Label: The Players Club / Mascot Label Group
Release date: Feb. 26, 2021
Produced by: Steve Lukather
Album length: 50:18
Genre: Art Rock
First review by: Jernej Vene
Over four-plus decades, American guitarist and singer Steve Lukather has proven himself as a session player on more than a thousand albums, which puts him right at the very top of that business.
Lukather’s eighth solo album, I Found The Sun Again, is a wildly eclectic record. He dug deep into the treasure chest of rock and blues, and shaped his own songs with real boldness. The lyrics are disillusioned, but they see a way out of the darkness, and instrumentally he’s inspired by both his own material and the covers. As a session player he made his name on a mountain of recordings, which puts him right at the top of that game. With technology moving on, modern times obviously need fewer of those services, so over the eight years since Transition, and while working with his home band Toto, who hadn’t exactly been resting, Lukather kept collecting ideas for the new album. The record is made up of one banger, one ballad, one blues, one instrumental, one pop tune and three covers. For him, I Found The Sun Again is a way of venting his frustration over things that hit him even before the pandemic. The last straw came when the widow of late Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro sued the band members over unpaid royalties. It was settled out of court, but Lukather, clearly furious, channeled it into the rocker Along For The Ride, which doesn’t spare some former associates who once lived pretty comfortably at his expense.
I Found The Sun Again came out on the same day as the album from his musical brother, Toto singer Joseph Williams. The band is once again taking a run-up with a different lineup, since Lukather and Williams are the only longtime members left. A welcome peek into his work, life and temperament is also his autobiography The Gospel According To Luke. It lifts quite a few veils on who he is and helps the reader get a better grip on how he sees the world, both as a musician and as an ordinary inhabitant of this planet. That Steve Lukather can’t be anyone but himself, he’s shown on every solo album. On them he’s tackled hard rock, jazz, blues and everything in between. He treats his solo records as a blank canvas where he can let rip to his heart’s content. Still, these aren’t guitar albums that exist for their own sake. This time he surprises with the title track, which is some of the gentlest stuff he’s made in his entire career.
On I Found The Sun Again, Steve Lukather shows off his chops where it counts and stretches out in free-form solos, mostly on the three covers. He went to the legacy of British giants Traffic and of revered guitarists Robin Trower and Joe Walsh. He stressed that those tracks were recorded without rehearsal, in the first take, just like most of the album, which is why it sounds so wonderfully organic. This veteran of rock guitar hasn’t accepted the word “impossible” since his early twenties. Full of mischievous humor and a tough streak from his father, he tolerates no injustice, either to himself or to others. This is the mature work of a seasoned fighter who has been through a lot. Lukather is a guitarist with extraordinary feel, a hero of the golden age of studio recording, and he still has plenty to say. Part of that you can hear on I Found The Sun Again. He could perhaps have added another original song or two, but instead he invited a true living legend to play. Lukather is part of an all-star band that gets a new lineup every few years under its leader, The Beatles’ famous drummer Ringo Starr. Despite being in his eighties, Ringo is still going, but Lukather won him over so much that he’s been with him for eight years now. As an anti-pandemic escape, the two of them created the song Run To Me, naturally a very Beatles-sounding affair, with Joseph Williams helping out as well. With it, Steve Lukather looks optimistically toward better times.
Second review by: Aleš Podbrežnik
Steve Lukather, leader of the legendary art rock icons Toto, proves with his new solo studio album that the spark and the magic of his deeply expressive creativity haven’t left him. Eight years have passed since Luke’s last solo album, “Transition”. In between, a new chapter with Toto unfolded, which was almost fairy-tale-like up to the end of the 2019 tour, until a new lawsuit spoiled the whole thing, this time from the widow of late drummer Jeff Porcaro. “Can this really never be over?” must have been among the thoughts racing through the head of Lukather, who was eaten up by fresh bitterness and raw pain. In a way, Toto were actually extinguished. Yet once again it turned out that this band has nine lives. Luke recently bought the Toto name. Now there will be peace. And more. He rebuilt the band. Of the old buddies, only Joseph Williams joined Lukather on board the newly born group. David Paich is in fragile health and so stepped away from taking part, and interestingly, Steve Porcaro didn’t want to come back. Given the situation we’ve been living through for well over a year, the two musicians, Luke and Williams, decided to each release their own solo album. They also guested on each other’s records. Of the two, Williams’ sounds more “Toto”. That didn’t have to happen, though it was expected. In a way it’s also logical. Rockline’s review of Williams’ new album “Denizen Tenant” is available HERE.
But since Lukather is far more than just a Toto guitarist, on the new album he wanted to let loose again, fully and wholeheartedly, and breathe artistically with everything he’s got. A solo album is more than a welcome valve for letting the pressure off after the “Toto storm” that’s now behind him. And nobody comes close to Luke’s musical character. Well, there are few who can match him. This is a musician you’ve all heard on the radio many times without knowing you were listening to him. He recorded in the studio with such a crowd of renowned artists over his career that his name is on an endless string of studio records. He’s one of the most respected session musicians around, alongside a multi-platinum career with Toto, with whom he’s sold over 40 million studio albums worldwide. In short, Luke is a great musician, and more. A musician with a big heart. Without him, Toto wouldn’t be the phoenix that has just been reborn.
So let’s dig into Luke’s solo album. Luke, who has been part of drummer Ringo Starr’s backing band, the All Starr Band, for years, lured the famous Beatle into contributing drums to the bright, positive and easygoing Run To Me. Ringo is Ringo. “The drum hits on two,” as Bajaga would say. Alongside Ringo there’s a colorful garrison of musicians who have in one way or another left their mark on Luke’s career. From his Toto buddies there are Joseph Williams and David Paich, plus Gregg Bissonette on drums, Jeff Babko on keyboards, and bassists John Pierce and Jorgen Carlsson. No guesswork needed. Paich is omnipresent with his keyboard services, and his tricks and sonic pastels are impossible to miss, while the brilliant Babko is intense and lively on the album too, first making himself heard in the opener Along for The Ride, when in the mid-eight passage he drops in with a part that’s uncannily reminiscent of the opening Hammond in The Who classic Won’t Get Fooled Again. Joseph Williams delivers backing vocals across the album, coloring and contrasting the melodies within the songs. At the same time, Run To Me is a joint writing effort by Lukather, Williams and Paich, with Williams putting together the arrangements for the winds and strings on this one and recording keyboards as well.
The album opens with two original songs. First, the summery, punchy Along For The Ride, with a main phrase of strong “a la Luke” character, backed by a subcutaneously catchy and highly singable chorus. A track that instantly grabs your attention. Serpent Soul is magical precisely because of its internalized Toto/Steely Dan culture, meaning it also pulls in playful jazz fusion elements, calibrated so they don’t displace the primacy of the song’s compact format. This one has quite a few barbs tied to Luke’s experience with the last Toto tour. Journey Through is another Luke original instrumental, working as a mystical, magical lullaby that’s constantly exploring in its melodies, with a loose and relaxed nature of expression. A piece that only the unique touch and genius of Luke’s guitar wizardry can conjure up, where the guitarist’s character is laid bare for all to see. Among the originals is also the title track, an ode to Luke’s new girlfriend, with whom he “found the sun again.” A gorgeous, easygoing piece where inner peace, joy and happiness coexist, which you feel at every step as dealt out by the guitar playing. Note by note, it carries character, and that goes for the passionate vocals too. Yes. Luke is still an excellent vocalist. Utterly captivating in everything.
There are three covers on the album. Why three? You’d have to ask Lukather. That was the wish. In any case, all three songs are reworked to the point where the team of musicians can show off their mastery, since things get considerably loosened up at times. Blues and an adventurous way of stringing events together that stirs up spectacle bordering on progressive rock and jazz rock fusion, even though these are two loosened-up blues rock pieces. First is the reworking of Traffic’s original The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys, and the second, at the tail end of the album, is Robin Trower’s Bridge of Sighs, where Luke goes especially vividly off the rails on his guitar for the final crescendo. And here’s the third cover. In the middle of the album sits the playful and at times witty Welcome To the Club (orig. Joe Walsh), into which Luke and the crew breathe a completely new character.
This album was truly written and played in harmony with great joy and pleasure. The list of contributors isn’t as all-encompassing and long as, say, on the previous “Transition”, since in these times belts had to be tightened a bit, but the result is magnificent and highly satisfying in any case. All three covers, too, are phenomenally reworked compared to the originals. The strength of a team of musicians like this lies precisely in the fact that with their wit, talent and seasoned experience they keep opening up enough room for themselves and each other, so that through expression they can develop, or rather establish, a symbiosis of the grand harmony of the composition’s building blocks. Still, it would have been even nicer if the album “I Found the Sun Again” were adorned with originals only.
One more thing. The album was mostly played in the first take. One song was recorded per day, so the entire album was recorded in a week. No surprise. When you run through the names of the musicians and their mileage, it’s done with feather-light ease. In parts the album has a retro sound, especially thanks to the integration of the chosen covers, and at moments it comes close to the vibe of Luke’s album “Candyman”, while in a way it also works as a tribute, or rather Lukather’s homage to the musicians of the classic seventies rock era. It doesn’t lack organic feel and analog warmth. A master is a master. And with his eight solo studio albums in total, Luke remains in the league of the greatest rock guitarists.
Rating: 9.0/10
Tracklist:
1. Along For The Ride
2. Serpent Soul
3. The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
4. Journey Through
5. Welcome To The Club
6. I Found The Sun Again
7. Run To Me
8. Bridge Of Sighs
Lineup:
Steve Lukather – vocals, guitar
Joseph Williams – backing vocals
David Paich – keyboards
Jeff Babko – keyboards
John Pierce – bass guitar
Jorgen Carlsson – bass guitar
Gregg Bissonette – drums
Ringo Starr – drums on track 7
