Disco de Toto: “Love Songs”

There are three Toto CDs I listen to on a regular rotation and that is this, Toto Essentials, and the new album Falling in Between. I am not really adding too much to the other great reviews but I wanted to give my 5 stars!

Where this album succeeds is in the focus of this collection on Toto's softer side. In my opinion Toto's best songs were the ballads and also Toto were more successful commercially with their ballads. Also the ballads have held up much better over time where as their rock songs now sound a little dated. There are a few big hits missing like "Hold the Line" and even though that could be called a "love song" it is a little too rockin' for an album like this. For the casual fan I would recomend this AND "Toto Essential" because between the two collections you get a good sample of Toto at their best. Yes there are a lot of songs that are the same on both compilations but if you just bought "the Essentials" so you could get "Hold the Line" you would be missing out on such great Toto classics that were never released as singles in the US including "Stop Loving You" and my all time fav Toto song "I Will Remember" (listen to the sample and you will hear why I love this song so much). Also the remastering is awesome on both these CDs. If you like the rock side of Toto also check out their new album (as of 2006) Falling in Between which is by far Toto's best album ever.

This remastered collection of TOTO hits sounds fantastic. I also prefer this collection of songs to the other greatest hits packages out there (I prefer their Power ballads to their harder rockers). They added some great songs such as Make Believe (for some reason, left off most greatest hits CDs), although they did leave off one great song, Hold the Line, which I would argue is a love song and therefore should have been included. However, this is still the best Toto CD out there.

This is as good a TOTO compilation as is available in the US market. It succeeds because it has a narrow focus - the power ballad/romantic side, that, lets face it, the average radio listener most readily associates with the band (However inaccurate that may be across their wider catalogue).

With the exception of their first AC entry "Georgy Porgy" every AC success the band had is to be found here, so if this is the side of TOTO that you like, this disc will serve you very well indeed. Most of the songs featured were hits one way or another, although the inclusion of a couple of gems from their last Sony album "Mindfields" ("No Love" and "Spanish Steps") is a surprise, and a welcome one at that, especially as the latter tune was not on the international version of the album.

However, as far as domestic fans are concerned there is no real need for a fairly hard core fan to pick this up - although the remastered sound is fabulous - but for the casual listener it is virtually indispensable.

Now all we need is a "Rock Songs" companion piece. Or, better still, the original albums remastered in their entirety.