Turn Back

Turn Back is a work on which TOTO, while keeping its refined studio sense, foregrounded harder guitars and a faster rhythm. The complex playing is used to strengthen the songs’ frame, and the members’ outstanding skill meshes naturally. After the success of the previous two albums, the band tries a more straightforward, rock-leaning direction. On “Gift with a Golden Gun” and “Goodbye Elenore,” the directness of rock and fusion-like precision intersect. Songs like “English Eyes,” “Live for Today” and “Turn Back” breathe the band’s playing and writing skill too. Emphasizing enjoyment of the band’s playing itself over flashy ballads or hit-chasing, it is an ambitious transitional record just before the explosion of the next album, Toto IV — radiating its own appeal as a hard-nosed rock album.