Artist: Williams, Joseph & Friestedt, Peter
Label: AOR Heaven Records
Release: 2011
Length: 33:45
Rating: 3.5/5
Even though this record landed in my hands almost half a year after its official release date, it’s absolutely worth a listen, especially since it’s already the third release this year from one of Toto’s former vocalists. Besides Fergie Frederiksen and Bobby Kimball, who both put out their albums in October 2011, Joseph Williams is the third musician tied to Toto one way or another. In these times of the occasional “The Seventh One” lineup reunion, we can also slap the label “in and out Toto member” on him.
Joseph Williams’ collaboration with prominent arranger, multi-instrumentalist and producer Peter Friestedt works remarkably well! Compared with the three releases listed in the previous paragraph, it’s the most “Toto-like” of the bunch, and then some. Judging by the tight arrangement structures and production choices, you can even pin down which creative era of Toto it recalls. No need to guess. It’s the era of the album “The Seventh One”! Besides Williams’ famous voice, which is the basic building block of these nods to that Toto album and works in 2011 just as fully as we’ve come to expect from him, the collaboration with Work Of Art member Lars Säfsund and old Toto acquaintance Randy Goodrum played an important part too. Work Of Art are known for liking to slip at least two or three Toto-leaning songs onto every album. And Säfsund’s arranging streak and ear for recreating certain Toto structures are clearly felt on this record too.
The album sports a slick production geared toward the bygone “mainstream” of the eighties. The guitars are often deliberately pulled into the accompaniment with clean chords – that is, sweet and jazzy, pop-tinged if need be, rather than roaring out riffs. Such a backdrop-curtain accompaniment, where the blanket of keyboards often takes the lead, pairs excellently with Williams’ pleasantly soul-flavored vocals. The guitar’s expansion is saved for the middle instrumental sections, following the Toto arrangement template from the band’s sweet commercial-success days in the eighties.
An album of nostalgia for times gone by, and one that will please all fans of Toto, especially of “The Seventh One”. Evidently the right moment for such a decision has ripened for Joseph Williams. Toto did two short July tours of Europe in 2010 and 2011 in precisely the “The Seventh One” lineup, and the singer’s form is just right for the guy to more than effectively take on solo ventures that work along similar lines. Judging by this solo album, the vocalist is more than obviously inspired by the era of that Toto album right now. Mentally, he’s even stayed completely “stuck” in the time of more than two decades ago when writing verses, since even the lyrics are written in the spirit of eternal optimism, carefree states and the sweet washing away of the sins of battles of the sexes.
There are plenty of doubts about copying. Sure, a bit of authorial credibility is sacrificed here. On top of that, a copy definitely can’t be better than the original this time either. But it’s woven together in the spirit of strictly professional hair-splitting, under the baton of top-notch arranging-and-producing rhetoric from a hard-working team of musicians. Scandinavian perfectionism, even when it comes to “imitating” originals, has always been a factor that rarely lets the set goals fall through, which is why the album “Williams Friestedt” works so very pleasingly. Tracks like the opener Swear Your Love, and especially Say Goodbye right after it, Where To Touch You, One More Night and Gotta Find It, don’t hide their Toto direction; there’s the pop chanson Sometimes You Win, the less interesting instrumental “time filler” Going Home, then a more intense detour toward the AOR tradition with a grabby chorus in Stay With Me, and the album closes with the touchingly melancholic ballad Letter To God, which brings a departure from the album’s template as well as one of its best compositions. The album runs a good 33 minutes, which is plenty so the flirtation with Toto doesn’t become annoying, as mentioned. It’ll be of most interest to fans of Joseph Williams’ vocal interpretation and of the Toto era of the “The Seventh One” album.
Lineup
Joseph Williams – vocals
Peter Friestedt – guitar, keyboards, drums, bass guitar
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Bill Champlin
Tommy Denander
John “JR” Robinson
Randy Goodrum
Bill Cantos
Production
Peter Friestedt & Joseph Williams
Tracklist
1. Swear Your Love
2. Say Goodbye
3. Sometimes You Win
4. Where To Touch You
5. Going Home
6. Stay With Me
7. One More Night
8. Gotta Find It
9. Letter To God
