Yes - Tormato*

I like this album more than GFTO.

I thinkg GFTO is the far superior album, but I just enjoy Tormato a lot more.

3 ballads, one rocker, and one self-indulgent epic do not a classic album make (although it IS a great album).

I like Tormato a lot more because even if the material isn't always the best and the band weren't firing on all cylinders, at least it's upbeat and catchy for the most part.

Did anyone see the tour for Tormato? I've heard loads of shows from it and it's a favorite of mine.

 

Like it up to the point where the kid chips in on Circus of Heaven. Then I'm out.

 

HA HA! Kind of like the Robert Stigwood Sgt. Pepper soundtrack: It shipped platinum - directly to the cutout bin!

 

I attended one of the Oakland Coliseum "in the round" shows. An excellent concert.

 

I think I was in the 6th grade when I first heard it so, for me, it made an impression and I like it to this day. My 6th grade brain was mesmerized by the song titles alone - Arriving UFO, On the Silent Wings Of Freedom, Circus Of Heaven, Don't Kill The Whale, etc. Today, I can appreciate the musical ideas. Squire is a wah-bass maniac on Silent Wings. Even without the goofy lyrics, the music to Arriving UFO sounds exactly like an arriving UFO! So many weird and quirky arrangements on these songs. Somehow, I can always make it through Circus Of Heaven when I play the album. It's the music. More weirdo rubbery bass lines and Howe's echoe-y texture effects draw me right in. Release, Release is full of hooks, great vocals and amazing drum fills. There's something particularly "fun" about this album that I can't really say about any other Yes record.

 

Wouldn;'t that be two ballads, two rockers, and one self-indulgent epic?

 

My bad.

 

So for Yes' 70s output: definitely on the lower spectrum (I rank it higher than the debut and "Time And A Word"), but keep in mind what it's competing against: Close To The Edge, Fragile, The Yes Album, Relayer, Tales From Topographic Oceans, Going For The One, Drama (technically 1980).....hard company to beat.

But compared to the albums that followed? 90125 is a top-notch album, "Fly From Here" was solid, "The Ladder" had its moments and I like the studio tracks on "Keys To Ascension". But I'll take "Tormato" over "Big Generator", "Talk", "Open Your Eyes", "Heaven & Earth", and most of "Magnification".

 

I don't hate the album. Arriving UFO is a little too quirky but Steves talking guitar performance on that track is indispensable.

 

Always wanted YES to open a concert with Release, Release.

 

Did the band pelt the audience with rotten tomatoes, or was it the other way around?

 

About 20 years ago, I was talking to the secretary in my office about music, and somehow Yes came up. She said she wasn't that into Yes, except for one album: Tormato. She loved that album! I thought she was kidding, but she went on and on about specific songs like Arriving UFO and Circus of Heaven. But...it was the dark days of no vinyl and she no longer had a record player; she wished she could hear the album again. I made her a cassette of it!

So the OP is not alone.

 

I don't really like the album, although there are a couple good tunes on it. What is really great on Tormato though is Squires bass tone on this. It is the only thing that makes it listenable to me.

 

I don't rank Tormato at all in terms of "weaker as..." or "better as.."
I just enjoy it.

 

I don't know whether or not that hatred is the word, but it "was" the only record in my collection that made me physically ill if I looked at the cover or listened to the music. Not my favorite for sure.

 

It is kind of odd that everyone thinks that everyone else puts cotton in their ears when Tormato is playing, but every time a thread comes up that talks about it there are significant numbers of those taking part in the thread who claim to like it.

I bought it the week it was released and at that time is seemed that technology in making albums had taken a leap. Vinyl sounded more articulate and recordings suddenly had a very interest level of very discreet sound.
Tormato is an album I think that was done taking part in the best technology available. I love the production of it, it has a very nice sonic depth to it that previous albums didn't have.
It is among my top 3 favorite Yes albums.

I think had it had a Roger Dean cover it would probably be called a Yes masterpiece. I honestly think the cover creates a bias about it. Makes it seem somehow less than Yes.

NOBODY likes the cover. Steve Howe doesn't even like the cover, and I think it as either him or Rick Wakeman who threw the mater.

 

Yeah, like clowns going into them to tell everyone how much they hate chat rooms.

 

It almost sounds like he was trying to write things that were less abstract. I like the lyrics, but not so much for what they actually say as how they fit into the mix, just like any other instrument.

 

i really like it too!

 

What he said! Took the words right out of my mouth mate!

 

When I were a lad, before the interwebs, I only knew that Yes had made two albums: Fragile and Close To The Edge. I'd go to the record emporium and lo! there would be another Yes album with which I was not familiar. I'd found The Yes Album, Relayer, Going For The One, Drama, and Tales From Topographic Oceans this way, all completely unknown to me, and I paid me hard-earned and played them and loved them all. This band could do no wrong! And then I found Tormato, and took it home, all excited. Another Yes album? Who knew? Coming between Going For The One and Drama? It's gotta be good!

I recall dropping the needle on the record and thinking: "No, this can't be right. This is not my beautiful Yes! This is not my beautiful prog rock! My God? What have I done?"

To say it was a massive disappointment would be a massive understatement. The songs? Weak. The arrangements? Weak. The lyrics? Weak. That reedy Rick Wakeman synth sound? Evil beyond comprehension. The only songs that I liked (then and now) were Madrigal, Onward, and On The Silent Wings Of Freedom. Coming after listening to Love Beach for the first time, it reinforced my youthful impression that 1978 was just not a good year for the prog rockers of yore (Hemispheres being an honourable exception).

Listening again now, just to check if my opinions may have mellowed over time ... nope. Still weak.

--Geoff

 

I never heard it yet. Is it as good as Love Beach, that great album by ELP?

 

About the same level.

 

Love beach, and pretty much everything else by ELP totally sucks, Tormato is a pretty cool record, imp..,,

 

My copy gone a long time ago!