Customer Reviews

Isolation

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This album was poorly received when released, probably owing to the difference in style from its mega-hit predecessor TOTO IV, and the presence of Fergie Fredrickson, a new vocalist that had replaced Bobby Kimball. In hindsight, though, the drubbing ISOLATION received was undeserved...this is a satisfying colleciton for what it is: 80s power-pop tunes.

Whereas TOTO IV and the band's earlier work had a bluesy, R&B edge to go along with the slick LA pop sound, ISOLATION plunged headlong into the 80s wave, powered by Fredrickson's vocals...a major departure from Kimball's, but very impressive in their own right.

The best cut on the album is "Stranger In Town", erroneously described in another review as being about Jack the Ripper (it's actually based on the plot of the old movie "Whistle Down the Wind", which has also been adopted into an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical). That cut alone is worth owning the CD, but "Carmen", "Endless" and the title track are also solid efforts.

Like many 80s albums of the period, ISOLATION is hard-driving, pulsating pop music. Recognize and enjoy it for what it is, and you won't be sorry.

Over Toto's first four albums the band seemed to be struggling to fuse Luke's guitar chops and rock roots with that Paich/Porcaro weird keyboard magic. They got it just right with "Rosanna" on Toto IV, and they got it just right on "Carmen", "Lion" and "Isolation" on this disc. Fergie really shines in all three songs and I can't imagine Kimball singing any of them as well. Kimball has a voice made for the R&B songs that were wholly absent from this album. If this album is missing anything, it is the R&B elements found in songs like "Waiting For Your Love", "Mama" and "You Are the Flower" from earlier albums. On this album Toto almost (but not quite) sounds like just one band.

I agree with the other reviewers about the energy present throughout this release. There is only one ballad ("How Does It Feel"). The rest of the disc kicks, even the odd tunes like "Mr. Friendly", thanks to Jeff Porcaro's strong drumming.

I knew Toto from their hits Africa and Rosanna. I already owned IV which i though was quite good. So when Isolation came out I immediately went to the record store to listen to it. I was absolutely thrilled by this album. This, to me, is the best Toto album ever. Great music, enormous energy and a great new singer.

The voice of Fergie Fredricksen is one of the strenghts of this album. His voice is powerful, just a little raw and perfectly suited for rock music. That brings me to the second strength of this album: this is a real rock album from the first track to the last (except for how does it feel).

My favourite track is probably "Angel don't cry" although "Stranger in town" is just as good and "Endless" fills up the third spot of may favourite three tracks of the album.

Actually there is no bad song on this album although I personally think that "How does it feel" is slighty less than the other tracks.

All in all: if you like rock music, this album is a must. It's not the best sold Toto album, it's not the most famous Toto album, but there is one thing this album is:

It's the BEST Toto album. And it probably always will be.

At their peak, TOTO took a left turn.

This album is often put up from TOTO fans as a personal favourite; for others, it's the beginning of the end.

The reason for all of this polarisation is that it's essentially a turn toward a new 'sound' for the band which carries them into the next 3 albums and away from MOR pop confections like 'Rosanna' and 'Africa' which showered them with Grammies in 1982.

'ISOLATION' takes Toto fans both back to the hard rocking roots of "Hold the Line" while embracing their newfound status as studio musician Gods. Put simply, the tunes are reasonably straight ahead, hard rocking compositions with bland themes concerning love, girls, relationship angst which are then dressed up with all manner of studio wizardry, experimentation and finger bending arrangements. When it comes to playing, these guys have to hold back from just plain showing off. Each member of TOTO's has the studio fingers of three other players and when they let it fly, they have no peer.

The most interesting tunes venture into more obscure themes. 'Stranger in Town' is based on a true story from an English newspaper and it has the nice underplayed verse/exploding chorus structure that worked so well for 'Africa'. Paich's voice is limited but always so strangely welcome - he sounds like an old friend. 'Lion' cuts a great groove and has amazing keyboard playing. 'Mr Friendly' is quite inventive in it's structure and I find it very infectious - a great one to crank your amp up to it's limitations. All of these tracks would've been very at home on TOTO IV as would have been 'Holyanna', a neat and melodic '4 to the bar' closing tune for the album. 'How does it feel?' is a fine contributor to the library of tuneful Lukather power ballads. It's almost as good as 'I won't hold you back' on the previous album but doesn't quite hit classic status.

The rest of the album is for those who like to rock hard - 'Endless', 'Isolation', 'Change of Heart', 'Angel don't cry'. They're all top notch eighties clean 'hard rock'. To my ear, they are a bit sterile and this was borne out for me in seeing the recent TOTO world tour. Those of you who think Fergie was the man for this album and can't imagine Bobby Kimball doing the 'Isolation' songs justice should see him belting out 'Endless' and 'Isolation' on the current tour. He SLAYS them and infuses a soul into them that would've been amazing to capture on this album. In fact I would love to hear this album totally re-recorded with Kimball on lead vocals.

There's a lot to enjoy on this LP, and once or twice a year I take it for a spin and groove along. If you love TOTO because you like to hear the world's best musicians do what they do best, this could be your favourite in their catalogue.

I like this album from Toto. It sounds quite different from Toto IV. Toto's first four albums all share a similar sound. The guys changed their sound to a degree with this release. Isolation contains a lively, tight, and listenable collection of songs. The album is in a pop rock direction. Fergie Frederiksen's vocals are quite forceful and effective--he really does capture my attention. His vocals are my favorite aspect of this album. The album's musicianship, songwriting, and production are solid and spirited. I like the keyboard playing, and Steve Lukather's guitar playing is cool, too. Isolation contains a total of ten tracks. The album kicks off with "Carmen." "Carmen" is an energetic tune that's a good album opener. Fergie Frederiksen and David Paich (keyboards/vocals) both handle the leading vocals on "Carmen." My favorite tune is "Isolation." Fergie Frederiksen does a cool job with the vocals. He also does a good job with "Endless." Steve Lukather's vocals are nice on the ballad "How Does It Feel." Isolation is a cohesive album that gives off exciting energy. It sounds pretty fresh. Worth a listen.

This album was released two years after Toto IV, and in my opinion continues the great style and songwriting of their peak album.

Allthough Bobby Kimball (Toto 1-4 and Mindfields-present) is one of my all time favourite singers, Fergie Fredricksen does a good job as well. His style is a little more Heavy Metal-inspired, whereas Kimball originally is a soul singer. In a way this is the real peak of Toto, and I think it's often overlooked by fans.

Following up the huge Toto IV must not have been an easy task. And I suppose that this album really shouldn't be my cup to tea. But honestly I don't hate this. This has been referred to as the album where Toto completely back off of their R&B and jazz-pop elements after the elimination of Bobby Kimball. Well his presense is very much missed here but fact of the matter is this alum is not devoid of an R&B feeling or an extremely hard rocking album. At least....not in the sense one might think it would be. Between their previous release and this pop music,even of the LA variety had changed. Synth rock and electronic new wave styles were now what was common on the radio and as far the the rocky songs on this album go that was the direction pursued here. Actually the newer variety of rock allowed Steve Luckather's guitar sound and the bands precision musicianship actually worked very well because the glossiness of the time allowed songs like "Carmen","How Does It Feel",the title song,"Mr'Friendly"....actually almost all the songs on the album to really function well as what they are. "Stranger In Town" is particularly notable is it has the heaviest new wave flavor to it. The fact is that "Lion" is a very potent example of new wave style funk. Now it's not the mellower variety of R&B tune Toto had done before with Bobby Kimball but it's a great change of pace for them. "Endless" has the same flavor but in a faster and more uptempo sort of way. "Angel's Don't Cry" is actually a really nice ballad and trust me,there were a lot of really formuliac songs of this sort at this time it totally works. Sadly enough this album often enough joins Turn Back in the list of neglected (and often inferior) Toto albums. But this one actually contains some very strong music and songwriting and showed that Toto could definately change musically and not fall flat on their face.

A lot of fans thought Toto was losing it when this came out, especially the cut Stranger in Town. Isolation is still up to their musical standards; it's only failing if any is it's different. Bands evolve. Deal with it.

Isolation, which was released in 1984, is a terrific album & probably my all time favorite Toto album. Instead of continuing on with their successful formula of soft rock radio friendly songs, they decided to change it up with a harder edged sound & bring in a new lead singer named Fergie Frederickson after longtime vocalist - Bobby Kimball had to depart. His voice sounded nothing like Bobby's but it was a very powerful one & it meshed really well with the bands harder new sound. Sometimes bringing in a new lead singer is a disaster for a band but in Toto's case, I think it worked out quite well. David Paich & Steve Lukather also do lead vocals on the ballads as well. The end result was an album full of great melodic hard rock songs that were right up there with the bands previous work. Unfortunately, this album didn't sell well or generate any top 10 hits so most people (even Toto fans) have probably never heard it. But that wasn't becuz it was inferior album. I think it was becuz the record company didn't promote it properly & for whatever reason, didn't release hardly any of it's great songs as singles. This album has the same great production & musicianship as their earlier albums though amd many of these songs, if given the chance, probably would've been hits. My favorite tracks are "Carmen", "Lion", "Endless", "Mr. Friendly" & "Holyanna".

Anyway, if you're a Toto fan & don't own this album yet, make sure to give it a listen cuz if you don't, you're really missing out on some true rock gems.

Isolation was one of the final pieces I added to my Toto collection. At first listen I wasn't sold. But recently I re-listened and discovered that it is one of my favourites.

This is a fast paced collection of songs, with only "How Does It Feel" as a worthy ballad to slow things down.

There seems to be a real mesh between the keyboards and guitars on this album that I love. Paich absolutely roars through some keyboard solos that made my jaw drop.

"Angle Don't Cry" is the best cut on this album, but from top to bottom it is extremely strong. A real "must have" for the Toto fan.

While "Tambu" remains my favorite Toto album, Isolation continues to impress me.

This one is money well spent.