Toronto - Girls Night Out

Well that didn't take long. I had mentioned I didn't have the last Toronto album* when I was writing about the band's previous album Get It on Credit, (posted September 17, 2025) and sure enough when I was rummaging through the discount bins at Krazy Bob's there it was ... along with a baker's dozen other albums that came with me.

I know there was one more album under the Toronto banner, Assault & Flattery, that was attributed to Holly Woods & Toronto. Aside from Holly Woods, keyboardist Scott Kreyer was the only other member as Sheron Alton and Brian Allen were no longer in the band, so for me Girls Night Out is the last album by the classic lineup that dropped an album a year from 1980 to 1983. A blip on the radar but they left an indelible mark on Canadian rock.

I know I've taken some pot shots at the band in the past and have been lukewarm to their albums as a whole. They always had a great single, and while I'd enjoy the albums they just never seemed to resonate. I had expected more of the same with Girls Night Out. The title track was great, but I had no idea what was really in store with the album. This was more or less new to me.

I did not expect this one to click. Boy did it ever. The album leads off with the title track, and frankly I more or less figured the band had delivered their money shot and would promptly roll over and go to sleep. I didn't think they'd keep dropping one great track after another throughout side one.

I wonder if Prince or Sinead heard "Ready to Make Up" as "Nothing Compares 2 U" is eerily similar. I know overall the songs aren't that close, but man both songs start off with the same cadence. Who knows, maybe it's just me ...

Exhibit A: Toronto

It's been three long days and three long nights
I'm gettin' too lonely to face one more
I'm so sorry that we had that fight
I'm asking you only to open the door

Exhibit B: Prince

It's been seven hours and fifteen days
Since you took your love away
I go out every night and sleep all day
Since you took your love away

The first side was really good. I mean it was really good.

Side two starts off with "All Night Love Affair" which was a serviceable song, but it felt more like the Toronto I liked to take pot shots at ... thankfully they got back on track with the next one and didn't look back. Musically this was still ballsy guitar rock fronted by a truly gifted vocalist in Holly Woods, but they were incorporating elements of new wave and when they got the pieces in the right order, they were really onto something.

Girls Night Out, like Toronto's previous three records, would go platinum (100,000) in Canada, and, setting aside my pithy comments about the albums being meh at times, Toronto got better with each release. At the time it seemed inconceivable that this was the end of the line.

They went out on top.

*I suppose one could argue that Assault & Flattery, which was attributed to Holly Woods & Toronto, was their last album, but by '84, both Sheron and Brian were gone and the only remaining member other than Holly Woods was keyboard player Scott Kreyer to represent Toronto. It may be a good album, but I don't consider it canon.

Styx - Paradise Theater

Styx was hands down one of my favourite bands as a kid. They were a strange band, even back then. They were a hard rock band, almost progressive at times, who had a penchant for sucky ballads. I know there's a tendency for people to zero in on "Babe" as the song that killed the band's credibility. The roots go way back to almost the beginning when Styx released "Lady" on their second album. It showed a side to the band that needed to be kept in check, and for the most part the band kept things on a pretty tight leash. The band had been setting a gruelling pace, releasing an album a year (two in 1972) and by the time they released Paradise Theater (if I end up writing theatre later it's because that's how we spell it here) in 1981 they'd dropped ten albums in less than a decade. I snapped this up as soon as I saw it, and it became a fixture on my turntable. Like the band had announced on "Borrowed Time" from 1979's Cornerstone , ...

Billy Rankin - Growin' Up Too Fast

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Garfield - Strange Streets

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