Most of the classic line-up was involved in this album including Rick Wakeman back on the keys, Jon Anderson on vocals, Steve Howe on the guitar, Chris Squire on bass and Alan White on drums. Everything was set up for a great album. But because of dissention among the members, and the inability to agree on which direction the album should take, what we ended up with is a mostly disjointed album with terrible production. Wakeman had it right when he said that they ended up with good enough songs, but the production was bad.

There are some salvageable tracks here that would have become classic Yes songs on another album, specifically "Future Times/Rejoice", "Don't Kill the Whale", "Onward" and "On the Silent Wings of Freedom". But for the most part, you get disjointed songs, with solo sections that feel like they were just dropped into a track. I notice this mostly on "Release Release" where there is an annoying high pitched Hammond solo by Wakeman that doesn't match everything else going on in the song.

So, it's true its far from being their best, but it isn't their worst either. And, if nothing else, it ushered in what would become another classic in the next album "Drama". Someone needed to hit the reset button after this album, and after Jon and Rick left the band in 1980, that is what happened. And it was a much needed change that ended up saving the band in the end.