The Album
Anteater: So how familiar are you with this album Unknown Soldier? I was actually alive when this album was released, though only a few years old. Is it something you disliked at first and then went back to later?
Unknown Soldier: Well I was distinctly off the band when this album came out due to the debacle with Jean-Michel Byron and with both Joseph Williams and Steve Porcaro bailing out. I don't remember buying it until a few years later and even then I just bought it to complete the band collection.
Unknown Soldier: When I did get it I was immediately thumped if you like on just how heavy and funky it sounded. It’s without a doubt the heaviest sounding album in the band discography to that point.
Anteater: Yeah, it's Toto's heaviest album as of 2015 as well. Very unique sounding and one of my favorites overall.
Anteater: There's some strange things about it though, change in musical direction aside…
Anteater: The album cover is pretty macabre for instance.
Anteater: …and it was painted by Jeff Porcaro less than two weeks before he died.
Unknown Soldier: I was about to comment on that as well, but it's amazing how these tragic occurrences have often followed musicians around.
Anteater: If Toto had been some other band, Kingdom Of Desire would have been the swansong.
Unknown Soldier: kind of like what happened with Led Zeppelin after John Bonham died.
Anteater: Makes the fact that a mostly intact lineup released an album only a month ago pretty amazing, when you consider everything these guys have been through since '78
Anteater: Yeah, Led Zeppelin was out the door before the 80's hit because of Bonham's death. Might partly be why they are univerally associated with the decade and nothing beyond it.
Anteater: They got started right as the 70's began then died off before it came to a close.
Unknown Soldier: Well some bands just go on through all kinds of disaster whilst other just throw the towel in.
Anteater: Yeah, and Toto are definitely in the former camp.
Unknown Soldier: Now before we get into the album, I know that you like it right?
Anteater: Very much so. It's in my top 3.
Unknown Soldier: Well you obviously like it a lot more than I do, which is surprising as I usually really like Toto when they do get heavy.
Anteater: It's a "love it or hate it" kind of album though for both Toto fans and non-fans though. Some of the heavier musical ideas and philosophical touches lyrically that The Seventh One had are actually expanded upon in Kingdom Of Desire.
The Songs
Unknown Soldier: Well the album starts with the almost Jimi Hendrix sounding "Gypsy Train"
Unknown Soldier: In regards to the song title of course
Anteater: What's the phrase I would use for this particular song...."rollicking" maybe?
Anteater: There's even a touch of bar room sleaze
Unknown Soldier: I call it a heavy thumper
Anteater: I really dig it, though I'm sure every Toto fan who first heard it probably were scratching their heads in confusion
Anteater: "Isn't Lukather the guy who sings those lame ballads?"
Anteater: "Did I buy a Bad Company album on accident?"
Anteater: etc. etc.
Unknown Soldier: Well I think most of the album would throw most Toto fans and if you remember right from the word go, I always thought of Lukather as the rocker of the band, even though he always sang the ballads.
Anteater: To these ears, 'Gypsy Train' is the sound of a band not giving a ****.
Unknown Soldier: His only real rockers before this had been "Live for Today" a poor song and "Afraid of Love" a good song.
Anteater: And its great. Not in the same way as The Seventh One or Isolation, but very interesting once you let it sink in.
Unknown Soldier: I also think this album is a reaction to the lame sounding Jean-Michel Byron period.
Anteater: Haha, this material is so beyond a guy like Byron that its funny to think about it.
Anteater: One other note I'll make is 'Gypsy Train' is the longest opening song on a Toto record so far since 1979's Hydra.
Unknown Soldier: It's a beefy sounding album for sure and fairly bold by Lukather to completely take over the vocal duties, but of course he had already released his first solo album.
Unknown Soldier: Hell every song on this album is long!
Anteater: That's a mix of Luke and Jeff Porcaro's influence I think: they were both itching to move beyond pure radio format stuff.
Anteater: Lukather's solo outing from a few years before this also had a heavier Blues and L.A. jazz-fusion influence: the fact so much of it has bled into Toto's core sound by 1992 shows that he's become the leader of the band.
Anteater: anyway, the bluesy "rock band rocking out at the local watering hole" aesthetic is almost uniformly consistent across Kingdom Of Desire from start to finish, and next track 'Don't Chain My Heart" is a clear representative of this direction.
Unknown Soldier: Agreed and even his appearance had changed as well. If you check out the "Don't Chain My Heart" a single and the second track on the album, the video has him looking like Ian Gillan with a guitar, especially in that leather waistcoat and barechested underneath.
Anteater: Could this be the so called "glam" or "hair metal" influence of L.A. music and fashion of the time finally needling its way into the group?
Unknown Soldier: Well have you ever seen the video for the Black Sabbath "Zero the Hero" track with Ian Gillan on vocals?
Anteater: Not recently, but I do remember it
Unknown Soldier: Check it out it's one of my fav ever videos.
Unknown Soldier: Next up "Never Enough" which again I like, as the band show there is still no sign of slowing down.
Anteater: It's a fun hard rocking track, infused with a certain world weariness
Unknown Soldier: co-written with Fee Waybill from The Tubes another one of my all time fav bands. Steve Lukather had a few writing credits on Tubes albums, so I guess he was returing the favour here and to be fair it does sound a bit like a Fee Waybill track (as he was a solo artist at this time) usually working with Richard Marx as well.
Anteater: I like it a lot. Three tracks in now and we get a sense that overall mood is consistent to the point where the album feels more like one extended session than a bunch of strung together stuff that's been primed for radio.
Unknown Soldier: Well "How Many Times" continues this trend of four in a row.
Anteater: Yeah, I think we should jump around a bit and talk about the tracks that stand out on the album as opposed to continuing chronologically. This album was constructed completely different from their past records, and as a result you have some cuts that stand a bit higher above the "sea" that makes up the overall mood or experience.
Unknown Soldier: Now is a good time for me to mention as well, that the whole concept of albums had changed anyway due to the invasion of the CD. Albums had now gone from 30 and 40 mins to 60 and 70 mins and of course we no longer had the a and b side format either in most cases.
Anteater: Exactly: we've entered a brave new world, and Toto (atleast on this album) were taking advantage of it.
Unknown Soldier: People were getting greater value in terms of what they were paying and either getting a much longer album or outtakes and unreleased material etc
Unknown Soldier: ............ but in my opinion quality song for song was often lost and that is probably my main gripe with this album.
Anteater: Three high points for me are Wings Of Time, the title track and the closing instrumental Jake To The Bone.
Unknown Soldier: I think it's around 15 too long but I often aim that gripe at a lot of these bands around this time anyway.
Anteater: I think that criticism is definitely warranted
Anteater: but I don't mind it as much on Kingdom Of Desire because, when taken as a whole experience, it works really well.
Unknown Soldier: We have to mention of course the main ballad as well, which was due to come in "2 Hearts" which actually sounds more like a film soundtrack than anything else.
Anteater: Yeah, let’s touch on that: there are three ballads on the album, and of them '2 Hearts' is probably the best in terms of construction….
Anteater: …though I like 'The Other Side' a lot too, which strangely enough is a huge throwback to IV.
Unknown Soldier: "The Other Side" Is a nice song and the only traditional Toto song really on the album in terms of ballads. Whereas the other ballad "Only You" is more generic and could've appeared on something like Fahrenheit or any other rock album from this period.
Anteater: 'Only You' fits into the overall mood, but it doesn't do anything special either.
Anteater: As I mentioned before though, 'Wings Of Time' is a great longer piece, and the title track is one of the band's all time best songs ever.
Anteater: …Least if we're talking more progressive material.
Unknown Soldier: "Wings of Time" doesn't really do too much for me but the title track "Kingdom of Desire" is indeed a worthy track.
Unknown Soldier: Along with "Jake to the Bone" these tracks are like 7 mins anyway, which is actually pretty long.
Unknown Soldier: "Jake to the Bone" sounds like it could've been on the debut with its heavy use of different sounds.
Unknown Soldier: "Kingdom of Desire" is a real grower as a song and really needs quite a few listens.
Anteater: 'Jake To The Bone', interestingly enough, has proven to be a hugely influential song on a lot of Japanese jazz bands.
Unknown Soldier: A fact I didn't know.
Anteater: Hah. You hear it's influence in a lot of racing soundtracks in some of the games that came out over there in the mid 90's and beyond.
Unknown Soldier: Didn't know you were a games fan (cool!!)
Anteater: I am indeed. Back to music again - Lukather's guitar solo that starts in around 3:30 on Jake To The Bone is pretty inspiring in any case: what a great way to end the album!
Unknown Soldier: It's a great song as was the previous title track, but if I listen to this album in its entirety, I've normally nodded off on "Wings of Time".
Unknown Soldier: I usually enjoy this album more when I listen to the tracks more individually.
Unknown Soldier: For example 'random shuffle' I prefer with this album.
Anteater: Yeah, there's a couple of big ones to cherry pick.
Anteater: And you start to feel a bit sad as Jake To The Bone finishes though, because it was probably Jeff Porcaro's final drum performance.
Unknown Soldier: Well yes and I have a funny story about this and I guess this is the time to tell it (not funny of course as Jeff died) but it was funny in the context that I was told.
Unknown Soldier: As stated already I was off the band in 1992/1993 when this came out.
Unknown Soldier: I can remember going out on a Saturday night with a friend of mine and this particular Saturday night he invited his druggy guitarist cousin with him.
Unknown Soldier: The guy was a Brit but sounded like one of these druggies out of an American film. Anyway he informed me that Jeff had died and of course I was shocked and asked how he died.
Unknown Soldier: His words were "Hey man, the dude keeled over while watering the daisies in his garden, a heart attack from too much of the good stuff if you catch my drift"
Unknown Soldier: and that's how I learnt that Jeff died, no internet in those days.
Anteater: Hahahahahaha, that’s funny but somehow messed up too.
Unknown Soldier: It's something I always remember with both fondness and sadness.
Unknown Soldier: Anyway my criticism of the album is basically down to two big points.
Unknown Soldier: Firstly it's too damn long, the songs range from 4 to 7 mins and the album is 69 minutes long, this is no quick listen.
Unknown Soldier: The lack of variety on it leads me to point two.
Unknown Soldier: Secondly the great strength of Toto has always been its multiple vocalists. Ok after the previous problems I kind of understand why Steve Lukather took over all vocal duties. The problem is though that due to the similarity of most of the songs, there's not too much variety and if David Paich had sung on a couple of tracks it could've solved this issue.
Anteater: I agree with the second point a bit more than the first
Anteater: Kingdom Of Desire is a pure jam record. Most of the songs were all written within the same time frame and recorded probably hours to days apart in one place. As a result, you get a certain degree of consistency. The downside is that there's not a huge degree of brevity or variety.
Anteater: The band was in a certain "mood"and the album is a reflection of that.
Unknown Soldier: I agree about the jam factor and the lack of variety simply means that if you really did that sound you'll really like the album, well if not...............
Unknown Soldier: But it really must've been a head scratching listen for a lot of Toto fans out there.
Anteater: Kingdom Of Desire is one of my highway cruising records. When I'm in a certain zone or mood it works fantastically. Otherwise I usually just cherrypick Gypsy Train, the title track and Jake To The Bone and make a more general Toto playlist.
Anteater: It sounds unlike anything else in their entire recorded discography, so it gets points for uniqueness...even if those points might be a tad head-scratching. :P
Unknown Soldier: Well distances there are long, because in 69 minutes here you can go from one end of the country to the other
Unknown Soldier: That's an exaggeration of course, but it hints at my point.
Anteater: A polarizing album that, at the very least, is worth a few songs for those who don't dig the overall package. Enjoy folks!