Rank these 4 Yes albums..

[Yesed]

Each with different lead vocalists. What's your ranking order, overall, musically... and why?

1. Tormato
2. Drama
3. FFH
4. The Quest

I think the complexity of the music slowly diminished. on each successive album.

[Mr. Holland]

01) Drama
02) Tormato
03) The Quest
04) Fly From Here

Drama in my view is the most consistent album of this lot.

[RelayerI]

1. Tormato - the last great (and underappreciated) Yes album. One of my favourites.
2. FFH - I like the last three songs.
3. The Quest - has a few songs I like.
4. Drama - just not for me I'm afraid. I can put up with Machine Messiah.

[Davy]

Tormato
FFH
Drama
The Quest

Drama is the most consistent, but Tormato and FFH have a couple of songs that are better IMO.

[Ash Armstrong]

Each with different lead vocalists. What's your ranking order, overall, musically... and why?

1. Tormato
2. Drama
3. FFH
4. The Quest

I think the complexity of the music slowly diminished. on each successive album.

You've done it for me, though I'd put a significant gap between Tormato and Drama, and an even bigger gap between Fly From Here and The Quest in terms of quality.

[Soundwaveseeker]

I will rank these as thus:

1) DRAMA - my personal favorite of these four. To me it sounds futuristic. The best lyrics of these four. Yes, to me even 'I am a camera'. The best balance of the instruments. An album just short enough not to have any 'skip' tracks, not that I ever skip a Yes track. That album cover - I wanna go there! The album is sleek and modern, I like elements of Rush and Ultravox mixed with my Yes. Love Drama.

for me, spots 2 & 3 are interchangeable depending on my mood:

2) TORMATO - a soft spot for this album. It's an interesting one to me - it's part of the classic run of albums with Jon Anderson but feels like an extra album after all those masterworks up to 1977. Not the best production/mix, but enjoyable music. The first album where I feel Rick Wakeman stands out and plays as he sounds on his solo material - it's almost 'Yes featuring Rick Wakeman', he makes his presence known. Future Times & Onward are sublime. Jon sounds fine.

3) FLY FROM HERE - as much as I like Wakeman, whenever he comes back to Yes, it's a retro affair. Classic Yes this and Anniversary tour that. But Yes fans have been treated to the Anderson/Squire/Howe/Wakeman/White lineup several times over. I get it, they are usually great in that configuration. But with Fly From Here, it's the Drama lineup instead - I got my wish. Another Drama lineup album, just with Horn producing and additional instruments only, with someone else singing. Any Yes album after FFH in some ways is just an extra album to enjoy. If Yes folded after FFH, I would have been happy, I got another Drama lineup for a bit. Love the FFH suite, Benoit David's vocals are good, and I like Squire doing lead here and there on a Yes album. I like the Return Trip version but prefer the original. Horn doesn't sing lead on the original but he does in spirit. Horn's presence is all over, though less so with the second half of the album which is more the From A Page material. If you had listed From A Page as a choice instead of FFH, then it would have been third place.

4) The Quest - it's still a little too soon to put Quest in a ranking, until then it will remain at the bottom until it crystalizes. I like the album, he material and the song track placement. Everybody sounds great but needs more Billy vocals and less Steve vocals. Billy is the new Chris, you can't hold him back. The Beatles tribute is slightly weak. Love Ice Bridge, Dare To Know, Living Island, Western Edge and Minus The Man - worthy Yes stuff. I don't mind if it's lacking a little torque. It's a laid back, almost yacht rock Yes album. I take it for what it is - enjoyable music. But the other albums above have it over the Quest by years and experience.

I would say the complexity of the albums maybe did wane in terms of razzle-dazzle & tricky bits, though I would say Drama has more complexity than Tormato.

[soundchaser09]

Okay:

Drama
Fly From Here
The Quest
Tormato

Drama is extremely strong musically throughout, brilliant songs, very little to fault here apart from the lead vocals which aren't quite as strong. 9/10

Fly from Here is the ideal follow up (31 years later)- it has a mellower sounds but is a very strong album all round, one of my faves. 9/10

The Quest I love its consistency- its a very solid collection of songs with a few misteps, not enough Sherwood on backing vocals, a little low energy at times but overall a great listen. 8/10

Tormato- love the rhythm section, melodies are sometimes chatoic, has some great songs on it but is patchy in places with songs like Circus of Heaven and Arriving UFO. 7/10

[madbear]

Drama - fantastic album
+
Tormato - under duresss, one or two good songs on here but an awful LP
Fly From Here - good to hear a studio version of the title track, but the band have become MOR
The Quest - unlistenable AOR

[Elizabeth "The Phish"]

My ranking would be:

1) Tormato
2) Fly From Here
3) Drama
4) The Quest

Tormato is in my Top 5 of Yes. It always makes me happy to listen to a song from it tbh. The most underrated and overlooked album of the '70s for me. Filled with cheese but the songs feel complete with the cheese and the constant clash between Howe and Wakeman. Obviously, Chris' bass is just fire on the entire album too.

Fly From Here is a weird one to put above Drama as it's usually seen as a lesser one but the suite makes it worth it. And just like Tormato, this is also in my upper half of the ranking of Yes albums. Non-suite songs, while being not as good as the suite, still give me a great time.

Drama is an album I really like. Don't let it fool you when it's at the third spot here. While it's probably at the lower half of my Yes ranking, it's still a great listen with the awesome side openers "Machine Messiah" and "Into the Lens". The other tracks are great too! What's holding the album back for me is that "White Car" feels underdeveloped. Considering this is like the shortest studio album of Yes, they definitely had space to extend the song. I mean, "White Car Suite" existed in live shows so why not the album too, eh?

The Quest is the only Yes album that I find to be bland. While Heaven & Earth also felt safe, that one at least had cool rhythms and Davison sang with more passion there. This album feels like the band is throwing random ideas onto the album to see if they will stick or not. And, for me, most of the album didn't stick. But at least it has some real gems.

[luna65]

Fly From Here
Tormato
Drama
The Quest

Why...well, I love Benoit's voice, but TH's not so much. I think Tormato is flawed but I would always rate it above Drama. And I just can't get into The Quest, although there are a few songs I enjoyed.

[pianozach]

Drama
Tormato
Fly From Here
The Quest

[Yesed]

01) Drama
02) Tormato
03) The Quest
04) Fly From Here

Drama in my view is the most consistent album of this lot.

Thats a good point about Drama, standing out against the other three. But OTSWOF and the classic Yes lead vocals on Tormato puts it on top for me.

[Yesed]

I will rank these as thus:

1) DRAMA - my personal favorite of these four. To me it sounds futuristic. The best lyrics of these four. Yes, to me even 'I am a camera'. The best balance of the instruments. An album just short enough not to have any 'skip' tracks, not that I ever skip a Yes track. That album cover - I wanna go there! The album is sleek and modern, I like elements of Rush and Ultravox mixed with my Yes. Love Drama.

for me, spots 2 & 3 are interchangeable depending on my mood:

2) TORMATO - a soft spot for this album. It's an interesting one to me - it's part of the classic run of albums with Jon Anderson but feels like an extra album after all those masterworks up to 1977. Not the best production/mix, but enjoyable music. The first album where I feel Rick Wakeman stands out and plays as he sounds on his solo material - it's almost 'Yes featuring Rick Wakeman', he makes his presence known. Future Times & Onward are sublime. Jon sounds fine.

3) FLY FROM HERE - as much as I like Wakeman, whenever he comes back to Yes, it's a retro affair. Classic Yes this and Anniversary tour that. But Yes fans have been treated to the Anderson/Squire/Howe/Wakeman/White lineup several times over. I get it, they are usually great in that configuration. But with Fly From Here, it's the Drama lineup instead - I got my wish. Another Drama lineup album, just with Horn producing and additional instruments only, with someone else singing. Any Yes album after FFH in some ways is just an extra album to enjoy. If Yes folded after FFH, I would have been happy, I got another Drama lineup for a bit. Love the FFH suite, Benoit David's vocals are good, and I like Squire doing lead here and there on a Yes album. I like the Return Trip version but prefer the original. Horn doesn't sing lead on the original but he does in spirit. Horn's presence is all over, though less so with the second half of the album which is more the From A Page material. If you had listed From A Page as a choice instead of FFH, then it would have been third place.

4) The Quest - it's still a little too soon to put Quest in a ranking, until then it will remain at the bottom until it crystalizes. I like the album, he material and the song track placement. Everybody sounds great but needs more Billy vocals and less Steve vocals. Billy is the new Chris, you can't hold him back. The Beatles tribute is slightly weak. Love Ice Bridge, Dare To Know, Living Island, Western Edge and Minus The Man - worthy Yes stuff. I don't mind if it's lacking a little torque. It's a laid back, almost yacht rock Yes album. I take it for what it is - enjoyable music. But the other albums above have it over the Quest by years and experience.

I would say the complexity of the albums maybe did wane in terms of razzle-dazzle & tricky bits, though I would say Drama has more complexity than Tormato.

After I posted my reason, I was thinking at least maybe Tormato and Drama are equal in that regard.

[Skankindead]

1. FFH
2. Drama
3. Tormato
4. The Quest

All pretty solid albums, some greater than others.

[downbyariver]

Drama
Fly From Here
The Quest
Tormato