Tormato vs Big Generator

[soundchaser09]

78 vs 87- Very different versions of Yes, over to you!

[Old Frothingslosh]

No contest for me. Tormato hands down,

[Roundabob]

I voted Tormato, largely because of Silent Wings of Freedom. I have found something to love on every Yes album, but I honestly remember my first reaction to these two albums was disappointment. They still are a part of the story, so I am not.100% negative on them.

[Bill M]

The two albums have some things in common.

They both are considered follow ups to albums that were considered a fresh direction for YES. They also signal the beginning of upheaval in the group of some sort.

[pianozach]

For the sake of the poll I'll vote Tormato.

But comparing these two albums seems like an odd comparison:

Which do you like better:

A. Cauliflower
B. The Bee Gees
C. Ford Focus
D. Automated Phone Answering systems
E. Stewed Tomatoes

[alex peters]

Tomato for me also. Both are slightly better than mediocre albums. There are songs on BG I enjoy and then there is the title track Big Generator that is equivalent to hearing finger nails scrape on a chalkboard

[Bill M]

I'm not interested in choosing one over the other, so I'll hold back on voting. I do, however think it might be more fun to contrast the two albums' similarities and differences.

Both albums have the same personnel as their predecessors and what was to come (Drama and ABWH/Union) was probably unimaginable.

[RelayerI]

Tormato is one of my favourite Yes albums. Definitely top 25%.

Big Generator is in the bottom 25%.

[Homemade Parachute]

Big Generator for me, although I certainly see the similarities: both albums have their high points, are eclectic, but also kind of speak to a fragmenting band. Tormato is strange in a couple of ways, one being that Wakeman gets more writing credit than Howe (!), and Squire has a very strong presence, too; BG has some of the most involved and varied songwriting credits of the catalog, I think, with way more Kaye than we've seen before. No idea what's up with that, but there's some diversity in sounds rather than laser-like focus on these two albums, for sure. BG was one of the albums I played the most when it first came out, and helped me do the deep dive into Yes' catalog, so there's definitely some favouritism in hearing it contemporaneously, while with Tormato, when I first heard it, it was long in the rear view mirror, sandwiched between GFTO and Drama, and I'd probably avoided it because of the cover. (You might have the same reaction to BG's cover, but fuck it, I loved the boldness of it at twelve inches…) Tormato gets played infrequently here at HQ, and little of it seems to have entered "the cannon"; BG stayed.

[Ceasar’s Palace]

Big Generator for me, although I certainly see the similarities: both albums have their high points, are eclectic, but also kind of speak to a fragmenting band. Tormato is strange in a couple of ways, one being that Wakeman gets more writing credit than Howe (!), and Squire has a very strong presence, too; BG has some of the most involved and varied songwriting credits of the catalog, I think, with way more Kaye than we've seen before. No idea what's up with that, but there's some diversity in sounds rather than laser-like focus on these two albums, for sure. BG was one of the albums I played the most when it first came out, and helped me do the deep dive into Yes' catalog, so there's definitely some favouritism in hearing it contemporaneously, while with Tormato, when I first heard it, it was long in the rear view mirror, sandwiched between GFTO and Drama, and I'd probably avoided it because of the cover. (You might have the same reaction to BG's cover, but fuck it, I loved the boldness of it at twelve inches…) Tormato gets played infrequently here at HQ, and little of it seems to have entered "the cannon"; BG stayed.

Yes, there is exactly that similarity, between the two. I prefer Tormato, but Big Generator is my favorite Yeswest album, and one of my favorite post classic era albums.

[downbyariver]

Big Generator is one of my favorite Yes albums. I love it and wish they had the opportunity and the inclination to do several more like it. Alas, by Union came around with a different expanded lineup and concept, and by the Yes album following that, Talk, Trevor Rabin had decided that he had something to prove went in a direction unlike his two previous full Yes albums, despite having the full 90125/Big Generator lineup restored, along with a significant measure of the creative control he lacked on Union.

Tormato, while perhaps good in an absolute sense (i.e. taken as an album of music and not compared to other Yes albums), is (IMO) the nadir of the Howe/Squire/White/Wakeman/Anderson lineup in the 70s time period. Some of it's weaker points fit in with knowing that the next time they went into the studio to make an album (The Paris Sessions) not yielding an album, and Anderson and Wakeman walking out of the band. Something wasn't quite working, and when they next attempted to revisit that lineup in the studio almost two decades later, it yielded the Keys to Ascension material, the studio portion of which may have been the worst Yes album of the 90s.

The most positive legacy of Tormato and The Paris Sessions for me is that they ultimately led to Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes joining Steve Howe, Chris Squire, and Alan White, and making one of the all-time best Yes albums, Drama, and eventually 90125 and Big Generator with their own distinctive lineup of band members. That Drama/90125/Big Generator trilogy for me is right up there with the The Yes Album/Fragile/Close to the Edge to the Edge trilogy as perhaps the two best sequences of albums in the band's history.

I sometimes feel like Tormato gets extra respect from some fans just because of the names that are in the liner notes, a lineup that many feel can only produce greatness in combination with each other. Also, there are some people who don't want to recognize Yes music after that album, so if they don't embrace it, it really limits their personal catalogs of Yes music.

It's not a contradiction to like Tormato along with the three albums that followed, though. Billy Sherwood was into the 80s stuff when he joined the band the best time, and yet cites Tormato as one of if not his favorite Yes albums. The album does offer 3-4 pretty good songs, and you can hear some elements and personnel for the last time for a while in combination with each other, and also hints of the beginning of a time period where Yes' rhythm section was at it's best IMO (The next three Yes albums, which like all post-Close to the Edge studio albums prior to The Quest, featured Alan White and Chris Squire). In the end, a least as of 2022, every new Yes studio album has at some level been a good one.

Still, I'm glad the band went in a different direction after Tormato. I think that album was a sign that change was needed, even though it's good enough that even if it weren't a Yes album, it might have it's own following as sort of a quirky sounding album that reminds people of Yes.

[Gilly Goodness]

Which do you like better:

A. Cauliflower
B. The Bee Gees
C. Ford Focus
D. Automated Phone Answering systems
E. Stewed Tomatoes

A. Sadly a vegetable I was expected to eat as a child. My mother, God bless her soul, served it up with no cheese sauce. It stared up at me with it's cold white ghoulishness. Along with brussel sprouts, it was thrown behind the stove, when she wasn't lookin' and never seen again. Could I have pleaded to be spared this ghoulish veg? Probly not as mum grew up through the depression. You ate what was served up. She would've been 98 next year.

B. The lads from Manchester* who bronzed up downunder in Brisbane and took over the world. My fave song? Spirits Havin' Flown. The song Jon Anderson wishes he could've written.

C. Took a new Focus for a test drive around the lake on the freeway in Canberra. In 1981. Reached quite high speeds. Marvelous machine.

D. Gee whizz. These things are awful. The muzak. The wasted hours. No thankyou.

E. Well again Mum would make her own tommy sauce from Dad's garden. Boilin'them away. Sometimes pickles. Tinned tomatoes are fine. Quite tasty. Tomatoes are king. Fresh. Homegrown only. The shoppe ones have no taste. So. No. Stewed tomatoes don't boil my strawberries. As they say in Tasmania.

B. E. C. D. A. In descendin' order. Thanks for the opportunity to Express my feelin's. 🤣



* or Isle of Man if you want to be pedantic.

[Somis Sound]

I love both. BG was my first Yes album and Tormato my first 70's Yes album. And they both have 2 songs I skip. But gotta lean BG as I've been listening to it a lot lately...

[Oldie on the Goldie]

Kind of an apples vs, oranges comparison really. But if I could have only one of the two on a desert isle, I'd probably choose BG.

[Oldie on the Goldie]

A more interesting comparison would be BG vs. ABWH given that the latter was a reaction to the former.