Toto – Past To Present
So, whatever happened to the band that did “Africa”? Well, if you listen to the “new” tracks recorded by Toto for their best-of CD, you’ll probably answer, “Not nearly enough.”
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I used to like Toto’s stuff quite a bit. One can hardly go through a catalog of memorable songs from the 1980s without bringing up “Africa” and “Rosanna”, and “Hold The Line” is still a pleasantly non-guilty memory of late 70s rock for many. (“Georgy Porgy”, on the other hand, is still pretty much a guilty pleasure for those who actually like it. It’s not one of my favorites.) Toto’s right up there with Foreigner in my mind in the “good while it lasted” category.
And right up there with Chicago, too, for Toto has really slipped from its former glory. New vocalist – well, new as of ten years ago, and I haven’t heard a thing out of the band since – Jean-Michel Byron strips Toto of its edge, giving the group’s sound that glossed-over veneer of a one-great rock band that has descended into pre-fabricated, synth-heavy soft-rock schlock. The four new tracks on Past To Present hardly sound like Toto. Even when the old Toto lineup did ballads, such as the palatable “I’ll Be Over You” from their Fahrenheit album, the songs were sung by someone who still clearly had the pipes to do some larynx-ripping rock vocals. Not so here – Toto becomes as rockin’ as Chicago during the Peter Cetera epoch…which is to say, not rockin’ at all.
But those are only four songs. The rest of this album’s material is the classic stuff that put Toto on the map to begin with. The understated percussive textures and vocal harmonies of “Africa” stand up to anything on the charts today, the bluesy rock of “Rosanna” and “Hold The Line” have stood the test of time quite well, and my own guilty pleasure – 1988’s “Pamela” (which is admittedly a ripoff of the group’s own “Rosanna”) – still sounds 
good to my ears. I liked Toto’s rock numbers better than their ballads, but even “I’ll Be Over You”, “99” and “I Won’t Hold You Back” are easier on the ears than the four tracks of neo-Toto.
Recommended for casual Toto fans – just remember to skip the new stuff.
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- Love Has The Power (6:32)
- Africa (4:59)
- Hold The Line (3:57)
- Out Of Love (5:55)
- Georgy Porgy (4:08)
- I’ll Be Over You (3:50)
- Can You Hear What I’m Saying (4:47)
- Rosanna (5:35)
- I Won’t Hold You Back (4:59)
- Stop Loving You (4:29)
- 99 (5:12)
- Pamela (5:12)
- Animal (5:02)
Released by: Columbia
Release date: 1990
Total running time: 64:32
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