Toto - Isolation (1985)

In 1982 Toto won album of the year for IV and seemingly swept the grammies. Coming off the success of that album, the expectations were high for these veteran studio cats.

Unfortunately, difficulties would strike the band shortly after the release of IV. After nearly completing Isolation, lead vocalist Bobby Kimball was fired for drug abuse issues (incidentally, Kimball was invited back into the band in 1998).

The search for a new lead singer was not an easy one. Toto's first choice for a replacement was Mr. Mister's Richard Page. Page turned them down preferring to record and perform music he'd written rather as opposed to having to do Kimball-karaoke.

Drummer Jeff Porcaro received a tape of Louisianna bayou rock band, LeRoux and was quite impressed with their tweeter-frying lead vocalist, Fergie Frederiksen. So, after only one album with LeRoux, Frederiksen packed up and headed for Los Angeles to front Toto.

Frederiksen's vocal stamina and acrobatics made for an interesting fit in Toto. And the change in direction they took with Frederiksen in the band was not well received by the fans that had embraced their efforts on Toto IV.

The band was a bit harder edged, the songs were a bit more uptempo, with only one ballad in the mix-- the melancholic Steve Lukather penned and sung How Does It Feel. The rest of the musical offerings of this album were sung by either Fergie Frederiksen, David Paich, or both. The addition of Frederiksen was actually an excellent mix for background vocals as his tweeter-frying tenor gave the band a bit more balance in their upper registers. Frederiksen's background vocals are probably most noticeable on the minor hit Stranger In Town. But Fergie seems to steal the show on songs like Endless and Angel Don't Cry which sound as though they're tailor made to his vocal register.

After having heard live bootlegs from this era-- Toto was never better live than with Fergie in the band. He was consistently good from night to night and really took some of the Kimball classics like Hold the Line and English Eyes and made those songs his own. Sadly, for Fergie at least, this incarnation of the band was not to last. He was given his walking papers after the 1985 tour.

Today this album sounds a bit dated, but it can still be appreciated for its musicianship, Frederiksen's vocals, and its novelty-- this is one of only 2 Toto albums that feature all 3 of the Porcaro brothers (Jeff on drums, Mike on bass, and Steve on keys) as full members of the band.

Related links:
Toto - Hydra (1978) review
Toto - The Seventh One (1988) review
Toto - Kingdom of Desire (1992) review
Toto - Tambu (1995) review
Toto - Mindfields (1999) review
Toto - Falling in Between (2006) review
Trillion s/t (1978) review (Fergie's 1978 hard rock band with keyboardist/producer Patrick Leonard)

Stranger In Town music video




How Does It Feel music video

Trillion (1978)

In 1978 keyboardist Patrick Leonard and vocalist Dennis “Fergie” Frederiksen and a small handful of other musicians formed Trillion. Recorded in the studios at the Caribou Ranch owned by former Chicago producer, James William Guercio, in remote Nederland, Colorado their debut album hearkens back to a different era. Their brand of hard rock is strongly reminiscent of much of the better work of Blue Oyster Cult.

Frederiksen’s tweeter-scorching tenor graces all but one track on the 8 song release. The album starts with a bang on Hold Out with Fergie not only contributing vocals but also playing the tubular bells. Tubular bells?!?! Yes, oddly enough, tubular bells being used in 70s hard rock. The bells are subtle and you may not even notice them at first listen but they accent the song nicely.

Hold Out segues into Big Boy which has a very similar vibe. Both tracks have catchy grooves fun to tap on your steering wheel or coffee table to.

For all its cheese glory, Give Me Your Money, Honey is a regrettably catchy song… Regrettably catchy because, really, you don’t want to be caught dead singing it to yourself in public… but after only a few listens, unfortunately you may find yourself doing just that.

You Never Had It So Good will never win any awards for having clever lyrics. But it has a rather enjoyable guitar solo by Frank Barbalace and Fergie has the kind of voice that could make even the yellow pages sound compelling.

While his keyboard/synthesizer theatrics are present on all the songs on the album, Patrick Leonard’s keyboard playing is most evident on May As Well Go.

The whole album is enjoyable and fun, it doesn’t take itself seriously (unless you consider a song titled Fancy Action to be high-art that is), but perhaps what makes this album so enjoyable is knowing that vocalist Fergie Frederiksen would go on to sing lead for bayou rockers, LeRoux, and south California studio rockers, Toto. And Patrick Leonard would go on to produce the likes of Madonna, Peter Cetera, and Michael W. Smith… not to mention was ½ of the sadly overlooked and critically acclaimed, Toy Matinee with the late Kevin Gilbert.

While their musical seeds weren’t sown until later, this album shows where Frederiksen and Leonard’s musical seeds were initially planted and where they initially cut their musical teeth.