Side Two
Anteater: So, moving onto side B, we greet the head-scratching title track: a song that moves Toto into dancefloor, "high NRG" territory.
Unknown Soldier: I find the whole song kind of embarrassing especially with that 'high NRG' or 'hip-hop' style intro. I know little of this kind of music so correct me if I'm wrong here.
Anteater: Well, Jeff Porcaro and Joseph Williams were both actually big fans of guys like Michael Jackson, Prince and such.
Anteater: I like the song partly due to its novelty, since stylistically its not that different from a lot of Japanese City Pop stuff that was coming out at the time
Anteater: Toto had never done a song like this before, so I give it some props.
Anteater: …but it's not the best tier material on
Fahrenheit, no.
Unknown Soldier: I'm listening to it right now and looking forward to when it ends.
Unknown Soldier: Admittedly they were brave to go with it for the title track.
Anteater: I consider the title track and then 'Somewhere Tonight' and 'Could This Be Love' to be the weakest stretch of the album.
Anteater: They're ponderous and don't really have strong hooks or ideas to anchor them in your mind.
Unknown Soldier: Well "Somewhere Tonight" I really like a lot.
Anteater: That one at least has some atmosphere. It's better than 'Ill Be Over You' too!
Unknown Soldier: Because the song almost sounds like one of those low key Steve Porcaro songs with its intro and then changes style and the listener probably expects Steve Lukather to be singing it, but instead we have Joseph Williams singing it and I think he does a great job as he sings so well against the backdrop of the song's subtle beat.
Unknown Soldier: To me it's one of the better tracks on the whole album.
Anteater: Williams is unique in that he can handle any type of material
Anteater: it's a trait that would become even more evident on the next album, but like you said he's probably the best part of
Fahrenheit too.
Anteater: Do you agree with me about 'Could This Be Love' though?
Anteater: I'm not a fan of it at all.
Unknown Soldier: Mostly I agree with you, as I dislike the opening and main parts of the song, as it all sounds like some drivel that John Cougar would've put out.
Anteater: Sounds very Toto but it’s just bland. I like 'Lea' a lot more.
Unknown Soldier: But there are some more powerful bits that Joseph Williams does well on the song.
Unknown Soldier: Bland is a good word for it…
Unknown Soldier: The problem for me with "Lea" is that if a great closing track came after it, it would work but that final great track doesn't come and it just sounds like typical b-side single material.
Anteater: There's a few interesting things about it though…
Anteater: For one, ol' Joe Porcaro is doing percussion on it alongside Lenny Castro…
Unknown Soldier: It's not one of Steve Porcaro's best written tracks.
Anteater: …you know, the father of the Porcaros.
Unknown Soldier: Oh, yes I do.
Anteater: One thing we actually haven't talked about is that Joe Porcaro has guested to some degree on every Toto album from Turn Back up until this point.
Anteater: Sometimes subtly and sometimes more obviously.
Anteater: I like 'Lea' because it’s got an almost bossa nova groove going. It’s on the better side of
Fahrenheit's balladic material and it leads into the Miles Davis-guested closing instrumental 'Don't Stop Me Now'.
Unknown Soldier: To be fair you have a much greater appreciation and knowledge of the musical subtleties of an album than I have, as I usually focus mostly on its meat.
Unknown Soldier: I've no idea why that closing instrumental is on the album, it's nice and sounds like it could be on a New York skyline shot in a film.
Anteater: Yeah, it’s a cinematic touch and kind of a relaxed way to lead out of the album
Anteater: Toto have never done that before or since.
Anteater: Whether or not it’s a good or bad thing, I suppose, depends on the listener.
Unknown Soldier: Overall side-b for me might be the poorest side on any Toto album. Hell I only really like one song on it.
Anteater: I think I'll agree with you on that point:
Fahrenheit is an album with big ups and downs in consistency…
Anteater: …which were key issues with both
Hydra and
Turn Back, though I think
Fahrenheit is better than the latter.
Anteater: So while we can both agree that
Fahrenheit has problems, what are the things you liked most about the album and would recommend to listeners (and our readers)?
Unknown Soldier: An introduction to Joseph Williams as I know very little of his material outside of Toto, apart from that I can't recommend much else and there's not even a David Paich vocal to speak off. Also if anybody likes contrived AOR, they should check out the album's first two singles.
Unknown Soldier: It's the first Toto album that we really disagree on, for me it’s easily the poorest so far and I would take Turn Back over it all the time.
Anteater: Good points. I see
Fahrenheit as Toto trying for a greater palette and only succeeding about half the time. Nevertheless, some great material does come through and Joseph Williams was an excellent choice as singer. A good warmup to the masterpiece that is 1988's
The Seventh One.
Anteater: I give it a solid B. As you mentioned, it’s on the weaker side of their discography, but there’s still good stuff to recommend.