Review Summary: Tormato represents the end of an era, the end of one of their best lines up. But, it doesn’t represents one of their best moments. It represents the transition from the 70’s to the 80’s.
“Tormato” is the ninth studio album of Yes and was released in 1978. The line up on the album is Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman, Chris Squire and Alan White. The album had also the participation of Andrew Price Jackman and Damion Anderson.
“Tormato” became to be the last studio album with one of group’s usual classic line up. In 1980 Anderson left the group and returned only in 1983 on their eleventh studio album “90125”. After de departure of Anderson, Wakeman also quit the band, because he believed that Yes couldn’t continue without Anderson’s voice, which was one of the key elements of the band’s sound. He only returned in 1991 with their thirteenth studio album “Union”. “Tormato” became a mark in Yes’s musical career, because after it, there was no more stability in the line up of the band, with practically constant changes from album to album. This line up would be joined again on their compilation “Keystudio”, released in 2001.
After “Going For The One”, it was also Hipgnosis who made the design for the art cover of “Tormato”. However, the photographs taken by Hipgnosis for the album’s cover were so impressive that Wakeman, displeased, decided threw a tomato to the pictures taken for the album. As the original album title was to be “Yes Tor”, due to a geological formation in southern England, the cover and the title of the album were adjusted accordingly to this new occurrence, “Tormato”.
After the monumental heights achieved on the previous half a dozen albums and following on from 1977’s excellent “Going For The One” which climaxed in “Awaken”, one of the most moving and complete pieces of Yes’ music ever, it is easy for “Tormato” to be overlooked and regarded as substandard. “Tormato” is certainly a long way from be perfect but it’s also a considerable distance from being the car crash that many seem to regard it was. Wakeman has said that the band didn’t get the best out of some of the material and I think this pretty clear in some of the choices made. Howe accepts that the band were somewhat unsure of themselves musically at the time, probably as a result of the shifting musical landscapes around them. We mustn’t forget that these were the times of the boom of punk rock movement.
But, despite “Tormato” be not surely a bad album there are many problems with it. The main problems are essentially the scattershot approach, the variety within the music and the failure of the band to deliver enough emotional peaks. This leads to a sense of fragmentation. But, also Wakeman’s keyboards often sound weedy and lightweight, unlike the sounds he had achieved on other albums like “Close To The Edge” and “Going For The One”. By the other hand, the fact that “Tormato” includes no less than 8 songs is very suspicious. One of the trademarks of classic Yes’ sound is much about lengthy tracks and there’s none of them here. Finally, we have the art cover of the album. It was never going to be the best cover in the world but choosing to keep the results after an exasperated Wakeman had apocryphally defaced it with a ripe tomato is just bizarre and perhaps adds the wider perception the album as a bit duff.
The opening track “Future Times/Rejoice” is able to set the listener in a good mood with its cheerful melody and charm. It’s one of the three best tracks. “Don’t Kill The Whale” is the ecological protest song of Yes. It was the closest Yes ever would come to disco in the 70’. It says quite a lot about the music approach of the album. “Madrigal” is a nice and short baroque piece. It’s an amazing track with great moments. It’s one of the three best tracks. “Release, Release” is an energetic track influenced by straight rock. It’s probably an attempt of doing another song in the vein of the title track from “Going For The One” but without succeeding very well. “Arriving UFO” is the most weird and weakest track. It’s an uninspired song that doesn’t deliver in musical terms. “Circus Of Heaven” is a rather cheesy and infantile song, although not without some charm. But it represents another weak point. “Onward” is the most atmospheric song that includes some orchestration. It’s a good ballad. The closing number “On The Silent Wings Of Freedom” is the closest we come to a lengthy track, and seems to be many people’s favorite of the album. It’s the last of the three best songs.
Conclusion: “Tormato” is the weakest and the less loved album by Yes’ fans, in the 70’s. Many believed that half of the album only serves to occupy space and others said it was a logical progression from “Going For The One”. I think none are right. We mustn’t forget that “Tormato” was released in the high of the punk rock era and Yes were seen as old dinosaurs. So, it’s evident that influenced by such musical ambient, they began to change some aspects of their sound and composing shorter songs, performed in a lighter style. “Tormato” was an album that even band’s members said that they weren’t sure about some of the material on it. But the album maintains the basic and unmistakable sound of Yes. So, I think it was partially saved by “Future Times/Rejoice”, “Madrigal” and “On The Silent Wings Of Freedom”.
Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)
