[SACD-R][OF] Toto - Hydra - 1979/2000 (Rock, Progressive Rock, Rhythm & Blues, Pop Rock, Funk)

Hydra is the second studio album by American rock band Toto, released in 1979.
It reached #37 on the Billboard Pop Albums. While most of the album’s singles failed to make any impact in the charts, “99″, a song inspired by the 1971 science fiction movie THX 1138, reached #26 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Though a commercial success, Hydra was far less popular than the band’s top-selling debut. Allmusic blamed this on the band’s failure to establish a distinctive, recognizable sound on either Hydra or their debut, which would have allowed listeners to immediately identify Toto’s major hits with the band themselves. They also noted that most listeners were not familiar with the film (namely, THX 1138) on which “99″ was based, and thus found the lyrics hopelessly abstruse, preventing the song from becoming as big a hit as it could have been.

Critical response to the album was mixed. Allmusic’s retrospective review made little judgment on the quality (noting only as an aside that the songs were “well-played”), instead discussing why it had failed to match the commercial success of their debut.

If Toto’s musical advantage was that, since its members continued to play on many of the successful records made in L.A., its own music was popular almost by definition, its disadvantage was that it made little attempt to seek an individual musical signature — a particular style, say, or a distinctive singer (Bobby Kimball was not it) who could make its records immediately identifiable. “Hold the Line” had been a big hit, but who did it? Boston? Foreigner? As a result, Toto was less well positioned than most to come off a big debut album with the follow-up, and Hydra was unusually dependent on its leadoff single, “99.” Maybe it was a tribute to the female lead on the old Get Smart TV show, but many listeners didn’t get a song with a chorus that went, “Oh, 99, I love you,” and the single stalled in the bottom half of the Top 40. The album went gold on momentum, but the songs, however well-played, simply were not distinctive enough to consolidate the success Toto had achieved with its debut album.

Toto:
Bobby Kimball: lead and backing vocals
Steve Lukather: guitars, lead and backing vocals
Steve Porcaro: keyboards, electronics
David Paich: keyboards, lead and backing vocals
David Hungate: bass, guitar
Jeff Porcaro: drums, percussion

Additional musicians:
Michael Boddicker: keyboards
Roger Linn: synthesizers
Lenny Castro: percussion
Marty Paich: string arrangements