With Weezer's recent cover of "Africa" introducing Toto to a new generation of fair-weather fans, the band's career-spanning 13-CD box set All In is geared only to the band's longtime fans, of which the band believes 2,000 will pony up the necessary dough to own this mega-deluxe paperweight.
To hype the new box set, which is impossible to track down despite being released mere weeks ago (did it already sell out?), as well as this year's extensive 40 Trips Around The Sun world tour, the band has released their new single "Devil's Tower".
No doubt recognizing that digging up something from the Toto IV era would guarantee coverage by prestigious rock blog The Shit (ha!), the band decided it was time to finish this track.
The big question was, though, who would sing on the track?
More importantly, who should sing on the track?
Being a fan of Toto prior to IV, this writer would vote for the band's lead singer at the time, Bobby Kimball to be given the honor of singing the shit out of this tune. Of course, Kimball parted ways with the band (again) in 2008, but that would have been the right thing to do.
Second choice would be for the band's other damn fine singers, Steve Lukather (who sang on "Georgy Porgy", "99", "I Won't Hold You Back", as well as the verses on "Rosanna") or David Paich (the band's most prolific songwriter).
It only makes sense that, since Mike and Jeff Porcaro have since passed away, that the band would have simply gotten the remaining surviving band members from the Toto IV days together to pay tribute to their fallen brothers (both figuratively and literally).
Instead, they enlisted Joseph Williams, who wasn't in the band during the Toto IV days, but replaced Kimball in 1986 (before being replaced by Kimball in 1989) and just so happens to be in the band now.
As much as we enjoy hearing Toto cut loose like they did before the success of "Rosanna" and "I Won't" essentially broke up the band, admittedly, hearing an unfamiliar voice handling the lead vocals makes this track indistinguishable from anything you'd hear from any number of same-sounding melodic rock bands signed to Frontiers Records.
We give it a 6.5 out of 10.