Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
That favourite toy, perhaps a stuffed yellow bear with a crooked smile and limp left foot from where it has been flicked absentmindedly for years, never leaves you, it never truly leaves your memories of times when life was simpler than you ever gave it credit for, when the pleasure of even sitting with something precious in your arms was taken for granted.
Forgotten Toys are like that first kiss you stumbled into as a teenager with the person of your adolescent dreams, that initial moment of surprise and hope merging in keen anticipation, they never truly leave you, they are always there, lurking in a cupboard somewhere, waiting to be played with once more, just like the records that infused your burgeoning appreciation and the direction the soundtrack to your life was going to take…the songs that when you hear them maybe decades later, illuminate the joy those aural comforts had on your soul.
The price of being an artist is that in many ways the project you are working on is never truly finished, it is stored away until the Muse in all their finery suggests something that makes your heart beat a little faster, not forgotten exactly, certainly not ignored or neglected, but misplaced in time, a sentence carried over for another period, a toy that recaptures a lost love in the present day.
It is to David Paich, a cornerstone of the sublime American group Toto, that Forgotten Toys makes itself known, the box reopened, the ideas and fancies once more making their presence known, and what was once elapsed, is now in full view, and it couldn’t be better for David Paich in, what is remarkably, his debut solo album.
Toto’s renaissance in the eyes of the soft American rock fraternity was perhaps a surprise, but to the fans of the band, those that never lost sight of the glory and the temperament of the song writing ability and the genuine pleasure derived from the powerful leanings of the music, the sculptures created were always going to inspire a new generation, and it is to David Paich, following his creative fellow band member Steve Lukather in the solo expression, that this new album is itself full of revealed mystery and fortune.
Across tracks such as Spirit Of The Moonrise, Queen Charade, All The Tears That Shine, and Lucy, David Paich’s immense character shines through. This is a performer, a musician of quality tentatively probing the unknown aural surroundings, but one who is assured the belief of those that created the map for him, from the grandness of Toto to the required humble virtue of the attic where the thought of as lost and Forgotten Toys await to be rediscovered…David Paich is ready to renew the company of memory and simple pleasures.
Time will always jog the memory of what was important, and toys, like the first kiss and the first lesson in art appreciation, will be forever there, just waiting to be discovered.
David Paich releases Forgotten Toys on August 19th via The Players Club/Mascot Label Group.
Ian D. Hall