Toto
Toto XIV

Want to talk AOR? Well, then it’s difficult to do that without mentioning Toto. Want to talk 80’s music? That’s equally difficult without mentioning Toto. Talking music in general is even difficult without mentioning Toto. They are one of the best selling bands of all time with some of the most classic songs ever made in their repertoar. Frontiers list a few amazing numbers along with this album, like the fact that the collected discography from the members of Toto equals 5000 album. 5000!!! And without making too much fuzz about it they also reveal how much they’ve sold. Half a billion. That’s not five hundred thousand, which would have been impressing in itself, it five hundred million (!) - how does one comment on that? Well, now they’re back with their first album in nine years and one can only bow humbly because they show how 38 years of experience should be used.

While bands has come and gone, toto has kept going except for a short break a few years ago. Their style has been copied and inspired thousands of bands through the years and all though many of them has been as good or maybe even better it still feel pretty special to hear the original when they don’t mess about. Though Toto members has featured on 5000 albums, we’ve got 12 studio albums before this one from the band Toto.But hold on for a second I hear you Roman experts calling out - this album is called ’Toto XIV’, which means ”Toto 14” and it’s true that this is the 14th studio album by Toto, it’s just that one of the 13 was a soundtrack for the movie Dune, starring Kyle MacLachlan. Except for these we’ve also got five live albums and eight official compilations. However, for most of the younger generation it’s the singles Toto are recognised by.

I imagine everyone over 20 has heard songs like Hold The Line, Rosanna, Africa, I’ll Be Over You and Pamela. I think they could be considered even more classic than Beethoven, but it’s only one of these that’s been a number one single at the Billboards and only four are top tens. With this album, though, it would surprise me hugely if they don’t get a second number one, that is if they release the magical power ballad Burn with it’s wonderful choirs and piano. So far, though, they’ve released two singles - the rocking Orphan (another track with piano) and the slightly upbeat semi progressive Holy War. The next single should definitely be Burn because it’s a future classic (it even have Joseph Williams on lead vocals which seems to result in classics). Beside these three songs we get another eight tracks that are both soft and heavy as well as jazzy and bluesy and more or less everything in between that sounds AOR. In other words, it’s a Toto album such as Toto albums normally come.

The quality on the songs vary a bit. All though I think the overall quality is high, there are some tracks that don’t reach as high as the rest. Most of the songs, though, are really up there with the songs that came from their career peak. Joseph Williams is back for real and has sung on seven of these eleven tracks. The two that’s been in the band since the beginning, Steve Lukather and David Paich, sings on the rest as well as the third founding member, Steve Porcaro who also decided to return when the band reunited after their hiatus in 2009-10. Already mentioned Holy War is a duet between Williams and Lukather and the tracks Chinatown and Great Expectations even has Paich joining in. Beside these we get a duet between Lukather and Paich in All The Tears. The only member in this 2015 version of Toto that hasn’t put his voice on record is drummer Keith Carlock, who replaced long time member Simon Philiips last year.

After playing through this album several times I feel that the best tracks just keeps getting better while the weaker songs doesn’t. For example we have 21st Century Blues, the title suggest it’s a bluesy tune at it sure is, which works but not great to be honest. Unknown Soldier (For Jeffrey) is nice ballad but it doesn’t really get anywhere and I feel they probably should used Williams to do the vocals in this one to get the best of it because he usually gets the better out of songs like these. I also feel that Chinatown is pretty poor compared to the rest and it could have been a real disaster here in the middle of the album if they hadn’t saved The Little Things (situated between Unknown Soldier and Chinatown) with such a great chorus. The songs sounds a bit like The Look Of Love (you know… it’s in your eyes and so on) but the chorus takes The Look Of Love concept higher than the original has ever been. The best tracks are the already mentioned singles as well as the wonderful All The Tears with its choirs and everything but really - all the songs except those name above are real killers!

If you go for the special edition box-set, which I recommend you to buy, you’ll not only get the CD and the DVD-documentary that follows it but also the album in vinyl, a t-shirt as well as a poster and a lithography. You just can’t call yourself a Toto fan if you don’t chose that! This album really is absolutely amazing, the weaker songs mentioned above are not that bad and the quality on the rest is so high it could pick down the moon! I’m not sure they were this good even in the middle of the 80’s when they were as best. All though the surprises are few, the quality is overwhelming and I can safely say this is one of Toto’s best albums!

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