Toto's third album "Turn Back" from 1981 is sort of a guenea pig in the band's extensive catalog. Sandwiched between the highly successful self-titled debut, its follow-up "Hydra" and the monster smash of "Toto IV", "Turn Back" was Toto's least successful album yielding no hit singles and barely scraping the album charts. The album also took a beating from many critics claiming that the music and its performances were weak and disasterous.

However, in hindsight, "Turn Back" is not a bad album at all. Since its release nearly 24 years ago, the album has become somewhat a fan favorite. Its lack of success and big hits make the album arguably more enjoyable to listen to than any other Toto album. This is also the band's heaviest album musically. The three opening tracks, "Gift With A Golden Gun", "English Eyes" and "Live For Today" usher in the album with solid dose of hook-filled hard rock with Steve Lukather's biting guitar work and the late Jeff Porcaro's solid forceful drumming. The hard rock element is also apparent in fast-paced shuffle of "Goodbye Elenore" which features a strong resemblance to bands like Queen. There is also a small progressive-rock touch heard in the album's title track with its heavy doses of keyboards and guitar textures.

Balancing out the album are three ballads. "A Million Miles Away" is a typical Toto power ballad with Bobby Kimball's emotional soaring vocals. "I Think I Could Stand You Forever" has a harder edge to it and once again comes across with musical references to Queen and Journey. "If It's the Last Night" is a Steve Lukather sung acoustic ballad with a slight REO Speedwagon vibe to it. This is also the album's powerful closing track.

"Turn Back" is an album that has aged gracefully over the years. Despite its lack of any commercial success, it is still one of Toto's strongest albums displaying the band's usual strong musicianship and great songwriting. With musical of this high of callibel, maybe it is time to Turn Back and realize just what a good album this really is.

An Underrated Gem!!!

"Turn Back" is pretty much solid from start to finish. Bobby Kimball's vocals are strong on all of the album's superior cuts, including "Gift with a Golden Gun", "English Eyes", "A Million Miles Away", and "Turn Back". After their second album, "Hydra" (which to me, was a disappointing experiment) this was a welcome change which attempted to get back to the sound the group displayed on their first album. Give it a shot.

In my opinion "Turn Back" is one of Toto's best albums, together with "IV" and "The Seventh One". This might sound strange because "Turn Back" is totally different from the two successful albums mentioned above. The opener is the rock song "Gift With A Golden Gun", which is one of the best songs on the album. Kimball's vocals sound a bit like Peter Cetera and the whole song's a bit like "Chicago". "English Eyes" is a solid rock song with much emphasis on the guitar, as well as Luke's "Live for today". These songs are followed by the two best songs on "Turn Back" and two of my all time Toto-favourites: "A Million Miles Away" is a ballad with a hard hitting chorus and "Goodbye Elenore" is one of the best rock songs Toto ever did. "I think I could stand you forever" and "Turn Back" are as well great songs and worth a listen. The last track on the album is the wonderful ballad "If It's The Last Night". "Turn Back" features great vocal performances by both Kimball and Lukather and some great arrangements by Paich, who did most of the songwriting. "Turn Back" is more than just listenable and more than just a forerunner to the commercially successful "Toto IV"

I started out listening to hits like 'Hold the line', 'Africa', 'Rosanna' and 'Stop loving you' a lot. Somewhere down the line I found out this material all came from one great band. While exploring my musical horizons, I kept on exploring other Toto albums. Turn Back must have been one of the last albums to complete my 80's Toto collection. And this one really, really surprised me.

The raw and heavy production of Turn Back is something I would have never expected from this band. Strong tunes, edgy and metal-like guitars. A very different sound compared to most other, smoother Toto albums. When I play this one to my friends, they don't believe it's Toto. But the keys are David, there's no mistake about that. Jeff does a good job drumming, as he always did. And Steve marks this albums in a big way using his guitars - I really dig the way they sound. Bobby sings great, and Steve gets me hooked on his vocals on 'I think I could stand you forever' and 'If it's the last night'.

Not only these songs, but áll are killers no fillers if you ask me - they're under my skin. With no exception for the dark and haunting 'Turn Back' - let those lyrics draw you a mysterious picture... Epic! This album sounds like a monument. Maybe dated, but forever going strong. Along with Isolation, Hydra and Kingdom of Desire (great title track!), Turn Back is my proof that Toto isn't just a mainstream poprock band. There's far more to that.

As Toto albums go, this CD is in my collection for posterity, and as another reviewer mentioned, the title track, Turn Back.

Not too impressed with the songwriting on this CD as I have been with their other albums, but there are some really shining moments in spite of otherwise dull songs. I think Toto may have been rushed into recording this album without a whole lot of preparation as with Toto IV, or Isolation.

Some good tunes to listen to on this:

Gift with a Golden Gun / Turn Back / English Eyes / Live for Toda

Peace out.