The Album
Unknown Soldier: Well
Toto IV is probably best described as the album that the record company wanted and certainly got.
Anteater: Yeah, Columbia wanted a hit and they got a helluva lot more than they expected.
Anteater: As I noted in my intro, it won six Grammys in one shot that year.
Unknown Soldier: Five singles were released from it as well and two of those became super famous.
Unknown Soldier: "Rosanna" and "Africa" of course.
Anteater: Yep. One thing that'll be fun to determine from our review here is whether or not Toto's most popular album ranks among their overall best or not. It's the only album that most non-Toto fans have atleast heard of after all.
Anteater: Which means it was also the biggest punching bag for critics and detractors of the band.
Unknown Soldier: If a rock collector says they have at least one Toto album in their collection, it's sure to be this one.
Unknown Soldier: Now what would you say before we go into the songs, were the vital ingredients that made this album so big?
Anteater: Well, from my perspective, every band that has sold tens of millions has atleast that "one" album.
Anteater: You know, the one that's like their 15 minutes of fame in the forefront of mainstream consciousness.
Anteater: Going by sheer exposure, Toto
IV is an album that left a big mark on a lot of people. If the songs weren't any good, it wouldn't have taken off to the degree that it did.
Unknown Soldier: Agreed on that score, but I really felt that they worked harder on their melodies here than they had done previously and also the greater mixing of different vocalists working together on the same songs like on "Rosanna" and "Africa".
Unknown Soldier: Have you also noticed that this really BIG album for these kinds of bands is often album no.4
Anteater: The recording process behind
IV is also the stuff of legends, kind of like what Steely Dan went through with 'Aja' a few years before this.
Anteater: IV is often used as a benchmark for recording quality by audiophiles...
Anteater: ...when testing out different types of sound systems and such.
Unknown Soldier: It's like they reach their creativity as a band before finally going over a plateau.
Unknown Soldier: Hell the amount of additional musical credits for the album is huge as well.
Anteater: And I did notice the "number four" phenomenon
Anteater: Foreigner had the same sort of breakthrough a year before Toto did.
Anteater: So they're a good example.
Anteater: The early 80's in general was an interesting period where AOR hit maximum commercial viability, steadily giving way to glam and New Romantic as the decade wore on.
Unknown Soldier: Yes the perfect example.
Unknown Soldier: I always felt that glam metal stole AOR's thunder anyway, as being at the lighter end of the metal spectrum they appealed to the commercial rock crowd as well to a degree.
Anteater: Yeah, you've gotten some good insight into that through your Pounding Decibels journal actually.
Side One
Anteater: Anywho, let's start by taking a look at opening #1 smash single 'Rosanna'.
Unknown Soldier: Sure as half the metal albums on there are literally running into AOR territory in the 80's anyway.
Unknown Soldier: "Rosanna" the lead single from the album.
Anteater: It's one of their most recognizable songs
Anteater: Porcaro and Hungate in perfect sync of course on the rhythm. One of their smoothest songs!
Unknown Soldier: .... and a video with a sexy blonde in a red dress and black heels (cool)
Anteater: Yeah, that blonde was great.
Anteater: As someone who wasn't really part of the MTV generation, I look back on music videos with something resembling bemusement
Unknown Soldier: ...... and Kimball and Lukather working a great vocal tandem as well.
Unknown Soldier: I can understand that of course but for me they were great of course.
Unknown Soldier: Is the chain link fence in the video typical in the USA, as I always associate them with urban USA? :P
Anteater: Yeah, you'll see those in a lot of AOR vids in general
Anteater: I recall some of Saga's music videos from around the same period involving them
Anteater: And they're from Canada, so I think it was a border-crossing trend
Unknown Soldier: I kind of expect Starsky and Hutch to be chasing some lowlife down an alleyway when I see the Rosanna video and squashing his nose up against the fence.
Unknown Soldier: Anyway the song is an accomplished piece without doubt even if I was never really crazy over the song personally.
Anteater: I like it a lot, but its not my favorite from
IV by any stretch of the imagination.
Anteater: I like the circular-grooving 'Make Believe' a little more actually.
Unknown Soldier: Again I was never mad on that, but when I lent the album to two of my friends they both liked that song the best.
Anteater: Toto name so many songs after various women you could create an album simply based on that.
Unknown Soldier: Good point.
Unknown Soldier: I guess the reason that I don't like "Make Believe" that much, is because it sounds like the kind of borefest song sung by Billy Joel or Elton John.
Anteater: IV is undoubtedly Toto's most laidback album of the 80's, so 'Make Believe' fits right in. I like the sax that comes in later too.
Unknown Soldier: Well the song sums up the mood of the album and is the kind of album track that would be expected on an album like that.
Anteater: Yep: Kimball takes lead and does well with it. He supposedly was dealing with drug addiction in a big way during this period, but his performance is great.
Anteater: And speaking of mood, that leads us to the big power ballad 'I Won't Hold You Back'
Unknown Soldier: For me not only is this one of the greatest Toto songs of all time but probably my favourite rock ballad ever.
Unknown Soldier: I think the song is totally beautiful from beginning to end and the perfect song for romance, what a pity you're not a woman
Anteater: It's an interesting song, kind of like something the
Eagles might have done crossed with
The Alan Parsons Project.
Anteater: It has a certain gravitas with some orchestral touches here and there which was characteristic of the latter band's material.
Unknown Soldier: Agreed and it's great that it's not super famous like the other two singles........ despite the fact that I do tend to hear it fairly often these days on the radio.
Unknown Soldier: I seem to remember that somebody covered this song recently as well.
Anteater: I'd probably use it to get my girlfriend into Toto (assuming she wouldn't hate 80's material)
Anteater: Yeah, it's not as famous as 'Rosanna' or the big A…
Anteater: ….but one of the best ballads of the era for sure.
Anteater: I'm going to bring up several songs in a row now, since we're getting into the B-side. I like both 'Good For You' and the Oriental-sounding 'It's A Feeling'.
Anteater: The latter I feel is pretty underrated, and I think it could have been a big single in its own right on late night FM radio.
Unknown Soldier: "Good For You" is a great song with Kimball back on vocals and I like it so much more than "Make Believe"
Unknown Soldier: "It's A Feeling" could only be written by Steve Porcaro, as his track were real oddities on the Toto albums.
Anteater: We're in prime time "pop" Toto territory at this point
Anteater: I'm sure the relatively small minority of fans who got into Toto over songs like 'Hydra' or 'Girl Goodbye' would have preferred more intricate material, but
IV is surprisingly consistent.
Unknown Soldier: oh yeah the track is clear pop and I love how the track picks up towards its end as well.
Unknown Soldier: Toto IV by the end of its first side is totally tight, nothing too intricate but neither too basic, just right I guess like the perfect cooked egg.
Anteater: From that observation, it’s their best "total package" since the first album.