Toto – 40 Trips Around The Sun (2xLP)

17 tracks, including the previously unreleased tracks "Spanish Sea", "Alone" and "Struck By Lightning". The other songs on the album, all classics from the TOTO repertoire, were remastered by Elliot Scheiner as well as by Gavin Lurssen and his team

With Steve Lukather, David Paich, Steve Porcaro and Joseph Williams, the core of the band was back in the studio a few months ago to work on the new release

Digging through the Sony Music archives, they discovered several unfinished tracks featuring now-deceased band members Jeff and Mike Porcaro. One of those tracks, "Spanish Sea," was immortalized on "40 Trips Around The Sun." "The song was originally from the sessions for Isolation," Steve Lukather comments on this rediscovery. "It didn't make it onto the LP at the time, so we rewrote it and gave it a new chorus. Thanks to modern studio technology, we were able to make music not only with a younger edition of ourselves, but also with Jeff and Mike Porcaro. In doing so, we remembered what a great groove the brothers could spark. Those were bittersweet moments that brought up a lot of the old stories. 'Spanish Sea' reminded us of funny experiences, of course a tear or two was shed

It's a typical TOTO tune with a strong solo and I kept the old 1985 melody solo that Dave requested. This is where old meets new, but since our buddy, studio legend Al Schmitt, co-recorded the tracks and Bob Clearmountain was at the mixer, it sounds like the song was written two weeks ago, not over 30 years ago."

Lukather says of "Alone," "The song is brand new and was really a team effort. The four of us in the band sat alone in a room together and decided to start our album with an uptempo track. The lyrics might be a bit gloomy, but we're not young men anymore and we've all lived our lives - with its good, bad and ugly sides. And then you just realized that you're going to be alone at the end of your road anyway. We're proud of this track."

The bright idea for "Struck By Lightning," the third new track on "40 Trips Around The Sun," came from David Paich. "I had the introductory riff in my head for months," Paich says. "Joe and the guys helped build a song out of it. I love the heavy arrangement and Luke's solo is already a classic!"

There are few bands in music history that have had as big an impact on pop culture as TOTO. The band's members have been featured on 5000 albums that have collectively sold half a billion copies and racked up 200 Grammy nominations - sheer staggering numbers! TOTO songs have been streamed over 400 million times on Spotify and viewed well over 500 million times on Youtube

In their nearly forty-year career, TOTO have left their mark on many great works of pop music. This also applies to the best-selling album in history, Michael Jackson's Thriller, in the creation of which no less than four band members were involved

For many artists, TOTO's songs are considered the absolute benchmark in terms of sound and production, and to this day the band sets new standards as a synonym for musical authenticity in these matters. Their sound appears in the background of countless TV productions, and as one of the few hip bands of the 70s, they have outlasted changing trends and styles and built up a fan base that spans generations.