Kingdom of Desire and
Turn Back have a rockier feel than some of the other albums, with me being into a harder rocking sound I really enjoy those albums.
Kingdom of Desire has Steve Lukather's stamp all over it as by that time he had become the clear leader of the band, especially after Jeff Pocaro's death. Now
Isolation is a different ball game altogether. Its probably one of the most hated Toto albums and no other Toto album sounds quite like it, the band for many a year refused to play anything from it live as well. Despite that, its easily my favourite Toto album and possibly my all-time favourite album as well (believe me I'm making no idle boast here I think its that unique) What do I find so great about it? Well one word "energy" the album has a energy that even today I find few albums can match, the energy was in the music and in Fergie Frederiksen's powerful and at times manic vocals, every song he sung on that album was blistering from start to finish. If any album was ever designed to be played loud it was this album. Problem was though, the album didn't sell like
Toto IV and Toto weren't actually known for this sound either. When I heard Fergie Frederiksen had been sacked by the band back in 1986, I remembered being one upset kid back then and swore I'd never listen to the band again
I was that upset.
A couple of years ago, I actually sent Fergie Frederiksen a message on Facebook telling him how I rated his vocal perfomance on
Isolation right up there with some of the best in the history of rock and how that album has remained an integral part of my music life since, about a week later much to my surprise, he actually responded and wrote a few lines thanking me for my words, I treasured the moment.
What' s actually amazing about the whole thing, is that the first couple of times I listened to
Isolation in 1984 I hated the album with a passion and couldn't believe how noisy it sounded, then on about the third listen it just hit me!!!