"Nou sommes du soleil we love when we play"
- FRAGILE
- TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS
- RELAYER
- TORMATO
- 90125
And Howe joined and it was a good thing: as I've already said
a lot of times, the core of Yes' sound is the interplay of bass/guitar/drums,
and the technical flawlessness of Howe is exactly what the band needed at that
period. He adds touches of colour here and there, precious country licks, insanely
fast solos, good work on acoustic and electric guitar... a lot of weird but
tasteful tricks, something Bank couldn't have mastered. I have only a complain
about the technical skills: for me Bruford sleeps for the most of the record.
Where are all those tricks he'll show on Fragile and expecially on CTTE?Well
the entire rhythm section seems to be on his shoulders, so bassist Chris Squire
can do all his typical rapsodic runs over the freatboard; I know this was a
problem that made Bruford left the band: both of them wanted to treat their
instruments as lead ones, but who cares of the rhytmic section? Here Bruford,
on Fragile there is a Fragile equilibrium, while in CTTE
there is a slight reduction of Squire's role in favour of Bruford's polyrhytms.
Take for instance the opening "Yours Is No Disgrace": the bass is really impressive.
Ok, I can agree that it's nothing much more than a self indulgent "showing off",
but you just gotta at least give the man some credit. And about "showing off",
I can't avoid speaking of "The Clap"; this is not exactly a song, it's an awesome
acoustic "country-ish" ditty in which Howe displays his talents. "The Clap"
is surely a good track: it's not overlong, it has its sense of melody, it's
well written and full of fancy; what's wrong with it? At the keyboards we have
Tony Kaye, a guy with a playing style that is often considered dull, as he is
playing organ in a church; maybe it's true, but the fact he sounds like he "is
playing organ in a church" give the songs pomposity and solemnity, and this
is a very good thing in songs like "Starship Trooper" or "Yours Is No Disgrace".
Let's put apart the considerations about the band and concentrate on the album;
since from the first listen, it's clear that Yes jumped onto the prog bandwagon
in a definitive way. In fact here we have long compositions (four tracks last
more than five minutes ), epic and theatrical elements (take "Wurm" as the best
example), and great techical skills (they improved themselves very much). But
this isn't enough: this album sounds very fresh and full of energy; they can
still remember their early days, so there are a lot of attention to melodies
and hooks; their pop vibe wasn't completely thrown away. This album, despite
the artful and exquisite arrangements, is very accessible, since the hooks are
good and there are a lots of them: we have the ethereal guitar licks on "Yours
Is No Disgrace", the happy vocal part of "I Have Seen All Good People", the
impressive chops in the coda of "Starship Troopers"... Another good new is the
epic scale; the band was very successful in making this album sounding grandiose
and epic, but without losing that techno-psychaedelic vibe that featured some
parts of the previous two albums. But sadly there is also a bad new: the lyrics;
they pretend to be serious poetry but they just suck, they are only untolerable
rants. Ok, maybe Anderson is taking inspiration from surrealism, but throwing
all together a bunch of senseless images doesn't mean to be "surrealistic".
The lyrics of "I Am The Walrus" is a good example of surrealism, while the lyrics
of this album are awfully bad (but luckily, Jon doesn't arrive to the point
of singing "...rearrange your liver to the solid mental grace...", as
he did on CTTE).
As I've already said the songs have good melodies and good arrangements; for
the most. In fact "A Venture" is far from being convincing: here there are involved
vocal melodies backed by a childish music, and the result is quite disappointing,
even if it's weird. One of the highlights here is the opening "Yours Is No Disgrace",
with amazing bass, which is heavy and fluent at the same time and an excellent
work on guitar, with a particularly powerful and "crunchy" use of wha-wha; the
middle instrumental has some folk-jazz nuances that suddenly disappear when
a striking shift sets the things for the epic and grandiose conclusion. And
the guitar is one of the major attractions also in "Perpetual Change", a mini-shympony
that anticipate the future developements of the band, in which Howe displays
an angry and violent riff. Despite of Howe's thundering riffing, the best feature
of this song is surely the catchy vocal part, filled with tasteful hooks. The
epic "Starship Trooper" is the best song here and opens with a pompous organ-guitar
figure that sets the epic scale of the song; according to me, the middle country
instrumental doesn't perfectly fit in the song but the coda is amazing and evocative:
their most expressive musical piece until "The Gates Of Delirium" on Relayer.
"I Have Seen All Good People" feature an amazing vocal part: melodical, catchy,
fresh and invigorating; the song is made more precious thanks to the good licks
played by Howe. The song is divided into two parts: the first, "Your Move",
is acoustic and happy, the second, "All Good People", is electric and dynamic.
One of the best songs here.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
So the discussed Ricky Wakeman joined the band, but sincerely the sound didn't change so much; of course the Yes were very happy to rely on the great technique and intuition of Ricky, but, unlike other prog bands, the pulsating core of the band wasn' t the keyboardist, but the interplay between drums, bass and guitar. The sound of the band changed much more when Howe joined, just listen to "Yes Album", but now return to this album.Of course Rick has much more to play than Kaye, something like 12 (!!!!!!) instruments, like the several pianos, mellotrons, synths, arpsicords, organs, A.R.P. synth, and everything you can dream about ; in this way the Yes can achieve a sound that is much more "atmospheric" than before, giving to their compositions a solid brick to build on, with the "long-winded and symphonic" factor.
The album seems to be built around the major compositions, written by the entire band and the rest of the album was "filled" by solo compositions of the single members of the band. Bill Bruford wasn' t that inspired, providing with a 35 seconds long... eerr, "song": of course each thing coming out from his drums is worth listening, even only for technical reasons; howewer he is a very expressive drummer, and his "robotic" style isn't cold and frigid, either, just listen to his "Five Per Cent For Nothing". The percussion are wisely interlaced but the song itself isn't that original :as often happened the drums care of the rhythmic part, while the percussions (I mean the synths, that are used to sound like percussions) deliver a sort of melody, not exactly dissonant, just messy. "We Have Heaven" has a gorgeous vocal part, with Jon singing "...we have heaven...", while in the background there are some amazing choruses, like in a popoular dance of the Middle Age (I don't know exactly how a similar kind of stuff has to sound like, I have wanted to underlined the medieval mood of the song). Here I want to break an spear in favour of Jon Anderson. In the case you've missed something, he's the lead singer of that nice little prog band called Yes, and he's also the target of a lot of insults, like "He sings with a robotic tone", "He's pompous", "He's a woman", "He doesn't change his tone while he's singing".Let' s analize them with order. "He's a woman": let me be a bit subjective here, I hate the "macho-singers", a la Robert Plant for instance; Jon has an high voice (I think he' s "nearly" a tenor), but it's not falsetto, so I think his voice is very original (and rare), and especially, it fits very well in the fantasy landscapes Yes created (Jon sounds like an elf has to sound!). The other complaint about Jon is that he's accused of being a souless singing machine; I think we can solve this problem if we think to Jon's voice as an instrument rather than a traditional voice. He complete the sound of the band, and while the others are busy in complicated things on their instruments, rapsodic runs or solos, his atonal and monotonous way of singing is the glue that keeps the sound tight and united. And don't forget of mysticysm: often Jon lyrics are sorts of prayers, so I think it's right they are delivered with a monotonous tone, that gives sacrality to the vocal part (the fact that most of his lyrics don' t mean a damn thing, is another speech). And Jon, when he wants, is able to put in a song a lot of hooks and cool vocal melodies, check out "Long Distance Roundabout", that is a bit Beatlesque, not for the quality of the vocal melodies (very superior to most of the Beatles catalogue), but for the stress put on the vocal melody, as a sign that whatever they play, they can't be beaten. My favourite single effort is "Mood For A Day" by Howe: it's nothing more than some acoustic guitars playing a smooth and delicate melody, played very well (from a technical point of view) and with a medieval mood (quite typical for Howe); it's one of the best and memorable incursions of the rock into the classic music. "The Fish" is, as you probabily know, a song in which each note, chord and rhythm is played with bass; the most obvious pick here, to accuse the self-indulgence of this guy, who is very innovative, but his style sometime annoys me, since some of his bass lines are simple geometries of notes, played furiosly and fast, that's all. Howewer "The Fish" is surely remarkable for the innovative and creative use of bass. The last "solo-song" is adaptation by Wakeman of a Brahams piece, called "Cans And Brahams": basically Rick shows us how it's possible, with a lot of technologic and eletronic stuff, to reproduce the sound of an orchestra; the result for me is a bit... "robotic".
And now let's analize the masterpieces, the three songs composed by the entire band:
"Roundabout": the fucking bastards sell out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of the most danceable prog songs, that amply demonstrates the fragility of the myth "prog has no feel"; the song starts with some crystalline chords played by Howe, then suddenly turns into one of the most rocking songs Yes has ever composed; the precise drums, the aggressive bass lines, the funky, and superfast too, keyboards, the percussions climax in the middle instrumental, while Jon sings the strophe in a delicate way make this song one of the best in their catalogue.
My favourite pick is "South Side Of The Sky": after a door brutally interrupts the naive vocals of Jon, a wind begins to flow with intensity, it's a cold wind, you can tell by the glacial synths in the background; the some fast and robotic rolls, courtesy of Bill, ruin this glacial silence, accompaning the first notes: a crunchy bass and an eletric guitar, very scarying. The lyrics are very good and expressive since, coupled with the music, they are able to express the sensation of freezing to death; here Jon instead of bores us with his mystycism, calms down and choose to simply describe a scene, that' s all. Imagine yourself freezing todeath, there is a moment in which you think to your life, to your past... and this particular moments is described trought the fantastic and tear-inducing piano solo by Rick: nothing extremely complex, but well crafted and the attention to the single crystalline notes rather than to the melody itself is worth listening to, expecially because I think it' s a very original feature of this instrumental.
"Heart Of The Sunrise"? My pick to explain to someone how prog sounds like, that's all; here there is both technical and melodical exquisiteness, tons of playing skills, insane speed, different time signatures, pomp and theatrical sense (note the wise use of the pauses when Jon sings "SHARP, pause, DISTANCE"). The songs starts with a duel between keyboard (played extremly fast) and a mindblowing drumming; for me Chris here does his best, with his powerful "slap" bass (one of the first ever recorded, I suppose). The vocal parts are impressive, mainly for its melodical power, but also for the delicate way of singing, that is often interrupted by instrumental earthquakes produced by the other members of the band.
And why, after all this praising, I don' t give it the perfect rating? Well, the first reason for me is that I feel the lack of the "long-winded and symphonic" factor: the songs are very good but they are more interested in playing music than in creating sonic lanscapes. Of course the music is of first class, but they are able to perfectly couple these factors, as showed in Close To The Edge (and in Tales From Topographic Oceans there is the predominance of the "ambient" and "atmospheric" feature), so I don't give this album a 10. And about the overall rating? For me a 14 is deserved, but I don' t want to upgrade it for the moment: the album belongs to first class prog rock, but it doesn' t add anything new into the scene; plus the "solo" songs are all very tasteful, but they aren't that special; of course "Fragile" could be and adjective referred to the perfect balance between acoustic and eletric reached in this album, and this is one of the most important feature that pulls me to consider this album so good. Very good but not perfect.
Mail your comments and reviews of "Fragile"
Weird. While I'm writing this review, I'm listening to Five Leaves Left by Nick Drake, a guy who is often considered shy, humble, intimate, non-pretentious, with a low and introspective voice. And I' m reviewing Yes, a band that is, as John said, composed by the kings of art-rock excess, with overblown mysty lyrics, pretentious and complex for the sake of being complex music, with self-indulgent players, a sourt of bunch of flawless-robotic-players. And this album is often considered a sign of all these features. Well, I love this album, I'm getting addicted to it, so don' t expect a very objective review.
First of all: there isn't only "Close To The Edge" here, the title track isn't the only reason to purchase this album. In fact the other two songs are very good and in "And You And I" there is a heavenly climax of guitar/synths, a symbol of majesty and crystalline musical exquisiteness of Yes. "Siberian Khatru" features a very good funky riff, a bit too abused (basically, what they do is play the main riff a lot of times, with some ininfluential solo spots in the middle). I want to begin this review pointing out all the flaws of this album. The main fault is the originality: there are no new ideas from Fragile, neither a new kind of sound, neither a new mood or atmosphere: the are going for the same mood of recreating their fantasy world with some mystical meaning here and there, with technical flawlessness, with a little more gimmicks than in Fragile, the usual overblown and indeciphrable lyrics. The new feature is that they finally have a long suite, an obligatory passage for all prog-rock bands (only gentle Giant refused to compose one). And, unlike other suite, mainly "Supper Ready" by Genesis and "Thick As A Brick" by Jethro tull, "Close To The Edge" is not full of of musical ideas or better, of musical themes. Here there are: a) the introduction, a typical Yes-esque jam that relies a lot on the interplay between guitar and keyboard (the bass is sligthly less evidenced than in "Fragile" or "The Yes Album"), b) the middle theme, that we can also name the main theme and, finally, the "I Get Up, I Get Down" part. Roughly speaking, there aren't other evident themes here. And another feature, very praised this one, of the album is that the suite is impossible to be divided according to the several parts, you can't put any pauses between a couple of them, all the parts are very linked to the others. This is partially true (but, after the "I Get Up, I Get Down" part, there are only some majestic organs and synth that indulgent in lenghty notes; I think that here we can put a pause) and this makes "CTTE" the first rock symphony: a lot of reviewers consider this as the best feature of the album. Yes, it's quite original and maybe unique (but I' m not sure, the parts of "Tarkus" are very linked too and often the way Yes choose to link the parts are a jam, and so they aren't very dissimilar from, say, Soft Machine with their "Moon In June", recorded in their third album), but I don't think it's a true rock symphony, since the jamming isn't a feature of a symphony, in which all the themes and the movements are wisely written to fit each into the other with mathematical precision. So, this long suite isn't flawless as you often hear call it and its main flaw is about the originality. And, unlike what the "common opinion" thinks, the lack of diversity is not a flaw; first of all because a symphony has to be compact and united, and the movements have to be linked by each other trough some similarities (and this should pull me to think to "CTTE" as a symphony, but the main fact is that there is the lack of a melody that runs all over the different parts, so I don' t want to call it symphony .It's a bunch of good and similar songs linked very strongly, that' s all). Second, because they are trying to recreate a particular atmosphere, some gimmicks, the repetition of certain riffs are useful, in the sense they are quite hypnotic, and so they managed to send the listener into their magical world. Of course atmosphere is a very subjective thing, but I completely agree -from a purely subjective point of view, that is- with John (McFerrin) on this, so I think he won't get angry if I quote his beautiful comment (he wrote it for George's site). So here you are the comment John wrote:
"The thing is, believe it or not, this is an album which must not only be taken _musically_ as a whole, but as one big chunk which includes, of all things, the cover and mid-section art. The world shown in the middle, a surreal chunk of water and colored rock, is where this album takes you. The green on the front and back is a veil, of sorts, through which one enters and exits this world.You pass through this veil, and when you first enter, all you can sense are the quiet chirpings and river babblings of nature. But you can also feel an impending onslaught, one that you cannot quite describe ... and then it is there. You are being flooded with powers that you cannot begin to understand. What you can sense, however, is that it is a purifying force, and as with all purification the process is painful. You can feel all of the outside worldliness being violently sucked out of you, and as this happens you want to scream, but you only find it registered in your mind. When the smoke clears, however, you do not wish to rest - you feel overwhelmed to take a journey. To what, you do not know, but you must press onwards and upwards the path that has been presented you. You begin to march. Your mind is flooded with abstract thoughts and images, but they do seem to have a common theme within them, about the perils that people have created for themselves by denying the powerful life force which is all around them. You keep marching. The path is always rugged and twisty, but you feel compelled to go on.In time, though, you hit a clearing, and through it you see a beautiful oasis, more radiant and breathtakingly beautiful than anything you had ever before comprehended. The atmosphere of the place is simultaneously uplifting and mournful, as though a great sacrifice has been made that could ultimately help the others of the universe, although they might not recognize it. The forces within you and without you allow you to stay and take it all in.......but only for so long. This gorgeous place begins to flicker and glow, becoming more overwhelmingly colorful and astoundingly beautiful with each passing second, and as it reaches the threshold of what you can comprehend before you would die of pleasure, it disappears. Just like that. And you are left to continue on your journey, just as before. The voices come back to your mind, giving you a lesson that you still do not fully understand, and yet which you can still comprehend. You feel these words in your heart, though your brain is totally befuddled, and they feed and grow in you with each passing second.You keep going until you can tell that you are almost at the top, and the forces urge you on. At last you make it to the top, and with triumph you gaze upon a plateau of sheer surreal beauty. The forces applaud your effort in one voice with great aplomb, and you are allowed to sit and take it in.After resting, you begin to press onwards to the center of this plateau. The journey is easier now, as the land is mostly flat, and you can move fairly briskly. The forces begin to now give you images of man's relationship to nature, and you take them in quickly, without much thought. As you approach the center, though, the forces become stronger - you can tell that you are nearing a holy place of sorts. As you come closer to this place, you can begin to feel the power, and it grows with each passing second. You know not exactly where in it to go, and yet the forces practically carry you to it.And then you see it and feel it, the point of your journey. You look up, and you can see everything, everyone, everyplace, and everytime. You are absolutely overcome and overpowered with an overwhelming sense of awe and a complete oneness with every last thing in existance. The majesty is totally beyond anything which you had ever before comprehended, and you are simply speechless.As you stand in the place, however, the force fades away, leaving you weak-kneed and in need of rest from the experience. Eventually, you get up the strength to get moving again in the same direction as before, and once more your journey is brisk. More thoughts pass through you, but they seem less powerful after what you have experienced. Eventually, you come to the other side of the plateau, the peaceful thoughts fade away, and you are left to rest.You now feel compelled to go down the cliff in order to leave this place. You try to keep a slow, controlled pace, but the steepness forces you to have to move at a much faster rate than before. Thoughts continue to pass through you, but now they don't mean as much and don't resonate with you deep down, since all of your concentration is spent in getting down this cliff without hurting yourself. Ocasionally the path is less steep, but no sooner does it get easy then it gets fast again. Eventually, you lose your footing, and you start to slide down. Thoughts are still going through you, but now you can make no sense of them whatsoever - you're so terrified of your painful and increasingly accelerating descent that you can only pick out bits and pieces of what is going on. The thoughts finally leave all together, but you keep sliding. And then, without warning, you approach the 'exit veil'. As when you entered this place, you want to scream - your necessary worldliness is flying back into you, and after what you experienced on the plateau, that is the last thing you want. The onslaught of forces are as powerful as before, though different in nature, since they are _returning_ as opposed to _taking_ your worldliness. You continue to slide, and you gradually pass through the veil and the reality of this strange world begins to fade."
But in CTTE, there is much more than atmosphere. Listen too how tight the band is, how the interplay is strong, how the solo spots are balanced with the rest of playing, how the pulsating core of the band (the trio Howe-Squire-Bruford) is powerful and full of fancy, the gusto they used with all the gimmicks and studio tricks, the climaxes they are able to create, the maturity in the arrangements. Without any doubt, the band at their peak. Oh, and another thing about diversity: try to listen to how the main themes are studied. The band analized them from different points of view, analizing all the possible nuances. There is diversity, it' s only that it isn' t so easy to see.
A great album, buy it now!
Mail your comments and reviews of "Close To The Edge"
I like this album very much and I don't give a damn about
the fact that TFTO is one of the most criticized albums ever. Ok, I give
it only a seven, since it's far from being flawless: White's drumming hardly
goes anywhere (it's just an obnoxious background plodding), Jon's lyrics seem
to be even more pretentious that usual, and involved 'til the point of sounding
senseless, Howe sleeps for the most of the record. And about the music? For
me the expressive compactness of CTTE had been lost, the sound is not
so rich and deep, the musical texture is much more simple (despite what a lot
of critics say, this album is not so complex, at least if you don't intend its
concept, that is) and sloppy. Uh, have I said sloppy? Nah, I'm wrong; of course,
at first listens, a lot of people says: "Where's the energy?". I can't disagree,
the album is very slow in certain places, especially in "The Remembering", and
when the slow music isn't enlightened by exquisite musical arabesques, the result
is sloppiness. But, hey, Yes are always Yes; they are, as usual, great musicians
and great arrangers: Wakeman often shines with his keyboards, that sound heavenly
in "The Revealing Science Of Good", Howe puts here and there some precious licks,
also White has his moment with the drum solo in "Ritual". And Anderson is a
mature and trained vocalist, as in the previous two albums. And the always high
standards of Yes playing are present here, and this is enough to make the album
tolerable, and even quite enjoyable.
So what are the problems of this album? Well, it's a double album with four
songs, each of them 18 minutes long at least; this is not the first double album
with four songs, Soft Machine recorded Third in 1970, but it's surely
the first concept-double- "mantra prog rock"-album-with-four-mysty & overblown-songs...
quite self-indulgent starting from its own definition, ain't it? I can't avoid
speaking of the concept: I really understand only some parts of it, but really,
even now, I find most of the lyrics just a bunch of rants written by a tantra
lover (err, fanatic should be more appropriate). However I can't deny that the
lyrics sometimes create charming images and powerful climaxes, but, for the
most, is the impressive vocal interpretation that gives them thickness and meaning;
I mean that if the lyrics weren't sung with Jon particular voice and intonations,
they wouldn't have the expressive power they have. And here you'll find a lot
of interesting vocal melodies (despite what a lot of critics think, Jon knows
what a "vocal-hook" is and he's able to create really charming and passionate
vocal parts; as I've already said, you have to consider him not as a traditional
singer, since he uses his voice like an instrument rather than in the traditional
way, read my review of Fragile). Look at "The Revealing Science Of God",
and tell me if the chorus "...we must have waited all of our lives..." can be
called souless and hookless! The main problem for me doesn't come from the lyrics,
but from the music: if some people dismisses an album like CTTE because
there are "too much notes as they are trying to solo all together at the same
moment", I say that here there are too few notes!!! In fact for me, the main
flaw of this album is the inconsistency of the musical texture: there are some
"holes" in which I feel a substantial lack of musical ideas, and they "fill
these holes" with lengthy synth notes or with uninspired jamming. The climax
of this is surely the slow and boring "The Remembering", which I love for the
soft, delicate and meditative atmosphere, a song with very few musical ideas.
In this case, when the music sucks, usually I hang onto the lyrics, but here
they suck too! And I understand you if you have this feeling a lot of times
listening to this album. I said that they replace the lack of musical ideas
with jamming: it's quite the same thing they did on CTTE, but here the
band sounds more like a bunch of four soloists, and when a member shines, the
others are sleeping. The strong interplay of the old days is gone, the band
is not so tight and compact as in the previous two albums.
However, as I've said at the beginning, Yes are always Yes, and they are still
able, with their wit, to make this album standing up with honor. "The Revealing
Science Of God" is the song that is less affected by the problems of this album:
it has some impressive synths parts, a vocal part that brings me to tears each
time I listen to it. "The Ancient" features an interesting and dissonant solo
by Howe, maybe a bit overlong, but it fits perfectly in the song. "Ritual" is
a song that rocks more than the rest of the album, and for me, it's also the
most various and diverse of the entire album; the drum solo is pretty good,
too.
In conclusion? Well, for me this album is worth a 13. What, a 13 after all those
criticism?!?! Yes, because I think I have to consider the originality of the
idea, the brilliant arrangements, the attention given to the atmosphere and
to the mood (this is one of the most relaxing and meditative albums I've ever
heard), the charming rapsodic runs of the soloists, the flawless technique (ok,
I know it isn't enough to make a good album, but it's a good starting point
to make an enjoyable album). Feel free to low the overall rating ONE point but
not more: this album is not a tremendous letdown after CTTE, as a lot
of people says.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
After all the heavy criticism against TFTO, Wakeman
felt he had to quit (don't forget he was one of the main accusators of that
album, proclaming each time he was interviewed it was "padded"); other reasons
seem to be found in his behaviour, since while the band followed a strictly
vegetarian diet and rejected drugs, we was quite happy of drinking wine and
eat whatever he wanted. Ah, it doesn't matter, he just quit and here you won't
find all his typical tasteful tricks. The replacement is Patrik Moraz, a fusion
keyboardist: don't try to compare him with Wakeman; the good old Rick was a
classical trained pianoist, with a particular interest in recreating the sound
of a whole orchestra with his synths, while Patrik is a jazz-rock keyboardist,
a very seasoned one, drawing his inspirations not only from jazz, but also from
contemporary classic music. Not to mention that to me seems that Moraz was much
more inventive and experimental than Wakeman... err, I'd like to be more self-assured
about this last statement, but I can't avoid thinking to Moraz's contributions
to Moody Blues album: sometimes he's a bit too cheezy. But of course we are
not to this point, here Patrik is self-assured, technical flawless, full of
fancy and really contribute to make Yes taking another direction: this album
is very similar in places to that hard-prog-jazz of album like LTIA by
King Crimson, the comparison is rather obvious, expecially after you have heard
"Sound Chaser", an hysterical and chaotic jazz-rock composition (or jam? Who
knows, at times it seems a wisely built songs, at times it sounds like a furious
and spontaneous improvisation... maybe this is why it's worthy).
Ok, let's put apart the considerations about the band and return to the album;
as I've already said the sound had significant changes, not only for the fusion-playing
style of Moraz, but also because White really improve his drumming style, managing
to find his own style: he doens't try to imitate Bruford polyrhtyms, or his
heavily-jazz-influenced background. Here he just shows himself for what he is:
a rock drummer. Ok, sometimes he puts into the songs some complicate trick,
but for the most he keeps the beat with intelligence and good taste, significantly
variating the mood and the "vibes" of his drumkit: very adequate and expressive.
And improved from the previous album, too. Of course nothing special: solid,
trained and experienced, not outstanding. Another good new comes from Howe,
who hardened the tones of his guitar, making them more aggressive and furious,
and expecially unique for any other Yes album. Squire is Squire: the most impressive
moments comes from some super neurotic and furious parts in "Sound Chaser".
And, surprise, surprise... JON'S LYRICS HAVE MEANING FOR ONCE!!!!!! In fact,
he seems to put apart for a while (at least for 21:55 minutes, the lenght of
the title track) his rants about Tantra, cosmic love and his other obnoxious
and undeciphrable stuff: "The Gates Of Delirium" is just a tasteful description
of a battle: the quite before the fight, the preparatives for the battle, the
battle, the aftermath and the sad (or melancholic) end. And in "Sound Chaser"
the lyrics are boombastic, mindless, stupid, funny, confused, chaotic... in
summa, in the first two songs his lyrics are for the first time ADEQUATE TO
THE MUSIC. Only "To Be Over" features a return to the old mystycism, but let's
talk of it later.
So how does this new style sound? Well take the awesome title track: I like
it because it's extremely expressive. Well, expressive is a vague term, but
try to listen close to the song: it smootly starts, then the tension is gradually
and wisely reased; and then it explodes in the middle of the battle, until it
calms down again, with a sad mood. It's the description of an epic-fantasy battle:
I'm sure of the meaning of the song, because for once music and lyrics complete
each other, the song is very adequate. I'm not sure if i'm able to describe
this song: it's just what a battle has to sound... and I dare to add that listening
to "The Gates Of Delirium" you can see and feel the battle. How does it sound:
it has the smoothness of the acoustic chords and morbid synths in the peaceful
beginning, it has aggressive basslines, heavy and crunchy guitar and overwhelming
waves of violent and "edged" synth notes during the battle part, it has limpid
and crystalline guitar lines, heavenly and sad synths during the aftermath (particularly
remarkable is the 'Soon' part, with a tear-inducing vocal part: listen to it
while looking at the cover, in which two knights return to their mistycal fortress
bringing the horse of a dead friend, it's an immortal experience). And don't
forget the great work on bass: alternately furious and fat, and also lyrical
and delicate. And the wall of sound during the battle is really scarying and
well built: all the song is built with mathematicaI precision and its effects
are increased by the super-rational composition. If you haven't listened to
this song, you haven't lived!!!
Sadly the rest of the album is not so satisfying: "To Be Over" is a delicate
and soft ballad, but it hasn't an interesting melody, it lacks the 'heavenly'
factor (like the awesome guitar-synths climax in "And You And I" in CTTE);
ok, I admit that the song really manages to sound like a fluent stream of music,
and all the Jon's chanting is really well performed, it's smooth and delicate,
too, but I find none reason to justify its lenght: the song is nothing than
some atmosphere, there is a lack of musical ideas and so the song can't last
so much. Luckily we have the slightly better "Sound Chaser", a song very similar
to the ones on LTIA by King Crimson: it's funny, intentionally pointless
and fragmentary; it's not easy to write a song that sounds so 'random'. And
it's impressive the fact that here the melodical part are really good, and also
the violent and dissonant parts are good too (check out for any proof the crunchy
licks played by Howe); and the synths are so weird!Yes are also good in showing
the differences between the soft and the loud parts, wisely developing the shifts
among those parts.
In overall this is a very good album; the second side is quite weak, expecially
because of "To Be Over", but the beautiful title track is what makes this album
special; add the new sound, the experimental factor (this album shows how jazz-rock
is seen by a prog-rock band) and the usual technical flawlessness and you'll
have a deserved 14.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
Ah,Tormato!...Everyone hates this record as possible
as anyone can hate somethiing.Millions and millions of people hate everything
on here-from here(which I really like and think that that “awful” tomato on
both sides of cover is great idea of Hipgnosis)to the Rick Wakeman’s keyboard
using style(which I really like,but I’ll talk about it later,OK?).But I have
enough courage to say aloud-this album is(so far-I hope these guys can do something
better) my favourtie Yes album.
The album is different from other Yes albums(even if all their albums are quite
different from each other)and that’s I think is the key to the question why
everybody hate it.There are more keyboards like Polymoog or Harpsichord, more
Jon Anderson than everywhere else(except two first albums,where he is almost
everywhere),more pop-orinted sound and songs,more un-typical uing of guitar-it’s
quiet(thanks for mister Steve Howe)and more clear lyrics-almost no sci-fi or
Tolkien-like fantasies based on books of yogi or russian classic writers.There
aren’t any lenthy suites on here-most of the songs on here aren’t reach 5:30
time and two(“Madrigal” and “Onward”)are unusual short for Yes. And that’s really
for me-I quite tired of these prog suites,even if I like them.
The album opens with short medley consists of two great songs-“Future Times”
and “Rejoice”.Personally,I prefer the song to have only the first part.In “Future
Times” there are great keyboard lines and usual Anderson optimistc mood of the
song is really MINE.”Rejoice” is quite darky song,or it tries to be dark-I don’t
care.Instrumental break on there sounds rather boring too.
The following song is the hit(it is not mean that it’s the most poppy song on
here)called “Don’t Kill The Whale”. Everyone seems to hate this song,but damn,I
LOVE it-from the first second to the last.It is cool little anthemic rocker
with rather funky bass-line and absolutely amazing Wakeman solo-undoubtly among
of his best.The final part with chours singing is nice too.The only thing I
can agree with people who hates the song are lyrics.”Killing the last heaven
beast”?Man,I HATE whales and call them heaven beasts ais crazy.Just crazy,Jon.
Then goes small “Madrigal”-little Wakeman ballad with its great Harpsichord.The
ending acoustic Howe’s solo is just pure satisfaction.
The last song on the first side of Tormato is “Release,Release”,which is great
fast rocker with lyrics about revolution(I think so-I don’t know the real meaning
of the lyrics).Song has great mid-section with cool Alan White’s drum solo.It
is not “Ritual”-solo of course,but still good.
The second side opens with “Arriving UFO”.It is a Wakeman-inspires song with
lyrics about Jon returning to his home planet by somekind of alien guys arrived
on UFO on Earth special for it(hey!Who said that it all sucks?Hey,boy,give me
your hand-you really read my thoughts!).Rick has done some great UFO’s imitating
sounds, it is specially goes for opening synth “riff”.Middle part and the ending
sounds like something from Rick’s solo albums-but,heck,if they all would be
sounds like that I’ve already have them in my collection...Oh!And I forgot to
mention about great vocal hooks all the way of the song.
“Circus Of Heaven” has Jon sounds as best as he can(or could-I’m not really
sure that he can do something like that “Was that something beautiful...” line
today).Music is very peaceful-usual Anderson manner that great fit in this pop
song that has,by the way,no touch of rock at all.At the end,Jon’s son-Damion
says something and...
...”Onward” begins.It is written by Chris Squire-beautiful little ballad with
catchy melancholic chours ‘Onward through the niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight...”.The
song itself is just a kind of small prelude to the main opus of this record-
clossing “On The Silent Wings Of Freedom”.It consists of various jams with Jon
just added the lyrics.It is not even an epic-only 7:30+ minutes.You may think
that it’s too little for real Yes epic,but for me the time is perfect.The song
is in very good “morden-psychedelic” mood and the middle section proves it-great
“typical” 60’s end Howe’s guitar is on there!Closing Rick’s solo is also great.
As you may understand,this album deserves a place in your record collection-so
buy it now.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
Both Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman left the group in 78, after
the release of Tormato. Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes replaced them. The
group finally disbanded around 1980 after the release of Drama and Yeshows.
The band resurrects in 1983 with Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Alan White, Tony
Kaye and the South African guitarist Trevor Rabin. They goes pop and releases
an album for the huge public, which loves it and encourages the band to continue
producing poor, cheesy albums of 80's pop.
Sad story, ain't it? Well, they got a bit better during the 90's, but I hate
this 80's stuff. But I suppose it was necessary - Genesis had evolved into a
very professional pop band with a huge audience, King Crimson had reformed and
played some sort of very complex pop, and they also gained a lot of new fans
among the rather fastidious public, and what was Yes supposed to do then, when
all their old enemies gained a lot of new, poppy fans, i.e. gaining some lots
of millions (er, at least Genesis - King Crimson has never really been anything
like a sell-out band)? Rolling their thumbs, living on old royalties? Seldom
- Yes reforms and makes pop much worse than King Crimson's, and somewhat worse
than Genesis'. What separates Genesis/King Crimson and Yes is that Genesis had
Phil Collins, which was a heck of a public-charmer, plus that Tony Banks and
Mike Rutherford obviously wrote pretty good pop, and King Crimson always had
Robert Fripp to come up with new ideas, and Adrian Belew, who indeed knows how
to put something extra in the pop. Who has Yes got, then? Jon Anderson? That
dude can write extraordinary prog tunes, but his attempts to write pop only
resulted in some generic, self-indulgent symph-pop. His voice really sounds
poor when he's singing pop, too. When yes still was prog, his voice was very
particular, and it was sort of a trademark for Yes. Now he only sounds strained
and unfitting the sound. The other guys in the band had obviously also problems
writing a decent pop tune.
Let's compare: Genesis and Three Of A Perfect Pair, both are thirteens, vs. Yes' best 80's output; 90125, which at best is an 8. That's a difference on 5 overall points. A severe difference.
This new lineup concentrated on making synthetic, catchy pop tunes. A Typical example is "Owner Of A Lonely Heart", which has some really cheesy keyboards, a catchy guitar, a simple, uninnovative melody for the braindead listeners (c'mon, that was a joke!) and a symph-poppy chorus. Everything together makes a certain sell-out single. This time, Anderson also left his prophetic lyrics behind and wrote lyrics to songs like "Our Song" and "Hold On" - not too weird. Hey, where's Yes???
"Hold On" sounds like a Gary Moore rip-off, with a fat guitar and a symphonic chorus. Gary Moore sounds better, though. Jon tries his best to sound like a charismatic pop singer, but the band should have brought Steve Walsh or someone into the group, who at least sings good - Jon's voice is horribly misfitting the sound.
"It Can Happen" opens with some sitars or something. Soon Jon adds some vocals, and in a moment the chorus strikes the listener with an obvious catchiness which surely charmed the young people during the 80's. The thing is, though, that even Aerosmith would have made it better. The parts in between the choruses are boring, BTW.
"Changes" opens with some xylophones playing a complex theme with a weird rythm. Some other instruments joins, and most of the song is built around the theme and some Gary Moore-ish guitars. Heck, even Jon tries to sound like one of the heavier vocalists of the 80's. This just doesn't work.
"Cinema" is a symphonic, powerful, over-produced, melodic, and above all, cheesy, rocker à la Steve Hackett.
"Leave It" opens with some a capella vocals, and the song works as long
as no instruments are added, but heck - Jon sounds like a 7-year old!
"Our Song" is another cheesy symph-pop tune with catchy keyboards beneath
a huge guitar. The melody is quite good, but the song loses ground within
the fact that after all it's only another piece of cheese. Al di Meola would
have made this song instrumental, better arranged and not by far as cheesy,
and it would have resulted in a very good tune, especially since his guitar
weeps much more beautiful than Jon's whining vocals, and his pal Jan Hammer
uses to play anything she tries in a superior way, compared with other keyboardists
of the same genre.
There's two other songs, "City Of Love" and "Hearts", of which the first one has a catchy intro and the latter is a long symph-ballad.
The album really quite sucks, but it was supposed to sell, and it did, give 'em some credit for that. All the songs are horribly generic symph-pop, though, and I really don't recommend it. Some people rates it among Yes' best, though, so maybe it's worth a try, but if you don't like commercial radio today, you won't like commercial radio of the 80's, and you won't like this record.
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