TORMATO

I'm a bit of an outlier on a couple of points here. First, I don't mind the artwork. True, it's not Roger Dean, but it's ambitious and I like the color scheme. Second, I think "Arriving UFO" isn't as bad as some claim, and it seems unfair to lump it with "Circus of Heaven," as seems to happen regularly.

But where I concur with many Yes fans is in considering this among their weakest albums prior to the band's 1980 breakup. Personally, I place Tormato at the bottom of that list, alongside Tales from Topographic Oceans. Tormato is not a terrible album, but it's a letdown, even after the middling Going for the One. Reviewers have blamed the lower quality of Tormato on the lengths of the songs, the use of Dolby noise reduction, and even on the rise of punk rock. To me the issues are (a) continuing erosion of quality control, brought on in part by a self-inflicted touring-and-recording cycle; (b) lack of compositional input from Steve Howe (guitar) and Chris Squire (bass) - - or, at least, a lack of inclusion of their input; and (c) the absence of an outside producer in song selection, arrangement, and mixing.

From the bonus tracks released on more recent reissues, we can tell that the band had a sufficient quantity of song ideas; and given how quickly parts of Drama came together, it's clear that Howe, Squire, and drummer Alan White were capable of producing worthy contributions. But in my opinion, the problem is an overdose of keyboardist Rick Wakeman. Yes has traditionally been a guitar-based band, and to great effect. While the Wakeman-Howe balance was nearly perfect on their first two albums together (Fragile and Close to the Edge), by the time of Tormato there's either too much Wakeman or not enough Howe. This is true in both in the composition and the arrangements of the songs here. Among the downsides to this approach is the situation throughout the album where Howe and Wakeman seem to be playing simultaneous lead parts which fight for the same sonic space.

Combine this with mediocre material - - substandard, really, for this band - - and you have an album whose problems can't be fixed by lengthening the songs or bringing back Roger Dean. It seems like the issues were internal and related to personal disagreements, and when these were later resolved via the (temporary) departures of Anderson and Wakeman, a much more cohesive band emerged.

I believe I could justify either a two- or three-star rating for Tormato. I'm going with two because the LP pales in comparison to the other four Yes studio albums from 1974 to 1984, and thus, is really only for fans or collectors. Get Relayer (1974), Going for the One (1977), Drama (1980), and 90125 (1983) first. If you're a fan at that point, Tormato is certainly worth a listen.