Steve Lukather
I Found The Sun Again

Maybe it's just me, but the big face on the cover of good old Steve doesn’t look like someone who has found the Sun again, as the title of his 2021 album announces. It seems instead that his demons are still running rampant in his mind, particularly that destructive attachment to the bottle.

I love Toto, one of the noblest names when I think of the music of the eighties, and I highly respect their guitarist, this talented, attentive, up-to-date, passionate, tireless, meticulous musician. I know for sure that he will never make bad records, and indeed, this one certainly isn't.

However... however, this time my critical sense prevails, the (slight) wrinkling of my nose. It’s not that I was expecting novelties, new sounds, oddities... Lukather is persistent in staying on the tracks of those three or four favorite music genres that come naturally to him, there is nothing negative in this, but in the end, it is the quality of the content, the melodies, and the harmonic turns, in his case also the inspiration in the solos, that makes the difference.

And so in this work, we are at the standard, a six and a half/seven, to put it with grades. The work is recorded on the fly, in just eight days, one for each song, relying on the incredible professionalism and experience of the leading man and his fellow musicians involved. There are thus eight songs including three covers, one by Traffic, one by Joe Walsh, and one by Robin Trower. The five original compositions range from a couple of intense and deep rockers, a funky-tinged rock very Toto-esque, a virtuosic yet visceral fusion instrumental, and finally the inevitable robustly romantic ballad.

Everything is fine, the frankness and sincere desire to make music, the ability to put it together in no time with the right people to collaborate are evident but... but?…but! What doesn't sit well with me?

It's that Steve Lukather is a... dark musician. His voice is dark, competent and decent, but really dark. After a few pieces, it becomes tedious, it doesn't withstand the length of an entire record. However, in Toto, it's perfect for interspersing with the bright and soaring tenor voices of the current frontman, whether it is Bobby Kimball or the late Fergie Frederiksen or Joseph Williams. And the timbre of his, otherwise phenomenal, guitar is also... dark, with that blended and long sound, skillful but knotted, too scattered with effects between the instrument's output and the amplifier's input. Again, in the Toto realm, there is the antidote: the piano of his friend David Paich, especially, and also the synthesizers of Steve Porcaro: bright people, much sunnier, more “clear.”

Hard times for Toto, by the way: Paich is in poor health, the surviving Porcaro is at odds because his brother Mike's widow (the bassist, who died about ten years ago from ALS) has sued the group's leaders (namely Luke and Paich) for failing to pay her husband… Lukather therefore continues to make music as a solo artist, but it’s not the same thing. No Paich, no Toto.

But it is always a pleasure to follow this worthy musician, there is limited inspiration, routine but also excellence and love for music in this album.