Mindfields

by **BlackWall** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:20 pm

I've had "Mindfields" since around the time it was released here in the states, but only within the last couple of years have I really come to appreciate the potential that it had. Does anyone else feel this way? I don't often see it mentioned when talking of favorite albums, but I really believe it's underrated. In my opinion, Bobby's return was a welcome one, and he brought some life back into the mix. That's not to say that "Tambu" didn't have it's moments, but I've always found it to be a little on the bland or depressing side. I think "Kingdom Of Desire" was a great album of rockers, and then "Mindfields" SHOULD have been their commercial comeback, as far as pop music was concerned. From doing some research, it looks as though "Melanie" was the only song to be promoted here in the US.. what a mistake.. Not a bad song, but not right as the lone representation of the album to radio. What about "Cruel"? "Mad About You"? "Caught In The Balace"(could have been great for classic rock stations). From what I've read in some of the online interviews with Steve Lukather, I can't blame him for having some resentment towards Columbia/Sony; there was a total lack of promotion on a CD which should have been their return to the radio and the charts. I'm not saying it was "Toto IV", but I think if any album was going to come close(after "The Seventh One"), it would have been this one.

by **BlackWall** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:26 pm

I forgot to mention how much I dig "Spanish Steps". Paich really is underrated, and I don't think a lot of people realize just how much responsibility he had for the commercial success of the band.

by **brandonx76** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:41 pm

BlackWall wrote:I forgot to mention how much I dig "Spanish Steps". Paich really is underrated, and I don't think a lot of people realize just how much responsibility he had for the commercial success of the band.

I went back and checked out Spanish Steps - after a friend of mine I tried to turn onto Toto, said it was their favorite song on the album. What a track it is. I really enjoyed 'One Road', 'No Love', and 'Cruel', was an updated Rosanna. Excellent track. Mindfields could have easily been the band's swan song, but they gave us two more.

by **Kenny** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:52 pm

Always said 'Mindfields' was a beter album han 'Falling in Between'.....I just feel it is more consistent. FIB is great too though and it was great to hear Lukather singing a couple of the tracks live!

by **ProgRocker53** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 8:59 am

Mindfields is a SENSATIONAL album!! I've had it for awhile myself and it STLL receives spins fairly often.

"Cruel," "Caught in the Balance," and "Mad About You" are three of my all-time favorite songs by any artist.

by **DracIsBack** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 9:57 am

To be honest, I couldn't get into it as an "album". I far preferred Falling In Between, Kingdom of Desire and Tambu. It had its moments for me (Mad About You is one of my favorite Toto songs of all time and I liked Melanie and Cruel) but I never got fully into it.

by **ddregs** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 3:49 pm

I really expected Mindfields to be a great comeback record. But I still fail today to recognize it that way.
I far prefer Falling in Between or Tambu (depressing record ... yep, but with lots of great songs) to Mindfields; aside from the mentioned songs , where Caught in the Balance stands out for being one of the best song Toto wrote since The Seventh One, Mindfields is mostly boring. To my ears at least...

by **Ehwmatt** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 6:54 am

Kenny wrote:Always said 'Mindfields' was a beter album han 'Falling in Between'.....I just feel it is more consistent. FIB is great too though and it was great to hear Lukather singing a couple of the tracks live!

100% agreed. Can't understand the huge reaction FiB got. It's a good album, but definitely not awesome - although the tracks on the FiB DVD translated live VERY well. For my $, FiB was much like a Luke solo album, the prequel to ECT if you will. ECT confirmed this for me - and I feel ECT is a much stronger cohesive effort. Bottom of Your Soul, King of the World, Spiritual Man, and Simple Life are great songs though.

Mindfields is a KILLER album:

1. Caught in the Balance
2. Spanish Steps
3. Melanie
4. Mad About You
5. One Road
6. Cruel
7. Better World I, II, III

7 Killer tracks, the rest is good too. Love this album

by **BlackWall** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 1:42 pm

"I really enjoyed 'One Road', 'No Love', and 'Cruel', was an updated Rosanna. Excellent track."

"Cruel" does have a similar sound to "Rosanna", but do I dare to say that it might actually be a better song, at least lyrically? Some of this feeling might just stem from the fact that I've heard "Rosanna" a time too many, but I don't know; Bobby just seems to have so much fun with it.

I need to check out "One Road" and "No Love" again.

by **Brett** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 5:34 pm

Great album - two or three tracks are merely good and the rest is quite simply superb. I was a Joe Williams/Fergie fan until this album let me know that Bobby really is the man! (Oh, I'm still a Joe Williams, and Fergie fan, my point was that before this album I wasn't that keen on Bobby compared to the other two...)

by **Tomulator** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 5:33 am

Too bad Luke decided to use the guitar tone he did on that one...I believe I read where he used a small Marshall amp only for most (or all) of MF.

I pine for a fuller, harder, more "crushing" tone on those tunes...

JMO

I still love Luke's playing soooooo much!

by **Ehwmatt** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 6:19 am

Tomulator wrote:Too bad Luke decided to use the guitar tone he did on that one...I believe I read where he used a small Marshall amp only for most (or all) of MF.

I pine for a fuller, harder, more "crushing" tone on those tunes...

JMO

I still love Luke's playing soooooo much!

I love the guitar tones on there... I really love the Edge-esque sound on Mad About You and the staccato sounds on Caught in the Balance and One Road are great too. I've always loved the overall sound of MF.

by **Tomulator** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:19 am

Ehwmatt wrote:
Tomulator wrote:Too bad Luke decided to use the guitar tone he did on that one...I believe I read where he used a small Marshall amp only for most (or all) of MF.

I pine for a fuller, harder, more "crushing" tone on those tunes...

JMO

I still love Luke's playing soooooo much!

I love the guitar tones on there... I really love the Edge-esque sound on Mad About You and the staccato sounds on Caught in the Balance and One Road are great too. I've always loved the overall sound of MF.

Overall sound is good, good mix, etc. but, the guitar is too "thin", IMO.

I want BEEF in a guitar tone!!!

:twisted:

by **weatherman90** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:35 am

I love the album - Caught in the Balance and Cruel are awesome tracks!

by **WalrusOct9** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 7:10 am

Mindfields has some of Toto's best work on it, but is just a bit too long for me. I think trying to cram 14 tracks and 79 minutes on an album was just too much, there's 4 or 5 tracks that really didn't need to be there and kind of lessen the impact of the rest of it. Cut it down to 8 or 9 tracks and I think it's one of their 3 or 4 best efforts.

It's one of the downsides of the CD era...some albums really benefited from being able to be longer than 40-45 minutes, others really should have been paired down to the length of an LP.

MR

Mindfields

Mindfields

Spanish Steps

Re: Spanish Steps

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