Here’s the well overdue solo effort from Toto veteran David Paich, it took years to get the album release. to this point, but for good reason.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: David Paich
ALBUM: Forgotten Toys
LABEL: The Players Club
SERIAL: TPC76792
YEAR: 2022
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: David Paich – lead and backing vocals, piano, keyboards, synth, bass * Joseph Williams – lead and backing vocals, synth, keyboards, drum programming, production * Steve Lukather, Dean Parks, Davey Johnstone, Ray Parker Jnr – guitars * Don Felder – slide guitar * Michael Lang – acoustic piano solo * Fredrik Halland – guitars, bass, backing vocals * Nathan East, David Hungate – bass * Mike Valerio – upright bass * Lenny Castro – percussion * Warren Ham – sax, flute, harmonica * Jon Diversa – horns * Brian Eno – intro beacon (synth) * Gregg Bissonette, Steve Jordan – drums * Robin DiMaggio – drums, percussion * Elizabeth Paich – stepout vocals, backing vocals * Michael Sherwood – lead vocals * Billy Sherwood, Michael McDonald, Hannah Williams, Ray Williams, Monet Owens, James Tormé – backing vocals * Pat Knox – backing vocals, production
TRACK LISTING: 01 Forward * 02 willibelongtoyou * 03 Spirit Of The Moonrise * 04 First Time * 05 Queen Charade * 06 All The Tears That Shine * 07 Lucy
RATING: 80/100
WEBLINKS: Wikipedia Site Link
Background
Here’s the well overdue solo effort from the Toto veteran. It’s taken decades for David Paich to get to this point, lagging a long way behind Toto alumni such as Steve Lukather, Bobby Kimball, Joseph Williams, Fergie Frederiksen, Steve Porcaro and even Simon Phillips who have all released prior solo albums going back years.
David Paich has been one of the mainstays of the band since the beginning and has kept a busy schedule all throughout his career. In more recent times, Paich has had to cut back his workload due to ill health, and with Toto‘s status now on hold (supposedly’ retired’), his debut solo album was a project long in the making with a window of opportunity opening up.
The Songs
At only 7 tracks and no more than 30 minutes long, it’s a brief musical escapade though not really EP length. We skip through the brief intro ‘Forward’ at just 29 seconds and segue directly into ‘willibelongtoyou’ with Joseph Williams handling lead vocals. A good crisp and clean start. ‘Spirit Of The Moonrise’ is a more upbeat number and was featured as the first single off this set. I do like the silky smooth sounds of ‘First Time’, about the caring relationship between father and daughter.
For something a bit more raucous, try out the bluesy ‘Queen Charade’. It didn’t quite float my boat but that’s not to say it won’t for you. ‘All The Tears That Shine’ is a classy and cruisy affair complimented by the voice of former Lodgic singer, the late Michael Sherwood (rip 2019). The album concludes with the instrumental ‘Lucy’, which fuses a big band era arrangement with some modern urban jazz for good measure.
In Summary
Interestingly, this album has so far only seen releases in Europe and Japan. Nothing in North America, which seems bizarre but probably par for the course given the overall music industry malaise over there.
Musically, there is a lot of heavyweight players onboard with David Paich on this album. My guess is that some of the material goes back years, and with those now out of the way, maybe its time to get more current songwriting happening once again, now that the Toto day job is on the back burner.
David Paich on Video
willibelongtoyou
All The Tears That Shine
