Label: Warner Music (Japan), WPCR-13523
Style: Symphonic Rock
Country: London, England
Time: 79:48
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 534 Mb
Charts: UK #8, AUS #22, CAN #30, GER #36, JPN #41, NLD #17, NOR #9, SWE #18, US #10. Canada and UK: Gold; US: Platinum.
Yes was poised to build on fresh momentum as they reconvened in the studio to record a follow-up to the well-received Going for the One. Unfortunately, things didn't quite go according to plan.
When Tormato, Yes' ninth studio album, arrived on Sept. 20, 1978, it represented both a reversal in commercial fortunes and the start of a particularly turbulent period that would lead to some key departures.
A relatively concise collection of songs, Tormato found Yes largely avoiding the extended instrumental workouts that filled out best-selling records like Tales from Topographic Oceans in favor of shorter songs such as "Onward" (which clocked in at 4:05) and the minor hit single "Don't Kill the Whale" (3:56). The closing track, "On the Wings of Freedom," was the record's longest song at 7:47 – a relative blip in a catalog filled with lengthy compositions.
Unfortunately, those abbreviated running times may have had more to do with a general lack of focus than anything else.
Quarrels between Yes members were nothing new, and members came and went on a regular basis, but things seemed particularly stormy during this period. Singer Jon Anderson and keyboardist Rick Wakeman both exited in the following months. Wakeman's displeasure became particularly evident during an infamous incident when he hurled a tomato at the artwork for the record, which was then titled Yes Tor, after a geological formation in southern England.
"We had paid a fortune for the artwork – which, when we were shown it, we all agreed we had been ripped off," he later recalled. "It was a pile of brown smelly stuff. I picked up a tomato and threw it at it. (The title) was hastily changed to Tormato."
Not that it provided much clarity for the troubled project. Bassist Chris Squire came to see Tormato as "a kind of a hodgepodge of different songs, so it was hard to figure out what was good on it and what wasn't, maybe," he said in 1996.
(Full version: ultimateclassicrock.com/yes-tormato/) Review by Jeff Giles. September 20, 2023
01. Future Times (B) Rejoice (06:46)
02. Don't Kill The Whale (03:58)
03. Madrigal (02:27)
04. Release, Release (05:48)
05. Arriving Ufo (06:08)
06. Circus Of Heaven (04:32)
07. Onward (04:05)
08. On The Silent Wings Of Freedom (07:52)
09. Abilene (04:02)
10. Money (03:14)
11. Picasso (02:12)
12. Some Are Born (05:42)
13. You Can Be Saved (04:20)
14. High (04:30)
15. Days (Demo) (01:00)
16. Countryside (03:11)
17. Everybody's Song (06:48)
18. Onward (Orchestral Version) (03:06)
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