Tormato is good bar two tracks. Thankfully there is a whole entire album of outtakes which are really good and kinda fun. Make your own masterpiece.
Yeah, fair enough: we've all got our favourites. I find the synths very weird, and I only really love about half the songs. On The Silent Wings Of Freedom, is classic Yes, though.
So very true! But I get the feeling Jon Anderson just wasn't into the "heavier" direction the others seemed to favor. And I assume Wakeman just wasn't interested, period!!
Personally I don't "hate" Tormato at all- but I do think the Drama songs and the playing seems more fired up.
I like Drama, even if it isn't archetypal Yes. There's a live version of Tempus Fugit on the The Word Is Live box set, and it's reported that the band (which now has three Drama-era members) recorded the entire Drama album live for future release, presumably as part of the "Like It Is" series. It's also been reported that Trevor Horn has overdubbed new lead vocals onto the Fly From Here album, which would mark a full reunion of the Drama lineup. Tormato isn't a bad album, but it sounds a little tired and uninspired compared to its predecessors, and the 1979 Paris material, while interesting, doesn't sound like it was about to blossom into a classic album. I think the change of personnel did the band good in the long run, even if it was traumatic at the time (and led to the band's temporary disintegration). Indeed, sometimes these revolving-door groups have little islands of calm. Jethro Tull's Noyce-Giddings lineup lasted more than a decade, with only one more upheaval before packing it in circa 2011, and half of Ian's touring ensemble was also part of the final Tull configuration. Yes keeps bouncing around, but the Wakeman-Howe-White iteration reconstituted itself several times over the decades. I think the 1995-1996 Keys material is Yes's last great period. That's not to say that the post-Anderson records aren't "really" Yes. I'm fine with saying that the current band touring under the name is Yes, even though it has no original members left and, with White largely sidelined by injury, only one 1970s member consistently onstage.
I like Tormato and Drama both, for completely different reasons. Tormato sounds gleefully schizo. Not crazy about all the songs but it's a cool quirky album. Drama is MEATY. Damn, what a sound.
You gotta admire Drama just for the fact that it really is Squire & Howe unleashed! And they really go for it. Top that off with a great vocal addition from Trevor Horn and it's amazing how good that album is.
The biggest point of controversy was carrying on without Anderson. On other side of the coin, Chris Squire was the one constant with every other musician/vocalist within the band having departed since inception (some of them returned! - Howe, Wakeman, Bruford, Downes). For the most part, the Drama lineup was accepted in the States. Then, if we look at the Fly From Here album, which includes material originally intended for follow-up, it is 4/5 the same group as Drama.
I never care who is in a band or what they call themselves...if I like the music, I like the music. Drama is a pretty darn good record, with only one song that grates on me: "Run Through the Light". That's just me. It's probably somebody's favorite song on there, and that's cool. "Tempus Fugit" is a high-energy Yes track, and a good one IMO.
I think it would have been a bigger deal if they had fired Anderson in 1980. He walked out because he couldn't see a way forward. Unlike some other prog groups, no single Yes member is the indispensable embodiment of the group, which is why it could hypothetically end up (as Wakeman suggested in 1991) like a symphony orchestra, changing members but keeping the collective name long after the originals have gone. I don't see quite that longevity for Yes - if Howe and White were to bow out of the group and they continued with, say, Jimmy Haun and Jay Schellen, then there might be more calls for them to hang it up. But overall, the personnel changes have served to invigorate rather than dilute the band.
Yes. For me , though, it's just a shame about the weedy sounding synths. I have a real soft spot for both Arriving UFO, and Circus of Heaven....talk about guilty pleasures.
Drama is one of my favorite Yes albums, although I like pretty much all of their studio albums for different reasons. The album has so much energy.
