TORMATO

Ah, the much-maligned Tormato album. Perhaps suffering from the very high standards set by its predecessor "Going For The One", Tormato has been criticised by some as being a weak Yes album, but is this fair? - let's review the evidence.

"Future Times/Rejoice" is a good, but not brilliant opener. Alan White plays a major part here, from the military snare of "Future Times" to the bizarre rhythm of "Rejoice". "Don't kill the whale", Yes' animal rights protest song, was a single at the time, personally I like the synth solo but this is merely an average Yes number. "Madrigal" is a short but beautiful harpsichord/acoustic guitar piece with a nice Anderson vocal and "Release Release" is probably my favourite track on the album, featuring Quo-style guitar from Steve Howe and a drum solo from White complete with overdubbed audience. I particularly like the choruses and the ending is great.

Side two brings us to "Arriving UFO" - I remember an article in Melody Maker about the recording of the album and it said this track sounded like a Yes classic in the vein of "Yours is no disgrace". Well, it's not quite that, the keyboard sounds are a bit naff, but still a good song.

What can I say about "Circus of Heaven"? A typical Anderson number building up from the triangle and bass opening, but the lyrics are of the sort that give Yes a bad name and I wonder what Anderson's son thinks of the ending now. "Onward" is a good Squire song that really comes to life with the stunning vocals on the live version on "Keys to Ascension. On this version, Howe's guitar is a bit annoying - the song works much better with him on acoustic guitar. The final track, "On the silent wings of freedom" is a Yes classic featuring a great Squire bass riff. He often plays it in live versions of "The Fish" along with the "Tempus Fugit" riff.

The cover highlights the "Tormato/Tomato" pun (based around Yes Tor on which is a rock formation on Dartmoor for those who don't know) and is another Hipgnosis effort, not one of the best Yes covers. Overall the albums is a bit of a disappointment compared to Going For The One but still worthy of at least 3.5 stars.