Toto

We’ve lost count of the number of Toto compilations, especially since they cover more or less the same selection each time. Since the album IV, a true hold-up from 1982, with two worldwide hits, “Rosanna” and “Africa”, and a torrent of awards (no less than six Grammy Awards), the band which gathered some of the most efficient studio sharks in the world has gone through many hardships without ever recreating this feat. But they didn’t prove unworthy, however, as evidenced by this Greatest Hits: 40 Trips Around The Sun, mostly destined to be released alongside a big new worldwide tour which will celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the release of their first album, Toto. If Toto’s creativity had really dried up 36 years ago, it probably still wouldn’t draw such huge crowds today. Other than “Rosanna”, it’s without surprise that you’ll find some of those first names ending with an “a” (pure coincidence, according to Lukather), with “Pamela” and “Lea” here (“Angela”, “Manuela Run”, “Holyanna” and “Mushanga” are missing). Even if the fourteenth album keeps us waiting, the band’s “survivors” still met in studio to record or complete three brand new titles, “Spanish Sea”, “Alone” and “Struck By Lightning”. The foundations of the first go back to the preparation of The Seventh One, in 1988, which allows us to hear again the late Jeff Porcaro on drums and his brother Mike on bass, in a style very similar to “Africa”. The more pop “Alone” wouldn’t be out of place on IV, even if it is Joseph Williams, arrived in 1986 and who came back in 2010, who handles vocals, just like on the livelier “Struck By Lightning”. Toto also finished the recording of six other titles for a collection whose release is planned for July. ©JPS/Qobuz