Toto - Toto IV

There are good albums, and then there's Toto IV. A near perfect rock album that had it all. Big guitars, the pounding drums, great vocals, and most importantly amazing songs. The band always had all of the ingredients at their disposal, but the perfect combination had eluded the band when it came to pulling off an album's worth of unparalleled excellence. Over the years I've purchased this album four times. First when it came out, and then on CD, and then when they released the All In Box set a few years ago (so good), and then again just recently when I found the record and felt it should come home with me.

I bought this album before I'd heard any of the songs on the radio. Apparently "Rosanna" came out as a teaser a month or so before the album dropped and I may have heard it, but honestly I don't remember. What I do remember is hearing "Afraid of Love" blaring on the stereo at one of the record stores in the mall, and it was around the break where the guitar riff and the strings were playing off each other. It stopped me in my tracks. What ... was ... that? I just stood there in front of the turntable trying to read the label as it spun around. Then "Lovers in the Night" followed with no discernible break between the songs (It made breaking them for mixtapes an absolute pain in the ass) and I was just transfixed.

I found out it was the new Toto and I just handed my money over. Then I brought it home and that's when I first really heard "Rosanna" and the guitar solo on the fade felt like I was being robbed of one of life's great aural pleasures. How could they fade it out just when Mr. Lukather was in full flight?

Now, despite all of my earlier hyperbole, the album wasn't all rainbows and puppy dogs. I'd put up with some of the songs and wait for others to come up. "I Won't Hold You Back" cemented Steve Lukather as the singer of ballads, despite his ability to kill it on the rock songs. It was his emotive ability that assigned him to an address at Sappy Avenue. Oh, that isn't a shot. "I Won't Hold You Back" is one of the greatest ballads, ever. The good songs made up for the missteps, like "It's a Feeling," the clunker that closes out the first side.

The second side opens with a one-two punch that would be the envy of almost any rock band. Heck, it can't just be me who noticed when Van Halen "borrowed" the riff from "Afraid of Love" for "Top of the World" (closing track from For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge). By all accounts Luke and Ed were friends and I'd bet it was a tip of the hat.

I hesitate to say that aside from "Africa," the rest of side two was borderline filler. They weren't filler, they just weren't songs I felt were worthy of being selected for a mixtape. However the passage of time has made them feel a lot more cohesive. "Waiting for Your Love" was to me one of the worst songs on the album. It felt like that generic R&B crap that sounded like it belonged on a Michael Jackson album. Of course now it's just a solid pop song. It didn't have the edge the songs I really liked have, but then again I never really liked "99" either, and don't get me started on "Georgy Porgy" - good Lord.

This was an album that lived on my turntable for months after I got it. In later years somehow Toto was labelled as Yacht Rock, which perplexes me as they're practically their own genre. Whatever, so long as people remember them.

The cover was awesome, and the insert was perfect. The credits were a geek's dream. The band didn't include lyrics, nope. Instead each song gave a breakdown of who sang, who outside the band played on the track, who recorded it. It was awesome and for a kid who loved credits this was a treasure trove of information that would be stored and used when looking at other records. I wish more bands did this.

For shits and giggles let's do a simple song summary that contains over forty years of packed baggage.

Here we go:

1. "Rosanna" The Porcaro shuffle, and one of the greatest outro guitar solos ever. The song still rocks.
2. "Make Believe" Not a song I thought much of back in the day, but man it is so good to me now. The sax solo is smokin'.
3. "I Won't Hold You Back" A near perfect ballad, and oh my stars and garters the orchestra pushes it over the top when it's accompanying Lukather's guitar solo. The brass section is awesome, the little hairs on my neck stand up.
4. "Good for You" Again one of the weaker songs when I was a teenager, and now it just rocks.
5. "It's a Feeling" Something about Steve Porcaro's songs always irritated me. This is nowhere near as bad as "A Secret Love" from Hydra. When I made a cassette copy for the car of Hydra I left that song off ... something I've only done once. At least I can listen to "It's a Feeling" and think to myself, "You know, this isn't that bad."
6. "Afraid of Love" HOLY SHIT! Still awesome. Still melts my face.
7. "Lovers in the Night" I'm just a puddle by the end of the song. Not only did my face melt, so did my legs.
8. "We Made It" I would overlook this song, but it's a sleeper and frankly way better than I remember.
9. "Waiting for Your Love" Nope.
10. "Africa" I always liked the song, but it wasn't the best song to me. It was awesome and all, but somehow the track has become synonymous with the band. It's now woven into popular culture so the band will live on, even if people only know one song.

This was the commercial peak for Toto. They climbed the mountain and took in the view. Then came the inevitable fall from grace. People seem to love shitting on a success story. Toto just kept on releasing albums and while North America seemed to relegate the band to the remainder bin, the rest of the world hung around. The band would keep releasing one stellar album after another to diminishing returns at home, but their fans stayed true. Heck I didn't jump off the wagon (it was close) when they brought on Jean-Michel Byron as vocalist.

Still those are stories for another time.

Toto IV cemented my love for the band, and I've never wavered.