I Can Tell By That Look in Your Eye: Toto reviewed 1978-2015

Unknown Soldier · 04-12-2015, 04:17 AM

The Album
Anteater: Isolation is a pretty fitting name for Toto's fifth album in some ways - it has a very singular and distinctive presence in their vast body of work.
Anteater: It's almost frantic in places, which might be a reflection of the group's state of mind at that point
Unknown Soldier: To be fair for such a favourite album of mine, I've never given the name that much focus, but have always been taken by the use of black and white on the album cover, harking back to Turn Back.
Unknown Soldier: It's always difficult when an established band makes line-up changes anyway.
Anteater: It's pretty minimalist, but it is certainly striking. The disembodied lips there are almost iconic.
Anteater: Yeah, Hungate was gone and the guys eventually ended up going with Fergie as you mentioned. What a lot of people don't know, however, is that he was actually the group's third choice.
Unknown Soldier: Richard Page of Mr. Mister
Anteater: Richard Page from Mr. Mister was first, followed by Eric Martin, who would later feature prominently with Mr. Big.
Unknown Soldier: Hell I'd forgotten about Eric Martin.
Anteater: Yeah, but Jeff Porcaro pushed for Fergie over him, so that's what sealed the deal.
Unknown Soldier: To be fair though I can't imagine the other two singing with Fergie's energy and for that reason alone he was the bold choice. Especially since these tracks were designed with Bobby Kimball in mind.
Unknown Soldier: There is real debate as well on just how much input Bobby Kimball had initially on the album.
Anteater: Kimball was probably so out of his head by the time the Isolation sessions came up that I'm sure his input was minimal at best but we'll never really know.
Unknown Soldier: Hahaha in true Jim Morrison style.............. you've gotta love him

Anteater: Derek: lol indeed. Another thing of interest is that Lukather and co. are kind of lukewarm towards Isolation today.
Unknown Soldier: Well I do know that in a video Bobby Kimball stated that Fergie sung these songs better than he did anyway, very high praise indeed.
Unknown Soldier: I remember reading a few years after its release they never liked it and when I saw the band for the first time in concert in 1990 I think, they never played one song from that album either.
Anteater: That's because Isolation was the product of a weird, stressful time in their career as a band and it wasn't a huge seller either.
Anteater: The line-up only held up for this one occasion and I'm sure they have mixed feelings on the whole experience, though as a listener I consider it one of their best albums ever. It's #3 for me anyway.
Unknown Soldier: It also started the band's downward spiral in terms of commercial success and Steve Lukather always commented that the band lost credibility, as this is where they started chopping and changing lead vocalists.
Unknown Soldier: Which is funny because by this time he was effectively the leader of the band and he did most of the firing from what I can gather.
Anteater: Yeah, Isolation was the first album where Lukather really started to step up as a leader.
Anteater: He wasn't the main writer at this point, but he was starting to call a lot more shots.

Side 1
Unknown Soldier: Anyway the album starts with something that Toto had already adopted to a degree and that was a kind of duet between two of its vocalists on "Carmen".
Anteater: Yeah, 'Carmen' is killer. Maybe the best opening song on any Toto album,
Unknown Soldier: It was extremely unique for 1984 as well and blends the smooth sound of David Paich's voice with the frantic pace of Fergie's and it was the song that finally got me into the album as well.
Unknown Soldier: ..... and of course it has that classic Toto sound midway as well.
Anteater: I just like how it kicks off with a bang.
Unknown Soldier: It's a foretaste for what is to come as well later in the album.
Anteater: Yeah, it segues into 'Lion' really smoothly
Unknown Soldier: It was also written by David Paich and Jeff Porcaro and yes it links superbly with "Lion".
Unknown Soldier: "Lion" of course is our first real intro to Fergie's singing style and despite its lack of speed fits superbly on the album.
Unknown Soldier: It's the only track as well that has a Bobby Kimball writing credit.
Anteater: One of my favorite modern AOR groups from Sweden, called Work Of Art, basically derived their entire approach to AOR from stuff like 'Lion'. That chugging rhythm is infectious.
Unknown Soldier: Hell I need to listen to them, why didn't you tell me about them before.
Anteater: I've reviewed them on several occasions now, even Trollheart has actually.
Anteater: The only other album I've ever heard that even sounds like Isolation was Work Of Art's first one.
Unknown Soldier: 'A chugging infectious rhythm' best describes it and a friend of mine who also likes Toto, says that "Lion" is his favourite track by the band.
Anteater: Kimball probably chipped in on the main melody of the chorus, since I can totally picture him singing it
Unknown Soldier: I prefer other tracks on this album over it but it does have amazing consistency over nearly 5 mins.
Unknown Soldier: This now leads into the first single and main one from the album "Stranger in Town" and the band played things safer here.
Anteater: Kind of a unique song, more of a synth-pop piece than AOR.
Unknown Soldier: David Paich on vocals and a state of the art video as well for its time
Anteater: it sounds like like Paich listened to some Duran Duran and sprinkled some Toto magic over it, maybe The Cars too
Unknown Soldier: It even has a well known actor in it Brad Dourif I think.
Anteater: The video was pretty good (for once) not to bag on their music videos, but I can see why Lukather hates most of them

Unknown Soldier: I'd hate to hear Simon Le Bon trying to sing it.
Unknown Soldier: The vids are no different to most other bands at this time. The Cars circa Heartbeat City era probably had the best selection of videos from that time.
Anteater: He's gone on the record numerous times about how much he thinks "MTV ruined music" and all that.
Unknown Soldier: In hindsight maybe but if you were around in 1980s you'd probably think more like me.
Anteater: It's true that a lot of good songs have been let down by generic or poorly produced videos, but he's way too harsh on them. I love most 80's music vids.
Unknown Soldier: Should point out here that Jeff Porcaro co-wrote on this song and he co-wrote on a lot of Toto's best tracks as well.
Anteater: Well yeah, Jeff was the spine of the band
Anteater: So now that we've gone past the holy opening trinity, what do you think of 'Angel Don't Cry', Fergie's first co-write with a Toto member?
Unknown Soldier: I adore the song, I love the video and Fergie finally shows what he can do with the right song, and right here Toto literally blast most AOR bands out of the window with the perfect example of a high-energy AOR track.
Anteater: I think its a winner too. Paich gets some nice key interplay before Lukather jumps in in the latter half. It keeps the momentum up from the previous three songs quite nicely.
Unknown Soldier: Also Fergies's LeRoux album All Fired Up, showed that this was the kind of sound he was working at anyway, do you know this album?
Anteater: I have it actually, and really dig it!
Unknown Soldier: Also in the video for the song, it's just so cool how Fergie walks off stage after his vocals are completed and does it like a true rock star.
Anteater: Rock Candy remastered it not that long ago
Unknown Soldier: The song also heavily reminds of "Edge of the Blade" by Journey which I also love as much.
Unknown Soldier: All Fired Up is a great album and not too well known either.
Anteater: That's probably why Fergie caught their attention to begin with
Anteater: Cause his performance on All Fired Up was so superb
Anteater: From there though, we're at a solo Lukather ballad "How Does it Feel".
Anteater: it's technically the end of Side A I think.
Unknown Soldier: Which is almost an anamoly on this album, which is shocking in itself, as it's the most typical Toto song on the album. The album typically would fit on all the previous albums but not really here, but it does set up the amazing side 2 of the album, which in my opinion is even more spectacular than the first side.
Anteater: It's a good breather and maybe something of a nudge telling the audiences "hey, we can still do normal Toto stuff" wink wink.
Unknown Soldier: It's a good song and typical Steve Lukather material and not too much else really.
Anteater: It's pretty fair, though I feel Lukather's best ballad material was yet to come.

Unknown Soldier · 04-12-2015, 04:40 AM

Side 2
Anteater: On 'Endless' is where things get interesting
Unknown Soldier: This is Fergie's side of the album where he mixes in his sounds from both Trillion and LeRoux.
Unknown Soldier: Endless is an amazing song and it also has a funky beat to it which I really love
Unknown Soldier: .... but this is not funky in the traditional Toto style at all.
Anteater: Yeah, it's actually kind of funk oriented in a fresh way, which makes it stand out. The AOR vibe is still here of course (especially that chorus), but it feels inventive.
Unknown Soldier: It's AOR funk with so much energy and sets up the title track "Isolation" and it's kind of like the "Lion" of side 2.
Anteater: It's my favorite song on the album and one of the best uptempo songs they ever did
Anteater: But as Turn Back showed us, when Toto decide to put the title track on side B, that means its going to be exceptional.

Unknown Soldier: I have two words for the song 'sheer energy'' and I love the lyrics from the song.
Anteater: Yeah, it's a love song of course, but it captures the emptiness of separation really well
Unknown Soldier: The whole album has a nostalgic love appeal to my ears, in a highly energetic way.
Unknown Soldier: All these songs here have Fergie letting fly vocally as well.
Anteater: Toto have always been really good with melody, but one of Isolation's defining features is how on the nose they were in that department this time.
Anteater:Even IV wasn't quite this consistent and that trend also continues into Mr. Friendly and Change Of Heart
Unknown Soldier: Which leads into "Mr. Friendly" my favourite track on the whole album.
Anteater: Another uptempo winner pretty much, though Paich ends up incorporating some prominent piano which is interesting.
Unknown Soldier: It's the most progressive track on the album as well and covers so much Toto musical territory.
Anteater: Yeah, there's a counterpoint going on under the main rhythm in the main verses, but Toto have always been good at keeping thing subtly progressive.
Anteater: They'll pick a melody line and then dance all over it like there's no tomorrow.
Unknown Soldier: This progression is also evident in places on "Change of Heart" which in some ways is the most rock orientated track on the album.
Anteater: I don't have a lot to say about that one, but only because it's pretty competent. Paich goes into a really juicy baroque-inspired keyboard breakdown in the second half though.
Anteater: It's like something Queen would do.
Unknown Soldier: Admittedly its the lesser of the Fergie sung tracks on the album. Which leads us to the low-key closer in "Holyanna" which feels like a wind down song anyway.
Anteater: 'Holyanna' is decently toe tappin'. Tom Scott on sax returns and its a nice touch, but it has a slightly disjointed feel on the melody that makes me wonder why they chose it as the closer.
Anteater: It's not a bad song of course though
Unknown Soldier: It also has a jangly country feel as well, but I was always peeved that it was chosen as a single over a Fergie song.
Anteater: Yeah, because it's not a clear representation of Toto's sound. Toto don't normally do bluesy, jangly jigs with a sax counterpoint
Anteater: I like it well enough though, and on that point Isolation comes to an end.
Unknown Soldier: But as you say it's not a bad song and I do think it works as a closer. The b-side of the album is kind of like a manic night out and "Holyanna" is the mug of tea or coffee you have just before bedtime.

The Conclusion
Unknown Soldier: So your overall opinion on the album?
Anteater: It's my third favorite Toto album and probably right at the top of their AOR era in quality
Anteater: It feels like Turn Back done right in some respects
Anteater: 75% of the album is pure uptempo jams, and all of them are memorable
Unknown Soldier: As you know it's my all time favourite album, which of course makes it my favourite Toto album. Admittedly my love for the album is based on a lot of nostalgia, as it was the Toto album that I had waited almost two years for after getting into the band on Toto IV. I was pissed off when I got it of course and there was no Bobby Kimball. But I was totally devastated two years later on Fahrenheit when I found Fergie was no longer in the band.
Anteater: Yeah, he didn't stay long. Apparently he didn't gel that well into the overall group dynamic the way Bobby originally did or Joseph would after this.
Anteater: I guess if I were going to rate the Toto albums up to this point, Isolation and the self-titled are A+, IV is an A, Turn Back is a C+ and Hydra is a B.
Unknown Soldier: I've read different reasons why he was fired 1) Given the blame for the poor sales of Isolation. 2)Tracks took him ages to nail down in the studio and the others lost patience. 3) He couldn't hack it live and would make himself ill before going on stage.
Unknown Soldier: I'd agree with that, despite the fact that I would listen to both Isolation and Hydra more often than the others.
Unknown Soldier: Finally Bobby Kimball v Fergie Frederiksen as lead vocalist?
Anteater: I like Fergie more, that being said, he's not my favorite Toto singer :P
Anteater: He was the right guy at the right time for Isolation, but I don't know how well he'd fare on Toto's later material if he had stayed.
Anteater: Its hard to tell
Anteater: He's better than that Byron whats-his-face dude the band got stuck with around 1990-91 though
Unknown Soldier: I like them both the same Bobby for his vocal richness and Fergie for sheer power. I'm guessing your favourite is Joseph Williams another great vocalist as well, few bands have been blessed with three of rocks greatest vocalists.
Unknown Soldier: That Byron with a French name was what I ended up seeing as lead vocalist when I first saw Toto live. I was expecting to see Joseph Williams and got him instead. ;(
Anteater: Lol that sucks for you
Anteater: ....and yeah, I think Joseph Williams was the best singer they ever had, we'll be getting to him after this now that I think about it.
Unknown Soldier: Well more on him next time.

Unknown Soldier · 04-13-2015, 12:22 PM

Mike Porcaro RIP

Mike in the middle with brothers Jeff and Steve either side of him.

Since Anteater and I started this 'chat journal' for Toto, the third mainstream member of the band has sadly passed away in Mike Porcaro. Whilst not being the band's original bassist, Mike always felt like an original anyway largely because his two brothers featured on the first four Toto albums and he acted as an additional musician on some tracks. So when original bassist Dave Hungate announced his departure from the band Mike was the obvious choice and remained as the band's bass player for the rest of his musical career.

As expected Mike Porcaro was a bass player of the highest order and therefore usually appeared in 'best ever bassist' lists but whenever I think of Mike Porcaro I usually remember how cool he looked playing the bass and had great movement as he moved to the rhythm of his playing and was always a great visual focal point of the band, just standing there in the background.

He joins elder brother the original drummer Jeff Porcaro who died way back in 1992 at just 38 and the main vocalist of the Isolation album Fergie Frederiksen who died last year at 62. Mike Porcaro sadly joins them aged 59.

Anteater · 04-18-2015, 08:29 PM

Toto - Fahrenheit (1986, Columbia)

Look, I just came back to town / Drink that green dragon down...it's time for me to talk and you to listen.

The Lowdown
1984’s Isolation ended up selling respectively and even produced Toto’s highest charting “rock” single at that point in their career (‘Stranger In Town’, which eventually hit #7 on the mainstream charts). But the lineup wasn’t made to hold together. New singer Fergie Fredericksen wasn’t the best fit for the band’s live dynamic, so they ended up parting ways before the year was even over. Thus it was back to the drawing board, albeit not for long.

Enter Joseph Williams, son of THE John Williams, and childhood friend of Steve Lukather. He was the first singer since Kimball whose voice could handle a wide variety of material, and he fit in so fast it was almost as if he had always been there. So much so in fact that he immediately started contributing to the songwriting upon joining. 1986’s Fahrenheit thus represented yet another subtle and distinct shift in sound for the group, once again taking them into uncharted waters mixed in with some ballads plus more straight ahead pop-rock material. It sold fairly well too, with the power ballad ‘I’ll Be Over You’ going into the top ten in many countries worldwide and subsequent singles doing pretty good too.

With this album, Toto were approaching the end of their “arena rock” era which started with IV and would end with 1988’s The Seventh One. This period also marked a point of frustration between Toto and their parent label Columbia, who were going through a period where entire weeks would go by without someone heading over promotion or leadership for new releases. This would hurt Toto’s ability to develop a consistent momentum on the sales side of things, but with a steady lineup in tow Toto went on tour and ended up pleasing the fans anyway despite label problems.

Anteater · 04-18-2015, 08:33 PM

The Album

Anteater: So with Fahrenheit, we arrive at Joseph Williams' debut in Toto's history. It's a pretty interesting album too, maybe their most progressive one since Hydra.

Unknown Soldier: ...... and also their weakest

, I'll be honest right from the start and state that I don't really like this album. In fact Joseph Williams is the best thing about the whole album.

Anteater: Well, going experimental is a double edged sword for any band. I find that aspect charming in some respects. It's a very different beast from Isolation though

Unknown Soldier: I can remember that I was so happy when that album came out (back then no internet only music press which I seldom bought) but I was reduced to tears when found out that Fergie had left, so I had it in for the band and especially Joseph Williams from the beginning.

Anteater: So has your perception of Fahrenheit improved at all since you originally listened to it way back when?

Anteater: Or do you feel like there's an emotional bias there

Unknown Soldier: There's no emotional bias there now and have listened to it a couple of times again recently. I find the ballads/singles extremely generic and contrived in a very Steve Lukather way. I think there are a number of bad musical experiments on the album that don't work. There are some good songs though of which I'll mention when we go into the album proper.

Unknown Soldier: I also like the album cover.

Anteater: Yeah, it's very L.A.

Side One

Unknown Soldier: So the first track is "Till the End" written by David Paich and Joseph Williams.

Anteater: Very upbeat track, kinda hi-tech

Unknown Soldier: Now this is a track that I do like, it's upbeat as you say and it has such a great funky thump to it.

Anteater: And some nice parping horns(?) synths

Anteater: Not a bad way for Joseph to make his debut

Anteater: I remember the music video had him and the rest of the band in bolero hats and such

Unknown Soldier: Yes the song is great but that ridiculous mariachi style costume that Joseph Williams wears in the video is a no no..... and his silly dancing doesn't help that much either.

Anteater: Oh that music video made no sense whatsoever

Anteater: I can kind of see from that why Lukather isn't a big fan of the band's mid-80's vids and such

Unknown Soldier: It's pure MTV at its worst, it's glossy and it's the kind of thing the general viewing public liked..

Anteater: 'Til The End' was the band's 3rd single

Anteater: so I'm sure the video didn't do it any favors

Unknown Soldier: Yes and certainly better than the two singles before it imo.

Unknown Soldier: Next up is "We Can Make it Tonight" and the first with an outside writer in Barry Bregman

Anteater: Well some of my favorite tracks on Fahrenheit didn't even make it onto radio, and 'We Can Make It Tonight' was one of them.

Anteater: It was sampled a couple years ago on a popular Grum song, but I think it was done kind of tongue in cheek

Unknown Soldier: It's the kind of track that is perfect for Joseph Williams' vocal array, I also really love this song.

Anteater: It's one of Toto's best mid tempo AOR songs without a doubt!

Unknown Soldier: It also sounds very much like a film soundtrack song as well, it could've featured as a soundtrack from any number of American films from that era.

Anteater: Should have been on Miami Vice, hahahaha!

Unknown Soldier: Oh yeah it's real Miami Vice type material.

Anteater: In any case, I will be the first to agree with you that the ballads on Fahrenheit in general are pretty pedestrian.

Anteater: None of them are bad songs per-se, but they lack the power of the band's biggest ballads we've heard so far.

Unknown Soldier: …which leads us to "Without You Love" a song and video that I really dislike and it's Steve Lukather at his worst and it was actually written by David Paich.

Unknown Soldier: It's only saving grace is its chorus and I guess David Paich thought that this was the type of song Steve Lukather would write anyway.

Anteater: I like Lukather's more laidback, exploratory jazz-fusion guitar work on the second half of the song, but it doesn't really do much for me either.

Anteater:Least as far as being a composition goes.

Unknown Soldier: ..... and the video has Joseph Williams standing around like a loose end, at least Bobby Kimball used to pretend to do something on the keyboards.i

Anteater: Lol, could Bobby even play keys?

Anteater: Though I digress…

Anteater: Our next cut, 'Can't Stand It Any Longer', is a really weird sounding song for Toto.

Unknown Soldier: The best song on the album for me, because it's the only song on this album that I can imagine Fergie singing but to be fair Joseph does a great job.

Unknown Soldier: It was always my favourite back when I got the album and is today as well. It's like a distant cousin of "Lion" in some ways.

Anteater: Lion's weirder cousin with a thing for Reggaeton I suppose

Anteater: It sounds like a Police song with Toto's usual dramatic flair on the chorus and main guitar melody.

Anteater: It’s one of those songs I wasn't into initially, but over time has grown a lot on me

Unknown Soldier: I guess so and sure there's a Police vibe to it, surprisingly that hasn't put me off the song as I really dislike the Police.

Anteater: Reggae and arena rock rarely ever crossed over even at their primes in the decade…

Anteater:…so I give it props just for trying. It's just icing on the cake that it's actually pretty listenable.

Anteater: On another note, we have now arrived at the "peak" (or perhaps valley) of the album...

Anteater:A certain power ballad we all know...

Anteater: It even has Michael McDonald on the chorus!

Unknown Soldier: Yes the cringe worthy "I'll Be Over You" and another video that I hate.

Anteater: Haha, I don't actually hate this song. It’s a good ballad, just nothing mindblowing.

Anteater: The video is pretty naff though, even for Toto.

Anteater: Surprised Kenny G didn't show up midway through!

Unknown Soldier: Exactly and boy was I glad it thundered and rained to drive them inside and cut short the song.

Anteater: Hahaha!

Anteater · 04-18-2015, 08:37 PM

Side Two

Anteater: So, moving onto side B, we greet the head-scratching title track: a song that moves Toto into dancefloor, "high NRG" territory.

Unknown Soldier: I find the whole song kind of embarrassing especially with that 'high NRG' or 'hip-hop' style intro. I know little of this kind of music so correct me if I'm wrong here.

Anteater: Well, Jeff Porcaro and Joseph Williams were both actually big fans of guys like Michael Jackson, Prince and such.

Anteater: I like the song partly due to its novelty, since stylistically its not that different from a lot of Japanese City Pop stuff that was coming out at the time

Anteater: Toto had never done a song like this before, so I give it some props.

Anteater: …but it's not the best tier material on Fahrenheit, no.

Unknown Soldier: I'm listening to it right now and looking forward to when it ends.

Unknown Soldier: Admittedly they were brave to go with it for the title track.

Anteater: I consider the title track and then 'Somewhere Tonight' and 'Could This Be Love' to be the weakest stretch of the album.

Anteater: They're ponderous and don't really have strong hooks or ideas to anchor them in your mind.

Unknown Soldier: Well "Somewhere Tonight" I really like a lot.

Anteater: That one at least has some atmosphere. It's better than 'Ill Be Over You' too!

Unknown Soldier: Because the song almost sounds like one of those low key Steve Porcaro songs with its intro and then changes style and the listener probably expects Steve Lukather to be singing it, but instead we have Joseph Williams singing it and I think he does a great job as he sings so well against the backdrop of the song's subtle beat.

Unknown Soldier: To me it's one of the better tracks on the whole album.

Anteater: Williams is unique in that he can handle any type of material

Anteater: it's a trait that would become even more evident on the next album, but like you said he's probably the best part of Fahrenheit too.

Anteater: Do you agree with me about 'Could This Be Love' though?

Anteater: I'm not a fan of it at all.

Unknown Soldier: Mostly I agree with you, as I dislike the opening and main parts of the song, as it all sounds like some drivel that John Cougar would've put out.

Anteater: Sounds very Toto but it’s just bland. I like 'Lea' a lot more.

Unknown Soldier: But there are some more powerful bits that Joseph Williams does well on the song.

Unknown Soldier: Bland is a good word for it…

Unknown Soldier: The problem for me with "Lea" is that if a great closing track came after it, it would work but that final great track doesn't come and it just sounds like typical b-side single material.

Anteater: There's a few interesting things about it though…

Anteater: For one, ol' Joe Porcaro is doing percussion on it alongside Lenny Castro…

Unknown Soldier: It's not one of Steve Porcaro's best written tracks.

Anteater: …you know, the father of the Porcaros.

Unknown Soldier: Oh, yes I do.

Anteater: One thing we actually haven't talked about is that Joe Porcaro has guested to some degree on every Toto album from Turn Back up until this point.

Anteater: Sometimes subtly and sometimes more obviously.

Anteater: I like 'Lea' because it’s got an almost bossa nova groove going. It’s on the better side of Fahrenheit's balladic material and it leads into the Miles Davis-guested closing instrumental 'Don't Stop Me Now'.

Unknown Soldier: To be fair you have a much greater appreciation and knowledge of the musical subtleties of an album than I have, as I usually focus mostly on its meat.

Unknown Soldier: I've no idea why that closing instrumental is on the album, it's nice and sounds like it could be on a New York skyline shot in a film.

Anteater: Yeah, it’s a cinematic touch and kind of a relaxed way to lead out of the album

Anteater: Toto have never done that before or since.

Anteater: Whether or not it’s a good or bad thing, I suppose, depends on the listener.

Unknown Soldier: Overall side-b for me might be the poorest side on any Toto album. Hell I only really like one song on it.

Anteater: I think I'll agree with you on that point: Fahrenheit is an album with big ups and downs in consistency…

Anteater: …which were key issues with both Hydra and Turn Back, though I think Fahrenheit is better than the latter.

Anteater: So while we can both agree that Fahrenheit has problems, what are the things you liked most about the album and would recommend to listeners (and our readers)?

Unknown Soldier: An introduction to Joseph Williams as I know very little of his material outside of Toto, apart from that I can't recommend much else and there's not even a David Paich vocal to speak off. Also if anybody likes contrived AOR, they should check out the album's first two singles.

Unknown Soldier: It's the first Toto album that we really disagree on, for me it’s easily the poorest so far and I would take Turn Back over it all the time.

Anteater: Good points. I see Fahrenheit as Toto trying for a greater palette and only succeeding about half the time. Nevertheless, some great material does come through and Joseph Williams was an excellent choice as singer. A good warmup to the masterpiece that is 1988's The Seventh One.

Anteater: I give it a solid B. As you mentioned, it’s on the weaker side of their discography, but there’s still good stuff to recommend.

Unknown Soldier · 04-27-2015, 04:54 AM

Toto The Seventh One 1988 (Columbia)

The land we call the home of the brave.

The Lowdown
As the album name suggests this was album number seven from Toto and most importantly it would signal the end of the band’s first stage as it were, where the band had been seen as one of the premier AOR bands from the last ten years. Within this time they had proved that they were one of the most eclectic and best of all the bands that fell under the AOR banner, but as the genre had more or less died its commercial death by the time of the Seventh One, album sales for this album would suffer which was a shame as its one of the band’s most accomplished releases. Also on this point, the album surprisingly was ill-received by critics, who saw the whole thing as having an almost ‘anonymous’ sound, which is strange as to me as it feels like how I imagine a Toto album from this period to sound. The two main singles from the album “Pamela” and “Stop Loving You” were both far better than those off Fahrenheit, but like the album turned out to be poor commercial achievers as well. The album is also noted by the fact that its title track never actually appeared on the album but instead was resigned to only appear on Japanese copies of the album.

The Seventh One in many ways sounds like the band pulling out all the stops to try and make an impressive record and its dominant purple cover instantly makes it the band’s most striking album cover, along with the red of Toto IV. The line-up also remains complete from the Fahrenheit album and musically it remained the same, but stylistically the songs are superior here, harder edged where it matters, with a number of musical surprises that really work this time and the commercial material is decidedly less generic as well, sadly though the videos hadn’t improved that much and in my mind are inferior to the videos seen on the first five albums.

The album was jointly produced by the band with George Massenberg and Bill Payne of Little Feat and the album would be the final release at the time with Joseph Williams as lead vocalist. This negative factor now proved that the band seemed incapable of holding onto a highly talented vocalist, as not too many bands out there would’ve departed company with vocalists of the caliber of Bobby Kimball, Fergie Frederiksen and Joseph Williams in just over a five year period, this now led to serious credibility problems by the band which I remember were highlighted at the time.

Unknown Soldier · 04-27-2015, 05:31 AM

The Album
Unknown Soldier: You've often mentioned that this is one of your favourite albums from the band, any obvious reason for that?
Anteater: I think it's their best overall AOR recording. There's almost no weak points on it, which would make it the first since the debut in that regard.
Anteater: It's more balanced than Isolation, more diverse than IV, and like you mentioned it's a step up from Fahrenheit in a lot of ways too.
Unknown Soldier: For me it's a difficult album for a listener to adjust to, not because it's complex or anything, but rather it has great depth that's not evidently obvious. For example it's weakest part imo is actually with its opening 4 songs, which not only include its two main singles but also include two very other generic tracks, but it's from there that it slowly drifts into being something else and it's quite a journey as we'll explain.
Unknown Soldier: It's all strange really as the first few tracks on most albums are usually among its strongest and set the stall out as it were.
Anteater: They put all the most "obvious" material out front
Unknown Soldier: It's also a long album for its time as well, but this was 1988 and albums were getting longer.
Anteater: I think there were other factors too, as the band was pretty comfortable with Joseph as lead vocalist by this point
Unknown Soldier: Well he took the lion's share of the vocals here.
Anteater: Well yeah, and whatever band dynamics they initially established had gone up a few notches. The only problem, like you mentioned, was trying to sell the end product to a public who was supposedly disinterested in AOR
Anteater: But from what I understand the problem in this case had more to do with Columbia not promoting The Seventh One and less to do with overall public perception.
Anteater: But like I said, I think as an AOR record its their best of the 80's and probably the 2nd best album we've spotlighted so far next to the self-titled.
Unknown Soldier: Well as you know Isolation will always be the best for me (cool)

Anteater: It's a hard call between The Seventh One and Isolation for me
Unknown Soldier: But seriously I do remember at the time, that band wanted to make a big splash with this album, but as you said the label weren't on the same wavelength as the band.

Side 1
Anteater: But anyway, opening single 'Pamela' wasn't a bad way to start things off.
Unknown Soldier: In "Pamela" we find a song that is not only a strong opener, but sounds immediately better than any of the singles off the previous album.
Anteater: 'Fahrenheit' had some really strong single material: the problem was the label didn't use any of them as lead singles, so it was a wasted opportunity
Unknown Soldier: The video also uses that 'pleasant looking studio environment' from the time as well for the Pamela video which I liked back then.
Anteater: But in this case, 'Pamela' is definititive Toto. I don't care too much for the video, but it has an excellent groove.
Unknown Soldier: It has a fantastic groove and Mike Porcaro moves with that groove as he often did RIP.
Unknown Soldier: The song's a pure single and that's the best that can be said about it and of course showcases the vocals of JW.
Anteater: It has a nice brassy sheen to it too and it also shows off another facet of the album from the get-go: the mix has a lot of clarity, making it one of the best "sounding" albums in their whole catalog
Unknown Soldier: ..... and sadly one of the last times that we would see Jeff Porcaro in a Toto video as well.
Unknown Soldier: Yes it has great clarity to it, now we move onto "You Got Me"
Anteater: I'm assuming this one of the "generic" sounding tracks to you, but I like it a lot. Very hi-tech, and a lottttt better than their previous experiment in this area, the title track from 'Fahrenheit'
Unknown Soldier: Generic and somewhat reptitive, when I first heard it I thought the album was going to be another Fahrenheit all over again, but I guess I'm also being quite hard on it too.
Anteater: Joseph Williams was always a big Michael Jackson aficionado, so this song is that element coming out in his songwriting. Paich co-wrote it if I recall too.
Unknown Soldier: You notice this in his style especially in his movement which is very akin to Jackson at times.
Anteater: Toto were basically Michael Jackson's backing band in the first half of the 80's anyway, so I'm not surprised to see that sort of thing pop back up even after the association ended.
Unknown Soldier: Next is "Anna" and for me it's just a case of getting the bland Steve Lukather ballad out of the way quickly here.
Anteater: I actually think it's one of Lukather's better ballads, a co-write with Westcoast session man Randy Goodrum, but the predictability factor is high certainly.
Unknown Soldier: Ok we have some differences on the last two songs a rarity really!
Anteater: It's all about finesse for me, none of the ballad material on 'Fahreneheit' really worked for me, but 'Anna' does for some reason. The arrangement has an extra "something"
Unknown Soldier: I understand that and kind of know the type of thing that you look for now.
Anteater: Like you though, I find it interesting that the weakest material on The Seventh One is on side one and all the best stuff comes after.
Unknown Soldier: Next track is the other single "Stop Loving You"
Anteater: I like this one quite a bit
Unknown Soldier: Which seems to start off with a blatant "Africa" tinge to it.
Anteater: It's their way of winking knowingly at the listener lol, it has a similar vibe, but I like the energy and hook here a lot more than 'Africa'. Plus Jon Anderson of Yes is on backing vocals
Unknown Soldier: Again I don't particuarly like it, it's too 'happy' sounding for me and hell I didn't know that Jon Anderson was backing on it.
Unknown Soldier: By now I'd be switching off from this album, but as I know what's to come............
Anteater: Four songs in and none of them are weak though
Anteater: Next is 'Mushanga' and this is the one that reminds me the most of 'Africa' funnily enough.
Unknown Soldier: 1 good, 1 average and 2 misses for me.
Unknown Soldier: Now "Mushanga" is the oddest way to transform somebody's opinion about an album, because it did with me.
Anteater: It's a surprisingly lyrical song
Unknown Soldier: It's kind of a nice low-key track that rides you on a gentle wave to the really strong material that's coming up.
Unknown Soldier: Yes it has nice lyrics to it.
Anteater: Jeff Porcaro was the main writer here, and there's even a flamenco guitar solo courtesy of Lukather
Unknown Soldier: He always wrote on some of the band's most interesting material and yes that flamenco guitar is the great surprise that works and the track also has that calypso beat as well.
Anteater: Makes me wish Jeff had gotten to do more writing during his "time" with the band
Anteater: You know that Jeff played on literally several thousand albums before 1992 right?
Anteater: The guy had been exposed to so many different genres and artists during his time in the industry its kind of mindboggling
Unknown Soldier: Hell yer, he's on like most Steely Dan albums, if you can find him through all the credits.
Anteater: Yeah, that was where he got started was with "the Dan"
Anteater: Anyway, onward to the excellent 'Stay Away' and we're back in high octane AOR territory now
Unknown Soldier: Now you know I'm going to dig "Stay Away" it's just my kind of thing and contrasts superbly with the previous song.
Anteater: Well, I'll just go ahead and say that I consider side 2 of The Seventh One to be pretty darn fantastic.
Anteater: I like Side A fine of course, but its like they took all the best material and just lined them up like dominos, starting from 'Mushanga'
Anteater: Lukather wrote this one, and his guitar tone here is absolutely killer, almost like a buzzsaw
Unknown Soldier: It's strength is that it's a 5.30 mins song
Unknown Soldier: That keeps it going all the way and never runs out of steam.
Anteater: I heard it was a song they originally wrote for Cher, but Jeff and Joseph pushed to keep it for The Seventh One.
Unknown Soldier: It would be interesting to hear Cher sing it.
Anteater: So they changed the lyrics a bit, lengthened the arrangement and thus we get a surprisingly bluesy AOR rocker

Unknown Soldier · 04-27-2015, 06:05 AM

Side 2
Unknown Soldier: Starting side 2 is "Straight for the Heart" the third single from the album and another killer track.
Anteater: Oh I love that track to death. One of my favorite AOR songs of the late 80's and it has an amazing bassline
Unknown Soldier: The video has that 'ranch aspect' with a guy with the white t-shirt and jeans in the video, that could easily could've been a Richard Marx song

Unknown Soldier: But I always loved this song as it has so much energy to it.
Anteater: Oh right I saw that video a lonnnng time ago. It sucks of course, but oh well

I forget who played the girl in that video
Unknown Soldier: These last three tracks have all been special, but now we enter into the more epic stuff like "Only the Children"
Anteater: Toto have done songs about disparity before, but this is one of the better ones
Unknown Soldier: Of course and it has an epic feel and I never tire of it.
Anteater: It's not as punchy as 'Straight To The Heart' or 'Stay Away', but the chorus is excellent and yeah it has kind of an epic feel to complement its lyrical theme
Anteater: Its a good lead up to my favorite pair of songs on the album too
Unknown Soldier: Next is "A Thousand Years" another song that is a favourite of mine as well and we're on the same wavelength here.
Unknown Soldier: It has a beautiful almost dreamy feel to it.
Anteater: It's very dreamy and surreal. I'd go as far as to call it apocalyptic.
Anteater: Because the song reeks lyrically of desolation and uncertainty. It's the first time Toto have ever done a song like this, and it works brilliantly
Unknown Soldier: "These Chains" is the second of that great pair and one of the best Steve Lukather tracks.
Anteater: Another one with Randy Goodrum actually, which is funny because 'Anna' didn't work for you at all

same songwriting pair, different result I suppose
Anteater: It's one of my favorite Toto songs of all time though, as well as one of Jeff Porcaro's best ever drum shuffles
Unknown Soldier: To be fair I never thought of them as a pair, "Anna" sounds like a boring Chicago song to me and well "These Chains" is a very good song.
Anteater: Well, Goodrum is kinda like an unofficial Toto member at this point. He also helped write 'I'll Be Over You" from the last one hahaha
Unknown Soldier: Probably why he doesn't linger in my mind that much.
Unknown Soldier: Final track is "Home of the Brave" probably the most ambitious track the band had put out since "Hydra"
Anteater: In any case, by the time most listeners have gotten to this point they're probably thinking the band was going to end with a boring ballad or something
Anteater: But they actually close out with one of their best anthems in their whole songwriting history
Unknown Soldier: Also it's the first David Paich vocal on the album amazingly, but of course JW steels the show here as he should on a track like this.
Anteater: Oh yeah, Paich opens up the song
Anteater: You're right though, 'Home Of The Brave' is the most ambitious song they had done in nearly 10 years up until this point
Anteater: Its basically a mini-progressive rock epic
Unknown Soldier: After that snazzy synth intro.
Unknown Soldier: In fact the whole song is a musical display by the band and the song just transforms with that guitar section after the 3.20 point into something more muscular.
Anteater: The whole song is a masterpiece. Easily the best closing song they've ever gone out with.
Anteater: There's even some Yes-styled instrumental tradeoffs about midway through, dueling guitar and synth lines, lots of fun
Unknown Soldier: That muscle guitar sound and you know what I'm talking about here, is always the thing that pumps my blood on these songs and it's one of their best along with the one on "Angel Don't Cry" and of course Journey's "Edge of the Blade". I could listen to these three tracks all day.
Anteater: I find it funny that one of the best "stadium" songs came out at a time that the genre was drying up with most mainstream audiences
Anteater: They should have released it as a full-blown single, length be damned
Unknown Soldier: Well it was kind of wasted but then again some of the really late period AOR material was great, for example that Bad English debut album is one of the best AOR albums imo. Came out just a year later than the Toto album.
Anteater: Oh yeah, '89 was a great year as far as AOR albums were concerned. You also had stuff like Strangeways and that Michael Thompson Band release, so there was plenty of fun to be had
Anteater: In any case, The Seventh One was Toto's last full blown AOR record as you mentioned in your intro, as well as being the rare case of an album that actually backloaded all of its best material.
Unknown Soldier Finally we should mention it's title track "The Seventh One" which was only on the Japanese releases of the album.
Anteater: Yeah, I have that one too. It's a good song: a tad repetitive and more of a "let's jam" kind of piece.
Unknown Soldier: Well I never knew it existed until the age of the internet and even now have trouble believing it's a Toto song.
Unknown Soldier: I guess they ran out of time to fit it on the album.
Anteater: Haha, yeah and it's a weird one for Toto
Anteater: I'm guessing nobody in the U.S. got to hear it except that rare person who went out of their way to import it from Japan back then
Unknown Soldier: Those Japanese imports were always the best and being a Cheap Trick nut I had some of their Japanese imports.
Anteater: Most Toto albums never had any kind of bonus material. So I found it interesting that The Seventh One actually had a title track too a few years ago

The Conclusion
Anteater: How do you rate it in comparison to past albums we've gone through so far?
Unknown Soldier: One of their most accomplished along with their debut.
Anteater: Yeah, since I know you didn't like the first half all that much and Isolation is your favorite of their 80's albums
Unknown Soldier: This is the order that I'd put them in.
Unknown Soldier: 1. Isolation 2. Toto 3. The Seventh One 4. Hydra 5. Toto IV 6. Turn Back 7. Fahrenheit.
Anteater: That's pretty close to my order too
Anteater: In any case, with The Seventh One, we can say goodbye for the time being to Toto's AOR era and look forward to their less well-known material
Unknown Soldier: But I like Turn Back better than you, as I think it has great songs but dislike Fahrenheit quite a bit.
Anteater: it would be a time of many changes and instabilities
Unknown Soldier: Yes next studio album is the Steve Lukather dominated Kingdom of Desire which I do like, but before that we had the death of Jeff Porcaro and that Jean-Michel geezer from South Africa as their vocalist for live performances.
Unknown Soldier: A word of advice, never have a singer with a French name in your band, they're always crap

Anteater: We might talk a bit more about him in our next review, but we'll save the fun for then

The Batlord · 04-27-2015, 02:26 PM

I'm definitely going to have to go through this thread soon, but until then the only thing I can think of when I read the title is Manowar: "I can see, by the look in your eye, you came here for metal, to fight and to die!"

Foreigner 4 was fantastic BTW. It's like what Trollheart keeps desperately telling himself about Bon Jovi: AOR with balls.