Best albums by Toto?

Cherie Currie / Marie Currie 1980 Messin' with the Boys LP
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherie_Currie

Not an officially a TOTO album, but it sounds a LOT like one of theirs, and Cherie was ticked off, but I love it. hard pop / rock .

Steve Lukather - guitar, had much influence, according to Cherie's biography book.

Didn't Lukather also work with David Foster in Airplay?

Lukather was all over the place for about 20 years.  He was a session musician, producer and songwriter.  I know I've seen his name pop up on everything from Donna Summer to The Tubes.  I seem to remember his name on a Warren Zevon album or two as well.  He was "ubiquitous" for about a decade and a half.  Talented dude.

chewie wrote:

Don't forget the Dune soundtrack!!!

Hear, hear! My favorite Toto album. Although arguably it's basically Paich's album with the band in tow.

80s Metal Lady wrote:

but with hot chicks in the lyrics.

Because Luke divorved his first wife at the time (1989 around) and all he wanted to do was band groupies and write songs about his failed marriage (Don't chain my heart from KoD is another tune) he was pretty wild then and roally pissed off after the whole thing with Jean-Michel Byron being forced onto the band.
Most of KoD deals with his divorce but also is metaphoric for Sony f*cking with the band once they took over Columbia Records in the late 80's. Toto wanted to reunite with Kimball, even recorded songs (Going Home later appeared on XX) but Sony pushed this Michael Jackson wannabe onto the band (the songs on Past to Present) which did a lot of damage to their reputation in europe even.

corplhicks wrote:

Hear, hear! My favorite Toto album. Although arguably it's basically Paich's album with the band in tow.

But it's the worst decision Paich ever made. The band got offers to either contribute to Footlose or Dune. They thought they could make something serious, something critics could appreciate after dumping a lot of shit on Toto for years, so they did Dune and it went nothing. The movie was a bomb, the soundtrack did nothing to help their image and later even Paich said "We should'e done Footlose".
Same a couple years later when they were approached to record Danger Zone for Top Gun, Sony was behind the movie but in that case allegeldy it was the management group for Toto f*cking up the deal ("Only You" from Kingdom of Desire was a song already also written for the Top Gun Soundtrack because the band thought thay had a deal, it was later put into Kingdom of Desire)

I came across this article on another message board I post at earlier tonight:
https://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2017/06/22/terminal-cancer-and-the-band-toto-is-bringing-my-family-together-for-my-parents-last-date

It's funny that this thread should pop up, as I went on a Toto kick around a couple of weeks ago. I listened to everything up til "Isolation" ('84), which I have. I really enjoyed "Hydra" ('79) and "Turn Back" ('81), which was pretty maligned back in the day, but understand is a fan favorite, based on the fact that there are zero hit songs on that one. Those two are both on my want list.

Required Fields wrote:

I came across this article on another message board I post at earlier tonight:
https://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2017/06/22/terminal-cancer-and-the-band-toto-is-bringing-my-family-together-for-my-parents-last-date

I read this and I responded to the article. This story is both sad and a bit uplifting. I was just fuming, when the part with the touring manager came up. There are just some jobs out there, where common sense has to be at the "forefront". These stories happen where people meet their favorite band/musician, athlete or actor all of the time and much of the time, it's due to sad circumstances written in the article above.

Getting back in to Toto...

This band has more in common with Spandau Ballet than you'd think. I noticed that both combined Motown influence with some kind of experimental rock that had synthesizers. For Toto, it was prog, and for Spandau, it was new wave. That particular combination was thought of by most of their detractors as kitsch and certainly did not become the template for ideal innovation. To some people though, it's genius. Both of them added some sophistication to the soul/r&b formula and did it well enough, but it's certainly not for everyone. I do appreciate artists who can play easy-going music that also tries to be unique. Just because something is more conservative doesn't mean it can't be interesting.