Customer Reviews

Lukather

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

By the late 80s Lukather's band TOTO had all but disappeared from the album charts, although they were still scoring respectable top 40 pop/AC hits. Unsurprisingly then, his first solo effort failed to make any impression whatsoever on the general public. However, anyone who has ever listened to this album will know what the rest of the world has been missing.

With TOTO Lukather had been up to that point the "ballad singer" (Including leads on hits such as "99", "I Won't Hold You Back" and "I'll Be Over You"), but here he proves that along with his superior guitar skills he can also handle a wide variety of vocal styles.

The songs are almost uniformally excellent. The absolute highlights are "Darkest Night Of The Year" and the epic "Fall Into Velvet". Luke co-writes songs with a wide range of people from Richard Marx to Eddie Van Halen to Dianne Warren(!), as well as his long-term ballad co-writer Randy Goodrum. TOTO bandmates David Paich and Jeff Porcaro help out, as do a thousand more top players, demonstrating the enormous respect held for Luke within the industry.

If you like TOTO with a slightly harder edge, and particularly if you enjoyed their 90s efforts ("Kingdom Of Desire" and "Tambu") with Luke on lead vocals this album is an absolute must-have.

Great Luke from the eighties. The combination between him, his Valley Arts guitar and his Soldano SLO 100 head (plus a lot of quality studio effects) produced a really memorable guitar album here. Strong riffs, strong songworks, super strong melodies and guitar solos. It's a little bit dated in a sense but it is high quality music, Luke music, a combination of blues, hair rock, and catchy melodies. Luke is such an amazing talent. It is always a joy to hear him sing and play.

The first time I heard this album about 10 years ago, I felt that it was just another boring rock album without much good material. But years later when I bought it, after being crazy about Toto for about a hundred years, I listened to it carefully. This album really rocks!! For serious musicians, this is really a masterpiece which we can base our foundation on progressive rock. It really takes lots of skill and inspiration to be able to play like Steve. I've admired him since I heard him on Toto's Farenheit. I'm working hard to be able to play like him.....although I've got a really long way to go....not to mention his great vocals. I'm really glad I bought this album now cos now I can truly appreciate the great pieces within. Rock on Steve!!

Steve lukather writes and collaborates with lots of talented musicians such as Eddie Van Halen, Richard Marx and Steve Stevens (just to mention a few) to create this album. It'a mixture of great guitars and some "80's super group" type songs - "Lonely beat of my Heart" (track 7) is a excellent example. Track 3 "Fall into velvet" is a nice example of different guitar effect sounds with at least 3 solos from three different guitarists including Steve himself. I originally bought this album because I'm an avid Toto fan, and I was curious about the solo work of individual members. I was not disappointed, another album "Luke" by Stve lukather 9 years after this one shows how his music has matured in style, if you like this one, you'll probably like that one too, it complements this one well (it's quite different).

frankly twist the knife co-wrote by EVH is one of the coolest songs i have ever heard. Eddie and Luke on the same album. who could ask for more. aside form the lonley beat of my heart is just a down right well written song, great hook too. luke is one of the most technical players out there and this cd helps to demonstrate that.

Steve Lukather is simply one of the greatest musicians and songwriters of all time. He is mainly famous for being Toto's guitarist and one of the most recorded session artists of all time. He wrote these songs with some of his fellow session artists (Mike Landau, Steve Stevens) and some of his famous songwriting friends (Richard Marx, Dianne Warren). The result is a collection of guitar-driven rocks songs and power ballads that are very hooky. I love this album and recommend this as essential listening for Steve Lukather fans.

Luke's first solo work is a fantastic jump from Toto. If you like the 1992 Toto release of Kingdom of Desire you will definetly love this. Luke takes his guitar to new heights. You will be pleasantly surprised by this work. Thanks to Sony for deciding to re-release this 1989 work!

This record is a great summer record! If you like 80-ies rock music you will love it. There isn't just the super guitarist Steve Lukather on the record, others like Eddie van Halen and Richard Marx participates as well! If you are a TOTO fan as me you will probably love it.

First of all, I love Toto. Second, Lukather is my favourite singer/songwriter/guitarist. I bought Candyman before I got this album, and I was blown away. In Candyman, Steve covers a heap of styles and genres, and both he and his band show off remarkable chops, without it being a contest. The major difference between the two albums is that on Candyman, he had a 'band'. On Lukather, song character is sacrificed, and the number of players detracts from the eventual result. His guitar sound isn't as rich, and the grooves aren't as original. This may just be an indication of the era, though. It was the 80s, he was a guitar hero... Still, I expected more. All that out of the way, however, and there are some good moments. Fall Into Velvet is Lukather at his cruisy best, as well as featuring some great solos from Steve Stevens and Jan Hammer, not to mention Luke. As you would expect, there are also great harmonies throughout. The three stars could have been higher, had there been better songs, but I think that on occasions, there is little to distinguish them from any other guitar hero 80s tracks.

Get Candyman!

In 1994 I bought this album and actually thought it was very cool for some time. But....times and musical tastes have changed for me, and today I find this album to be quite a bore. I admit that Lukes vocals and his guitarplaying is great as always and songs such as It looks like rain, Fall into velvet and the very poppy Lonely beat of my heart are very good listenable songs. But apart from the fact that I find many of the songs to be very uninspiring, the sound is just plain annoying. Man, the whole record seems "drowned" in reverb, and furthermore, Lukes guitar is terribly overeffected, which he himself also admitted through some interviews in the 90es.

If you feel the same way I do, I highly recommend spending your money on his 1997-album "Luke", which has great, raw, fantastic sound, honest lyrics and wonderful harmonies and vocals!!!