Toto

Unknown Soldier · 05-29-2012, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anteater

As a hardcore fan of Toto through the ages, I'm going to concur that Mindfields is a bit weaker than some of their other albums. Not because it doesn't shoot for the stars, but because the songs themselves just aren't quite as memorable, especially if we start comparing it to Falling In Between or their debut.

Still, I appreciate the diversity of material on Mindfields (particularly the longer, proggy stuff), and it's definitely a stronger album in some respects than Kingdom Of Desire, Turn Back or Isolation.

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!!!

tojamm · 05-30-2012, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier

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!!!

Interesting to read. I like isolation, and I think I know what you mean about that album having "energy". The song stranger in town is great i think. There we can talk about energy. Cool about that facebook thing.
I'm a little interested in knowing why you think that the fahrenheit album being poor. No particular reason, i'm just curious. I myself think it has a good feeling about it. In my opinion it's easy listening and the song "lea" is beautiful.

Unknown Soldier · 05-31-2012, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tojamm

Interesting to read. I like isolation, and I think I know what you mean about that album having "energy". The song stranger in town is great i think. There we can talk about energy. Cool about that facebook thing.
I'm a little interested in knowing why you think that the fahrenheit album being poor. No particular reason, i'm just curious. I myself think it has a good feeling about it. In my opinion it's easy listening and the song "lea" is beautiful.

When I'm talking about the energy on that album I referring just to the Fergie sung songs, "Stranger in Town" has energy of course, but not to the same degree as the Fergie ones, which in general weren't really singles material anyway. These songs often had a jolted feel, short intros, prompt sounding instrumentation and dramatic outros and often with shouted vocals....not what was expected from Toto, that was the magic of the album.

This track captures a lot of that and its great band perfomance as well and some great drumming by Jeff Pocaro.

Toto - Angel Don't Cry (Music Video) - YouTube

The problem with Fahrenheit was that the band attempted to return to the formula of Toto IV whilst adding some new ideas and keeping some of the energy from Isolation on a track or two. Whilst I don't think the album is terrible, its really not up to the standards that I expect from Toto. I mean the title track is just terrible, it sounds like a Michael Jackson song. The bulk of the album is filled out with ballads, whilst the best song on the album "Can't Stand it any Longer" easily could've been on Isolation. I will say though, that Joseph Williams was a very good vocalist on the same level as Bobby Kimball and Fergie.