Bullz-Eye.com - CD Reviews - Toto: Through the Looking Glass

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CD Reviews: Toto: Through the Looking Glass

	Rating:
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Toto has treated those of us that have stuck around after Toto IV to some really good music. It may not be chic to admit that you are a Toto fan, but the band is made up of some of the best technical musicians in the business. Steve Lukather has been a guest player (guitarist) on a million records as has David Paich (keyboards) and Simon Phillips (on drums, replacing the late great Jeff Pocaro). Mike Pocaro (bass) and lead singer Bobby Kimball, who just returned in 1999 to sing on Mindfields and now Through The Looking Glass, make up the rest of the current line-up. Kimball was a member of Toto during the highest commercial success the band had covering 1978-1982, including the records Toto, Hydra, Turn Back and the monster smash Toto IV. After that period, Toto had three lead vocalists between 1982 and 1991 before settling on Lukather to be the lead voice from 1992-1999. Steve Lukather has the best voice and has always delivered the best material from Toto, but the boys feel they need a different lead voice for the majority of vocals and Kimball is back in that chair. Lukather does sing on a couple tracks as he always has, but the job is again Kimball’s.

For their most current disc, Toto has released an 11-track cover record featuring versions of songs by Elton John, The Animals, Elvis Costello, The Beatles and others. Since I am rating this album on a five star system, I give it two stars. They get a half a star for taking the risk of doing a covers record, another half star for the always-stellar musicianship, a half star for the production and mix, which is excellent, and a half star for their versions of Bob Marley’s “Could This be Love” and Stevie Wonder’s “Living For the City.” That’s all they get, because everything else is just ordinary and oddly enough, almost uninspired, which really makes no sense for a Toto record. The biggest misstep is their version of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” which sounds like it belongs on a light-rock station and, quite frankly, that song should never, ever sound like it belongs on a light-rock station.

True fans will buy it (I did, because it’s Toto) and will be disappointed, while there is nothing here that will make a non-fan commit. I hope the next one is better.

~R. David Smola
pretendcritic@aol.com

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