Toto Turn Back 1980 (Columbia)
You took the bishop and the king was in front of you.
The Lowdown
After what was seen as a disappointment by the record company in the band’s second album
Hydra, the band were under pressure by Columbia to put out something more straightforward or better said, something more palatable for the music listening masses for their third album.
Turn Back would certainly result in being an album that was more straightforward in terms of its compositions than that of
Hydra, and also as it turned out to be a lot less diverse than their crowning debut. Effectively what Toto ended up doing on
Turn Back, was to deliver us a more straightforward hard rock record to appeal to the arena rock market and the album has a tad more depth than it’s sometimes given credit for, largely due to the fact that it failed to deliver any significant hit singles for the band.
Turn Back is an album for hard rock enthusiasts and again imo track for track it’s probably stronger than
Hydra (even though
Hydra is still the better album as we be discussed below) as I think it only has one weak track and I know Anteater has mixed feeling about this album (more on that below as well) but it’s certainly an album that splits Toto fans.
The album cover is sometimes seen as low key by Toto standards, but I always liked the use of black and red on a white background in the rough shape of a non-smiling face. The band also worked with a different producer for the album in Geoff Workman, who would be a focal point for some people’s dissatisfaction for the album and as with like
Hydra the band co-produced the album.
The album sales were poor in the USA but it did go down a storm in Japan and as I’ve often said those Japanese always knew good rock when they heard it, as so many of my favourite bands ended up being so popular there. The album only saw two singles releases in “Goodbye Elenore” and “If it’s the Last Night” and one additional for the Japanese market in “Live for Today” and is well known as being one of Bobby Kimball’s most vocally dominated albums.
Turn Back was the third Toto album that I ever bought after
Toto IV and
Hydra.
Toto IV of course was the album that got me into the band,
Hydra with its opening tracks is what made them something very special for me and
Turn Back I guess just provided more meat to the Toto bone that I just loved chewing on and some of it was ever so sweet as well.